American capitalists making all our lives miserable with our own natural resources (#1977)

We as Americans own our natural resources together as citizens of our country. Yet we let only a few individuals control the usage of our natural resources in order for them alone to make wildly inexcusable profits, while they claim innocence to the destruction to our environment there activities are producing. Now I know that capitalism is our main method for building commerce and economic wealth, but to give over our natural resources like energy and our air wave rights to only a select few is not democratic. Most all of us are shut out of the process to being able to capitalize on the opportunity. Since we cannot seem to make rules that are fair to all we should stop giving any rights to our natural resources. Yes, I am talking about government control of energy and communication. There has to be a better system for relaying necessary products to the citizenry than greedy capitalists who are only concerned about their profit margin and not the will of the people. There are many examples of how to create rules that put a cap on the amount of money to be profit on our shared natural resources. These large corporations do not own our natural resources, they should only be allowed to produce them as a product, back to us for a nominal profit. How it came to be that the trading markets and corporations can make ridiculous amounts of profit before the finished product gets to the citizenry is scurrilous and dishonest. Our natural resources belong to all of us and for a very selected few to control the price charged to us without factoring in that we own the source from which they make their product is mind baffling. I would prefer a government takeover of our own natural resources to the greedy speculators who are currently running our economy into despair. How capitalism became such an out of control economic philosophy without the proper adjustments for common sense utility affecting the very citizens who own the natural resources and are being repressed by it can only be attributed to greed and to the power that maintains that greed.

I have a zero tolerance policy toward conservative republicans (#1976)

I am so fed up with conservative politics and their advocates, donors, pundits and politicians, that I will not tolerate them in my presence beyond them informing me that they vote Republican. If someone willingly chooses to have a disease and then willingly spreads it in my presence they get removed from my sphere to never associate with me again. I am fed up to the very top of my head with them. I cannot stand willful ignorance nor willful intolerance nor willful non-diversified thinking and acting. I just will not tolerate the lowest form of humanity that actually chooses to be so. It doesn't make me a bad person for not trying to instruct them of a more enlightened human approach to life, I have tried that with nothing but failure to show for my efforts. I have given my time to them in hopes that common sense and logic would guide them back on the path of humanity, but no more. It is like they are on a mission to divert my time from progress so that they can confuse and obstruct basic human progress. I deny them of myself with no exception. I will not let their disease of irrationality have a place in the peace and harmony I experience because I am humbly seeking to create a better world by caring for all who really need my care. I am not a wizard nor some mastermind at correcting flawed thinking and behavior. I can only spell our and explain why we all need to be better humans and when that doesn't work it is time for me to move on. I am okay with that. I don't let my emotions get the better of me when it is clearly their choice whether or not to be objective. That is why I will not allow infectiously harmful thinking and actions to be associated within my space of living. I will not enable willfully broken souls to divert me for one second from doing something good with like minded souls that think and act as if being human is an optimistic and purposeful paradigm.

The evolution of my non-conforming spiritualism (#1975)

It is time that I open up to how I have gotten to this point in my life where no formal religion makes any sense to me. I do believe in a spiritualism that permeates our Universe but nothing like what we tell ourselves over the recorded history of our generations. I started not believing in any formal religion from my early childhood onward until about my early twenties. It was then that I found religion in the form of Pentecostalism. I attended church and worshiped God Through the Assemblies of God Christian faith. I even became well informed as to our King James version of the Bible, having read it in it's entirety straight through, twice. I even began the process of becoming ordained through an online Bible college. Yet I stopped myself before completing the course. I found I was still struggling with the contradictions that I could not explain away with any sense of truthfulness. For me, it boiled down to how could a deity be both a punishing God and a forgiving God depending upon the circumstance and still be considered perfect? I have heard many answers to this but nothing aligns with my understanding of perfect. If perfect is less than what I think of as perfect then surely there are explanations that conform, but not for me since perfection is never less than amazing. So since my late 30's, I have released my idea of organized religion as representing what I feel inside of me as my spirit and have instead turned to just accepting that I am no different than anyone else because everyone else has a spirit within them just like me. What I don't know about our shared spirit is voluminous but the little I do know has to do with this existence and all that is within it. More will be revealed to me as time goes on but I sense that being open to the truth of my spiritualism, despite not knowing it's genesis, is still much further along in my progression than accepting any convenient, albeit contradictory, formal religion.

You are what you vote (#1974)

Think about that for a moment. What party and candidates you vote for reflect you in their policies. Are you a conservative/libertarian Republican who wants restricted civil rights while advocating for almost unregulated business rights? Are you a liberal/progressive Democrat who wants expanded civil rights while advocating for necessary regulations on business? Are you a Republican who wants religion to direct our constitution and laws; or are you a Democrat who wants to continue the founding of our constitution and it's separation of church and state? Do you want the Republican ideal of a massive military that should intervene with wars when it suits their perceived idea of "vital interest", or do you want the Democrat ideal of a smaller more efficient military, only required when all avenues of intelligent diplomatic intervention have been exhausted? Do you want the Republican plan to have the wealthy, able to spend millions upon millions of dollars, to influence our elections to their advantage over the rest of us, or do you want the Democrat plan to end the practice of using private money to influence our elections? Do you like the idea that Republicans advance that government doesn't have a role in protecting our most vulnerable citizens and in helping to create the atmosphere for smart economic growth, or do you like the idea that Democrats are fighting hard to protect our social safety net while looking to refurbish and recreate smarter transportation and energy delivery systems? Do you like the idea that Republicans want the "not so free market" to determine our destinies; or do you want what the Democrats are protecting, our Democracy to determine our destinies? The real you will decide come November and when you do decide, you can then know who you are!

We only have each other (#1973)

There is one indisputable fact, everything on this planet of ours is all we have to fill out our lives with. We are not at the point in time where our society has beings or things from other planets that we share among ourselves. Just making the point that other than, generally, Moon rocks we have what is here on Earth. Which is fine for us since we don't have great expectations of having things yet we haven't discovered or that we know is not our reality. So again, here we are with what we have on Earth. Sadly, what we have here on Earth is no guarantee of surviving our own harsh reality here in a normal life span. So even what we have here on earth is fragile and fleeting. We make all these compromises with ourselves in order to maintain some kind of order in our lives just because we don't want to lose what little we have. I get that and I as well do the same. My compromises are simple and less intrusive on others since I do also get that what my hope and dream is cannot also exactly be your hope and dream. For me my compromises center on maintaining my pet animals in my life as much as possible. I can give each of them a better life, that is within my power. I cannot give other humans a better life because most of them also have the power to choose how they live, unlike my animals who depend on me. In the most ardent emotional sense, our ability to "feel" or sense our own passions is not unique. We are strange creatures in that we do have an interconnectedness to our environment like no other species. We cannot escape that we are a highly emotional being. Why would we want to escape that truth? Our complex emotional state separates us from all other known and understood beings. Which is why I say that we only have each other. It is our path or our destiny to create and live in this Universe as a species who need each other in order to thrive.

Why hatred and bigotry are so popular (#1972)

Apparently if you are a small petty person, hatred and bigotry makes you not only feel better about yourself but also superior to others. It is like an elixir compound that has magical properties. I created this blog in order to help folks understand that we are a dominate compassionate, curious species by our nature. Yet apparently many do not agree with my premise, otherwise humility and optimism would be in much more evidence. So I can't say whether a lack of education or more regional social conditioning is the main cause, more likely both in conjunction. I refuse to accept that what has happened in the past dictates my behavior today. Today dictates my behavior today, nothing else. I make it a point to not carry forward any prejudice or bias as a control. What I do however is disassociate from those who do carry forward their prejudices and biases as a way to inform them that my time on this Earth will not be wasted by enabling their crippling behavior. My only wedge with some folks is to shun them into realizing that they also need to think more about what they can do right now to make life better than to think about how they can hurt others right now for sleights from the past. If we are truly to represent that we are the masters of our own destinies then we need to stop being pawns of those things that deny us happiness and the pursuit of it. As I said above that hatred and bigotry seem to have value with those who don't care about their own mental health, but that is an illusion since it is not hard to see that by hating and segregating they are destroying what is still of value within themselves, namely their compassion and curiosity. To deny ones nature out of some sense of ego or current peer pressure is weak and not worthy of what our species can achieve.

The importance of the American working middle class (#1971)

What absolutely astounds me is that I feel the need to somewhat explain the idea of the value our American working middle class brings. What also grinds on my soul is the idea that some politically powerful wealthy folks feel the need to dismantle our working middle class into just a lower class dependent upon their graciousness for our happiness, while increasing their already skyrocketing profits. What this persistent group of greedy troublemakers don't understand is that they will fail and then a time of reckoning will befall them. They do not see that as possible but then again, they do not see through our eyes who we are as the majority of Americans either. Regardless of their final fate, we as the class of citizens who are striving mightily to keep up with our responsibilities and even more so improve upon them, have a clear path to ending the reign of that powerful group of wealthy come this November at the voting booth. How is it that we can stop that group of wealthy who want less and less for the working middle class? We cast our votes for Democrats! The Republican party has been the enabler of the wealthy for too long a period and that must stop! A thriving American working class has the ability to lift the quality of life for not only ourselves but for those who are trying to get to the middle class from the lower class. We, as a middle class, think in terms of all of us and not in terms of just some of us. We American working middle class are the epitome of democracy as we actually live the ideals we represent to others. Our ethic is to work for a better life for ourselves and an even better life for the generations to follow. If anything, democracy is trumpeted by the very existence of our majority and anyone who would deny the American middle class it's rightful and growing place in our society is not seeking to enhance democracy but instead to subvert democracy.

The nature of conservatism is anti-change (#1970)

Talk about going against your nature! We are all living in an existence that does nothing but change. Conservatives find change to be too difficult for them to work with. They like the sanctity of tradition to the point of exclusion. Now tell me, when you were raising up as a child did you see the world as staying the same for the comprehensiveness of your lifetime? I know I didn't. Surely I was too busy changing myself in those early formative years to ever consider that essentially time should stop on the progression of my life nor the lives of those around me. The only consideration of consequence that I can establish as a reason for not wanting to change is a deep rooted fear that has overcome some people to the point of the loss of their boldness. The whole point of living a life that is mortal and of limited time span is to move about within life to understand and experience what life is to the best of our being. If we were immortal it would make more sense that we should limit our changing in order to establish a forever foundation. We are not immortal nor are we aware of all things within this existence so our nature compels us to embrace the changes going on around us and to further seek out what we don't know. Conservatism is for those who have quit on their natures and have lost the identity they have with the rest of us mortals. They are of a fearful breed of human in that they strive to blunt our natures while creating a false sense of security for themselves. It is a sad state that those who are not of a courageous bent are the ones who are trying to stop those of us who are of a courageous bent. I suppose fear does that to people but it doesn't have to be our political resolve. A healthy dose of liberalism is needed to fuel our natures and in that we can exercise caution but not deprive ourselves of the best chance we have of fulfilling the nature of our species.

The national election of 2014 (#1969)

Like the landmark year of 1969, this upcoming November 2014 election will have much to say about our collective future. We went to the moon in 1969 and our lives were changed forever because of the hope and possibility that mighty event birthed within all generations since. As dramatic as that was this election in November can have the same kind of generational effect on people throughout the world, not just here in America. We have the option to turn back the misguided political vision conservative republicans want to instill into our social, justice and economic policies by reducing the effectiveness of democracy. We have the ability and the numbers to create new leadership in the House of Representatives, despite the locked in redistricting conservatives created for themselves, not the American public, and we have plenty enough opportunity to keep and maintain our leadership in the Senate. Along with a President who is fed up with obstructionist policies by conservative republicans, we can get much done after the November election that will profoundly impact many generations into the future. I hear many political pundits talk about how 2016 is the year we should all work toward in gaining the advantages we need to overcome conservative republicans but I say why wait until then as the wait will only continue the misery millions of American working/middle/poor class folks will have to needlessly endure. I say needlessly because we have the majority voters out there now to accomplish the democratic majorities we need to start after November 2014. I feel the frustration of many who see the conservative republican party as one that will take from the working/middle/poor while returning nothing back. So let's repay them by not sending conservative Republicans back to office and elect democrats who will actually serve the majority of their constituents.

Higher education should be mandatory (#1968)

If you must mandate something, like we already do with our educational system up to a high school completion, then extending that mandate to college and/or vocational training schools then that is appropriate. We must never allow our country to become so uninformed that we have 50% of our population not even caring to practice their duty to vote. We should as well with higher education make voting mandatory by offering some incentive for voting and some penalty for not. We must push ourselves to accomplish great things and most of the time when we are young we need to be pushed in the right ways to increase our ability to be productive and creative members of our society. We have little room to scold or chastise other societies for their failures when our failures are so glaring. Where we are now is heading toward being the hegemonic superpower of the world through force. We have plenty of examples throughout history where only force is used to the greatest advantage to make others succumb to their will only to falter on the overthrow of that force and cease being. What we have a chance to do with our great American society is improve it by raising up our worse off citizens to better lives and then show the world that although we have the force to will others to our point of view, we also have the examples within our own society to show how much better their societies can be as well. By having a shining example of a society that founds it's progress on the contributions even from the weakest links within it shows others that all life is worthy of contribution. We must heal our own nation of it's poverty and lack of education before we can heal what ails the rest of the world.

We progressives by our very nature, progress! (#1967)

How natural it is for me to want new and yet unknown intelligent paradigms in my life. It is a fact of my being that living with no progress is like being trapped in a time warp. Not natural. Our Universe is changing, our solar system is changing, our planet is changing so why would I, who lives within these boundaries, not change as well? Why would I be static while everything else is moving? Survival is a word that describes our eventual ascension to life. We as a species came into existence, not because we stayed the same but because we adapted and morphed into a species that can now better withstand the harsh reality of our environment. We never stopped our progress forward to claim that we had arrived at our ultimate state of being and then just hunkered in to fearfully defend ourselves. Instead we are an offensive species. We take chances to find out what we don't know by utilizing our courage and our inquisitive nature. We do boldly go where no man/woman has ever gone before. Our species is an amazing example of survival and not only survival but of advancement. We do not crawl into a hole with the outlook of a coward as a rule. My identity as a human being is humbling. Despite the despicableness of some within our societies, overall we are a worthy species. As we move into each new and changing day, my opinion of our species is further fortified as being capable of understanding our unique progression in this often volatile and difficult reality. Our species has much to do yet and that is the point of progress, to get to the next first step toward understanding and accepting our place within this time and space. We will know what is out there by moving forward with the changes around us and when all of us "get" that progress is our purpose we will all live better and more fulfilling lives together.

The wealthy don't understand the desperation of the working/middle/poor class (#1966)

This is the problem that the wealthy have. They don't have the perspective of how scary and fragile life is for that large majority of us who have to live hand to mouth. Maybe at one time when they were younger some of the wealthy had a small perspective of economic despair but they have lost the depth of it as they got economically secured. Most never get economically secure and it isn't for a lack of trying. The human spirit is a mighty powerful force but even it has it's limits and when situation and circumstance works against most of us who don't have privilege and advantage built into our efforts, we begin to realize that putting ourselves out in the line of fire and coming up short too many times becomes a futile enterprise. So we make the best of bad or worse situations and try to scrape by with as much dignity as possible. The ones who make it in our society, less than 1% of us, don't know what it is like to not have resources at our fingertips to alleviate any and all problems as they arise. Most of us do without and live with the shame of not being able to provide even at times the most basic of needs to ourselves or our children. The few winners in life are no different than the many losers. The difference lies in how we think about each other. The winners, or the wealthy, tend to think of themselves as more special and thus more knowing in areas they assume to understand. They lose sight of the fact that the rest of us are living as if under a curse of a spirit crushing punitive sentence that could come at any time given any number of possible events. The wealthy don't know us and for the most part they don't want to know us. They feel their world is not ours because they don't feel our desperation nor do they understand that we all deserve better not just some of us deserving all.

Conservatives don't want democracy! (#1965)

When you spend all your time denying folks the right to vote you are not advancing democracy. When you spend all your time keeping folks in poverty while cutting off any benefits that will help them survive you are not practicing democracy. When you want to stop a national minimum wage that keeps folks out of even worse poverty you are not holding up democratic ideals. When you want to fight wars all over the world but do not establish a draft which includes all young men and women to participate in, you are not upholding equality which is the hallmark of democracies. When you deny women the control of their own destiny as it relates to birth control, you are subjecting them to subjugation, not democracy. When you won't guarantee in law that women should be paid the same for the same work a man does you are not practicing fairness or justice to all. As conservatives continue to try to break down the separation of church and state to install a one size Christian belief system as our governing principles, they ignore other religions and no religion as well established by the first amendment of our US Constitution. That is not all inclusive, instead it is segregated theocracy, which is another way Conservatives Republicans deny democracy. As conservatives continue to pillage our country for it's natural resources while leaving behind destroyed landscape and dirty toxins in our land, water and air our democracy that provides for all comes under attack by their fouling of our environment. Conservatives (Tories) fought against the idea that our country should have ever left the patronage sphere of the Kingdom of England and actually spilled blood to defend aristocracy and monarchy. That they would have changed since the founding of our country is not evident and instead they are still fighting against the idea of democracy being the rule of law in our governance.

How we get our working/middle/poor class agenda fulfilled! (#1964)

We do that by knowing where what little money we have left is being spent and direct it toward those commercial outlets that support our agenda. The power of a capitalistic system, even one bent toward the wealthy, like ours is based upon it's capital income. If we begin to choke off the overwhelming profit these anti middle/poor class companies/corporations are currently receiving, they will begin to scramble to find out that it is their anti American working class policies that are hitting them in the pocketbook. Yes, it all boils down to the bottom line for companies/corporations. If they find that supporting the American middle/poor class will increase their profits they will turn from being anti middle/poor class to being supportive of the middle/poor. Our power lies in our purchasing power so as much as we dislike that money is the root of policy change here in America, we must act within that paradigm if we want to effect intelligent change now. Until we can get enough liberal/progressive politicians elected who have clamored for reform to return democratic principles back to the highest priority over capitalistic ones we must spend our money with liberal/progressive supportive companies/corporations to make money work for us. So our duty to become informed about where our money is being spent must be given as much diligence as we put into our information gathering concerning who we vote for. Our politics have become so polemic that voting for liberal/progressive candidates for office will suffice, so little else of research is generally needed. We are also able to identify which consumer based outlets serve our liberal/progressive agenda as well since there are some studies on the Internet that show which companies/corporations now already support the American middle/poor class. We just need to question our sources for the answers and make the rest of them pay for their anti American middle/poor class policies.

Quality of life for all or unlimited wealth for some? (#1963)

Let us start with the fact, no question about it, that not all of us can be wealthy. Let us begin another premise that is also a fact, we can all have a quality of life that is satisfying. By my reckoning, only some can become wealthy while most live in desperate conditions; or all can have enough to be happy while some have more but not a ridiculous amount more. I choose the quality of life scenario. Remember now that we have a choice here. In our Democracy we are afforded the right to choose how we live in all aspects of our governance. Now admittedly, some will need more to have the quality of life they require and some will need little for theirs. But within reasonable boundaries, none of us should have too much and none of us should have too little. It is basic logic and mathematics to define our boundaries based upon our population and our resources. None of this is difficult to imagine or even calculate, the problem arises with the few who have way too much agreeing to have less to be satisfied in life. The majority that have too little are mostly all on board with devising a society that is more equitable. Since the few who are mostly the wealthiest have been set upon by their own selfishness, they cannot and will not allow for laws that restrict their ability to have even more. We are at a crossroads here in America where the battle has begun between the wealthiest who wish to have more and the vast majority of us who have way too little. Since we are a democracy, not an oligarchy or plutocracy, we should be able to legislate laws that bring our society back from practically unfettered individual wealth and power to a more reasonable merit system that rewards creativity and innovation at a good rate while keeping an economic foundation that no citizen falls below. It isn't hard to imagine an American society that celebrates it's citizens with opportunity and a quality of life that is admired and copied the world over.

The flawed humans who direct your afterlife (#1962)

I came upon a post this morning that has me seething. As I sit here in my boiling pot of emotions, I feel it necessary to define what is going on with me. I saw a post on the Internet that claims that by not shunning your children for the sexual orientation you think is right for them that you are not following the will of Christ. Now I have some expertise with Christian biblical teachings and this interpretation is so anti compassionate that it assails what is expected from a soul soothing enterprise like Christianity. When love and compassion have to take a backseat to the ideology of dogmatic conformance then the ideal of religious following has lost all sense of free will and becomes instead an institutional practice of forced narrow boundaries. None of us will ever be perfect and none of us is a judge of what perfection is. As the narrow minded within our society gain prominence the further we get from objectivity and logic when it comes to definitions. Remember, we are talking about a belief system here, not a fact of the laws of nature. Science has already shown that much in the Bible is impossible to have happened as it is presented. So to take some point out of a book written 300 years after Christ died by a council of men is hopeful at best as being absolute truth. Given that we can see some flaws in our imperfect religions we must never lose sight of the efficacy of promoting our religions. They are for helping souls find value in life when they are not keen to seeing it. Religion has the value of offering comfort to those who are fragile from the brutishness of our circumstances. Not a whipping post for those who place much faith in it. I am not personally otherwise sexually oriented to same sex, yet when I see others who are being shunned or displaced by the concept of a religious dogmatic conclusion, then I will stand and yell, wrong, at those who think they know the heart of love and compassion.

The sloth of transference (#1961)

Some confused people just get angry and lash out at what ever is convenient that doesn't come into tune with either their agenda or beliefs. They rail against and blame the nearest whipping post when their idea of what should be doesn't come to fruition. I am quite different in that I look for the cause of what is not right and then find ways to rectify and justify a new course of action in order to obtain a good logical outcome. Not some people, instead they find that actually doing the correct work to investigate the problem that ails them is too much work and so therefore any and all short cutting of the solution is acceptable if they are able to shout louder than everyone else. It isn't just the volume they use to magnify their insignificance but it is the falsity of their reasoning that instills chaos all around them in order to sway uninformed souls to their outrage. I see it as sloth, the laziness that makes some people think that they are especially smarter than others so that they don't need to know the details of a circumstance and the real root cause. They have found a convenient scapegoat and for them it is a 24/7 blame game. Why do the work to identify a problem's solution when you can puff out your chest and claim that all problems stem from one source and you are the wisdom that can alleviate those problems if only everyone would do as you say? The ego of some is astounding yet there are many who are far from the knowledge to see it for what it is and fall for it. Conservatives have been letting our educational system fall apart as a strategy of under funding national education so that we don't have as many "free" thinkers advancing through our society but instead just learners of what to do without questioning the premise of the doing. Being lazy or slothful will allow for the manipulative ego driven to come in and direct our lives unless we learn to question the very nature of our society as a whole and then weigh it's efficacy and honorableness for ourselves.

"That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more!"-Popeye. (#1960)

Words to live by from one of my favorite fictional cartoon characters of my youth. We all get to a boiling point or at least a brick wall and then we decide to act to counter the thought or action that is frustrating us. It is a survival instinct that permeates throughout our human genetics. That is why we are not sedentary as a rule. We are a restless species continually, in a metaphorical way, kicking over rocks to see what is under them. We are not satisfied with guessing or maybes as answers. We resolve to find answers that align with facts and logic, well at least the ones of us who can understand how the process of facts fit within a logical sequence thereby leading to factual conclusions. Logic is the association of simple givens in order to get to a complex solution. It is how we all can get to the same conclusion with the same set of facts. It is a process, not unlike our alphabet or our numerical system. If we all utilize the same process for understanding then we all can communicate about what is possible without losing sight of our existing reality. Logic gives us a floor from which to stand upon. The key is to know how logic works and then apply it to existing conclusions. If those conclusions remain logical then we can build upon those conclusions to form new premises. It is premises that have to be factual and using premises in conjunction with other premises is how we get to new conclusions. Logic is our path to our never ending building blocks of factual knowledge. As each generation builds new conclusions from our valid premises, our world advances together with all learning the same facts. It is when we get fallacious logic forwarded as truth that the trouble begins and weeding out the fallacious is not easy when it strategically fits an agenda promoted by powerful people. How could such people do such a thing, you may ask? Well it is usually through greed, but not limited to greed, as power and a distorted sense of love can also be found as culprits. Thus my "Popeye" frustration with those who don't understand how logic works.

The utter cruelty of political conservatism (#1959)

The sheer and utter contempt for those increasing amounts of us here in America who are targeted for suffering by conservatives is astonishing. I am using superlatives, in a negative fashion, in my description of conservative politics because that time has come to fruition. Conservatives throughout our country have decided that now is the time to put an end to empathy and compassion, a mask they previously wore with discomfort, and begin the brutish and harsh treatment of the majority of us who will never aspire to being wealthy. Conservatives have now decided that blaming those who are not fortunate to have wealthy parents or the right skin color to help them advance into economic prosperity, which by the way is a capitalistic system built upon more dishonesty than honor and actually works to make many people poor while making a few people wealthy, as less than deserving of a decent fair life. The conundrum is lost on them. Conservatives are an ego driven form of a demigod when they view life here on Earth. Not one major conservative policy of any distinction to help our society prosper has been advanced. Not one conservative policy exists as a testament to enlightenment and progress. Think about that for a minute. Not one conservative policy is enshrined in our laws that has the support of a simple majority of Americans, ever! Surely conservative policies help the wealthy but they are still the minority and always will be a vast minority. So why we allow the current conservative Republican party to have controls over our democracy is mind-numbingly illogical. Yet we have those conservatives in office who continue to advance laws that validate despair even further to the unfortunate while advancing prosperity to those who already have it. How in the right and good of this world can anyone continue to support a conservative Republican party that destroys instead of builds?

We need to quit punishing ourselves! (#1958)

I don't care about how some work their whole lives to make us feel small and unworthy. Those people are just using an agenda that gains for them at the expense of everyone else. We have all made mistakes in our lives, it is what we all do regardless of who we are, so get over it and make your life better from it. While you are making your life better try to make the lives of others' better as well. We deserve to have better lives no matter how bad we think we have been. We shouldn't be punishing all of society because we think we are unworthy. For those who think they are unworthy it is a good sign that you have what you need to get over it, a conscious. So take your mistakes and turn them around by admitting them and then trying to rectify them. Then move into a new phase of life where you move forward into accomplishments that lift your spirits and give you new vigor to have a better life. We need to take control of the levers of power that we all have and utilize them for the good of what may come in the future. We can have better lives with new and exciting opportunities if we just quit drowning in our own sorrow and instead lift our heads up and move forward into the future. We have a great opportunity here in America to advance the overall civilization of our planet by being wise in our progress forward. We don't need the old paradigms of the past to shackle us to non-existential punishing ideas. Instead we have innovation and creativity to conquer the unknown and become the magnificent explorer race of beings we seem destined to become. So stop looking for absolution as a way forward and just begin to help shape the mighty future we could have.

If you are afraid of living it is because you are afraid of dying. (#1957)

What gives us the courage to stand up for ourselves in the face of those who would put us down for it? Courage is what. How do we get our courage to arise when the time for courage is upon us? We pre-plan a lot of it. We imagine scenarios where our courage must engage otherwise something terrible will occur because we didn't exercise our courage. The key word here is exercise. Practice makes perfect as such. Courage begins in the smallest of ways. We take a stand on the little insignificant things like when someone is telling a racist joke we stop them or tell them that was wrong. It is in the little things that we find out who we are. I prefer to practice my courage on anything that gives the opportunity. As such with me, my courage consistently appears when honor or some high principle is being violated. I don't waste my courage on less than honorable situations. It is kind of cool that I have a boundary that is not worthy of crossing and it is kind of cool that I even care to think strategically about it. My life isn't full of "I don't cares", instead it is full of I care and I will stand up for my cares. I paint a bulls eye upon myself because of it but regardless I have chosen to be the man I want to be and that is what I will be come hell or high water! I know the unknown about life and our Universe is enough to make us throw up our hands and just sell ourselves out to not caring about anything beyond ourselves, since we live just a short span of time, but there is no courage in that and living with some courage is much better than not for me. I want our society to succeed and hopefully the intelligence, and the enlightenment we obtain from that intelligence, will somehow allow us to slow down or even stop time long enough to travel our universe with extreme efficiency in order to unmask what it is and what we are doing in it. Courage will hopefully get us there because without courage we will surely perish.

My friends do good for themselves so that they can then do good for others (#1956)

There is a proper protocol for having a satisfying life. First we must take what we have of ourselves and allow for some self examination and some friendly constructive advice and then modify our thinking and our behavior to become a more responsible and humane person. It is really important to change in all the aspects of our obvious deficiencies regardless of how tough it is. Remember, if it is good it will be tough, that is a given. So after we have given ourselves a new perspective and comprehensive evaluation, we must start to live accordingly. Also remember that life is about change and it is never, and I cannot stress this enough, ever to late to change. As an example, I did some of the most altered changing in my life just after the age of 50. So once we get ourselves into a good place where we are doing right by ourselves, by practicing good healthy habits, by practicing smart responsible actions concerning our obligations and by allowing ourselves to learn more about the world we live in with an open objective mind. It is within these three basic living standards that we begin to have a better mental outlook on our world despite the hard and often unfair circumstances that surround us. Because we have improved our own lives we now can help others improve theirs. It is the next step after finding for ourselves a good path to follow to want others to join us on it. Life is worth living and because of that it is worth living with some self dignity and self respect. We all apply our own sense of morality, ethics, justice and equality to our situations and when we are living with a positive mindset we are also able to evaluate and honor if these high principles are being applied. If they are not being applied then we speak up and let it be known that the deficiencies in our society are not greater than the spirit of our own ability to rectify them.

Those who can afford it disrespect the lives of others (#1955)

Not all of those who can afford to but too many otherwise! What is it about wealth that makes people look at others with such disdain and condescension? Do they feel like they are ordained or somehow cosmically selected to be better? Is it their sense of privilege and advantage that makes them discount the value that each life possesses? Is it their fear that they will be used and abused by those who must secretly want everything they have obtained? Is that why they build homes in protected communities so as not to rub shoulders with the dirty unclean masses? I can go on and on about why people who have achieved success, either honestly or dishonestly, and the possibilities for their separation from humanity but it does all boil down to a couple of traits. They have achieved success and want to have it all so to speak, or they have had it all the entirety of their lives and don't know or want to know how to live without being somehow majestic. My simple living of life has shown me much. I have been a man among men so the idea that wealth differentiated us on the same level with raw courage and selfless sacrifice is absurd. Wealth is not an indicator of overall value, it is only a means for barter. Strength and courage of conviction have a higher value with me so the dandies who feel the power of their wealth as some type of ascension to being a greater being have surely deluded their own sense of self worth. What so troubles me is that I am fortunate to know that I have validated my existence by being a good man without the accumulation of wealth being involved. Yet there are so many people out there who have not reached that plane of consciousness that allows them to be satisfied with self worth. Instead they are beholden to aspects of greed that not only are an illusion of self worth but that also destroy the lives of the many who are without because of the greed of a few.

Will our democracy triumph over the greedy? (#1954)

We humans are the masters of our own fate, not some set of protocols devised in order to stifle our imaginations and possibilities. Surely we have laws and sets of acceptable behaviors that we all need to follow in order for our society to function in a smoother and more efficient and just way. But when those sets of behaviors and laws cross into segregating us from each other and giving advantage of one over another with no other intervening event, then we have a duty to our slowly maturing society to rectify that part of the institution that allowed for such restrictions to occur. We do not have to accept those who would argue for anything that places advantage and privilege over equality of opportunity. It is incumbent upon all of us to call out where the ravages to our democracy exist. It is our duty to advocate for those things that lift our society from it's previous lower standing to a higher one. We are a young democracy in that we have not fine tuned our society to reflect our values in an efficient and praiseworthy comprehensive way. There are many powerful forces who don't hold to democratic principles simply because they are the ones who will be most negatively effected by the purity of democracy. Not in any way that really matters, since all will benefit from equality and justice, but in financial and power structure paradigms. They have a higher echelon of advantage and privilege and they know that democracy threatens that. They are compelled to allow their greed to dictate the fate for the rest of us by fighting against the very thing our country was founded upon, democratic ideals. They espouse capitalism as the higher ideal above democracy and in that they are able to manipulate the wheels of our political fate through practically unlimited buying of candidates that help them undermine the rest of us. We don't have to stand for it as they have as of yet not been able to take enough of our votes away to secure their victory.

Each of us is uniquely indefinable (#1953)

People may think they can "read" other people and know who they are but they would be wrong. First and foremost, we are all in a constant state of changing and who we are from one moment to the next is either subtly different or vastly different. Second, and not to be understated, is the fact that we all hide parts of ourselves that we wish to keep others from knowing. True some actually have devious and nefarious secrets but most are hiding great parts of themselves so as not to expose themselves to kidding or misunderstanding. I get that, we are simply preserving some of our dignity and pride we have in our approach to life. Nobody wants to be called a dreamer or denier of reality, yet inside we have these thoughts about how we can be some kind of superhero in ways that show how big our hearts are or how sensitive we are to making right out of wrong. It is part of our nature to belong and when we know that things are wrong in some way we want to make it right. In our society there is a protocol for doing things like that. It is centered mostly in citizen activism and forces us to put some of our hidden thoughts on the line. That's okay since being kidded for doing what is right is not a heavy price to pay, nor is being misunderstood, since explaining our rationale usually brings more souls to our defense. Furthermore, as we mature we begin to realize our own mortality and if we don't get out and defend who we are and what we stand for we may never get the chance waiting for that perfect moment. The circumstances of life have a way of taking time we expect to have from us. So despite the insecurity of being a principled person who is in a culture that doesn't prioritize principles as they should be, we must nonetheless plant our feet in the ground and defend who we are and what we hold dear.

One track minds (#1952)

Too  many out there are all about blaming others for things that happen, while never doing anything themselves to try and improve life around them. It is sad to watch someone constantly ragging on others while doing not one thing themselves. It must be nice to just sit back and point fingers and call names while having nothing to show for it. Somehow some sense of satisfaction must fill them since they are relentless in their actions to tear down others. I remember as a child learning that even a bad idea can be improved upon if everyone chipped in with constructive solutions to difficult problems. It is not like some of us just want to fix the world the way we see it, we are just trying to fix the world as best we can and if someone has a better idea at how to do that I am all for it. It is the ones who won't contribute an idea to improve things but would rather pick apart others' ideas as nonsensical. I can barely contain my humor and rage, wide spectrum of emotions, when these folks enter into the circumstance at the time. They are quick to tell me all sorts of demagoguery as a way to avoid contributing something positive and when asked to contribute something positive instead they ignore my plea and instead revert to pejoratives. Everything must stay the same for them or actually even get worse to satisfy them. They have a demented sense of privilege and/or advantage that they are unwilling to let go. Somehow these one track mind souls have been inculcated with the idea that some are more worthy than others based upon factors outside merit. I continue to suggest positive policies that actually would benefit them but they continue to insist I am some kind of anti-American loving socialist. What that tells me is that nothing that I can say to help them come out of their perpetual poverty and lack of education will ever sink in unless they somehow realize that life isn't meant to be a punishment, it is meant to be a caring curious adventure.

It is easier to defend the truth than a lie (#1951)

I don't care how good a huckster or grifter you may be, you are not going to fool everyone or even most. So why the hell would you try? It is a choice to lie so surely you have some ulterior motive that benefits only you some way. That brings us to being selfish. All of us are struggling with our identities and in the meantime we need to survive as best we can. Some take this as I don't care about who I am or what I am supposed to be, I just want what I can take at any cost! Well there are those out there who think just like that. It is a simpletons way of thinking with a hard streak of cruelty but there you go. Instead we all should be learning as best we can in a continuously comprehensive way so that we are never out of touch with what is really important, the future of our society. So I have found that chasing after wealth of the kind that supplies me with innumerable material and service options is not the path toward who I am or what I want to be. That is selfishness to the core and I am not an advocate of selfishness. I prefer a mixture of selflessness and moderate sustenance. I am happy just being me so I don't need the appearance of "things" to justify myself. I have been crafting and framing my own person to be the wealth of my lifetime. I am the value I seek. As I get closer to being the better and best I can be I am filled with satisfaction that can only come from being truthful about who I am and how I live. I take some contentment in the fact that my life is mostly an open book for all to see. There is nothing there that makes me want to hide in shame or embarrassment. Surely I have made mistakes in the past for which I am aware, and instead of wallowing in the regret of those mistakes I have learned from them and made myself better. I don't have to defend lies to protect myself, I only need to defend the truth and that is easy as pie.

Is our generation fighters for good or too lazy to care? (#1950)

All around us are the obvious signs of our society not functioning properly. We have many examples throughout the world to look at for solutions to problems that have been effective but at the core is whether we think we deserve solutions or not. Much of it also is whether we allow ourselves to come out of our safe cocoons to become involved. There is an apathy for facing facts here in America. Surely we don't have the market cornered on apathy but we seem to have more than our share. If you doubt me then please explain why we have only about 50% eligible voter turnout during elections? We are slowly transitioning to alternative energy sources which is good, but that it is slow and with so much resistance is troubling. Our futures and our children's futures are at stake yet we act as if the problem is of little importance. I don't know how to explain it except to think that we are too convinced that we can solve anything at a moments notice so doing any pre-planning is too compulsive. I know we are worried about what we have right now and we don't want to sacrifice ourselves when others are not. A tricky situation. Here is the deal though and why I started this blog. Life isn't about what others do that we think they should be doing, life is about what we should be doing and humbly holding that up for all to see. Our nature is to care about the good and wonder about things. If we are not doing those two things then we are not being who we are which confuses us when we are faced with decisions that require us to have a core set of principles. Our climates health and our democracy of equality of opportunity has to be the prism by which we see all things. Everything else right and good will follow if we hold true to our core.

Prepare for the worst but always hope for the best (#1949)

I have learned this one the hard way. But over time I have come to embrace this philosophy wholeheartedly. So no matter what comes at me that I could possibly have foreseen I have already dealt with it in my mind and soul. Surely unexpected surprise is good but only if it is good. My experience is that unexpected surprises usually require me to compromise something I hadn't anticipated compromising. Instead of progressing forward, I find myself going backwards or sideways. So now I am living on the edge of life like there is no tomorrow so regardless if anything unforeseen comes at me I am better prepared for it. For those things that I can see coming at me, I expect the worse and then take whatever it becomes. That way I have all bases covered in the range of outcomes. There is nothing more demoralizing than not knowing and then realizing that your world is rocked in a bad way. There was nothing I came into this world with and everything I have gotten has been because we live in a civilized society that allowed me to flourish. So my expectations are correctly placed and that puts everything else into perspective for me. I am not owed anything nor do I deserve anything, I just am and that is where I live. So no fairy tale for me nor any expectations of them, but if they come along I will humbly accept. Those who live life in an arrogant state of some sort of privilege never got the concept of humility and all the truth that that exposes. Such an angry way to live but that is the choice many make and when they are disappointed or caught off guard they do things that show they had no preparedness for, usually a disaster or a hastily, ill conceived plan that complicates things even further. Just let go and realize that every breath you have is a bonus and thank existence for it.

Find your backbone and you find your peace (#1948)

There are two ways you can go once you find your backbone. You can stand up for what you know in your heart and mind is right or you can stand up for what you hope in your heart and mind is right. Personally, I choose to stand up for the right that actually exists and not the one that I hope exists. Of course either choice is moot if you don't first find your backbone. When fear has you gripped in it's clutches then something in your life needs to change. No one should have to live in constant fear of being themselves. But as the case is many do because they feel trapped into an existence they see no way out of. Well, life is hard and hard choices are part of life. Taking the easy way instead of fighting for the right way is practical at times but not worthy of any pride in oneself. To get out of fear we must first identify the root of it. Are you so strategically hampered by it that no way out is possible? Have you quit being a person and instead allowed yourself to be a servant or an object? Has life so left you without options that being afraid is now your delusional friend? The first step toward changing your life and finding your backbone is as simple as going to the library. Yes, the library. That is where books are stored for reading and learning about the things in life that matter. You are the catalyst for your own survival, not someone else. Allowing yourself to gain knowledge is your way out of fear. Sometimes more immediate actions are necessary as that fear may manifest itself in ways where others will retaliate on you quickly if you do not succumb to their fearful tactics. Even still their are resources in those libraries which will help you to overcome those immediate threats. I know how hard it is to improve our lives out of fear, but there is no other way to find peace than to find your backbone and stand against fear.