My inner child's eyes (#2130)

I learned soon enough that it was impossible to have everything they way I wanted things to be when I was a young child. Yet that initial feeling of possibility at the time has never left me. Not because I want to rule the world or have every advantage and privilege come my way, but instead because I wanted everyone to have fun and live good lives. Anywhere I saw a lack of leadership I knew inside me that I had to step up and take that role. Everything was possible! We were and are free human beings from another living sovereign and what we could make of ourselves and our society was limitless. What I had come to be aware of is that we are all not such nice and good people inside. We put ourselves first in selfish ways that do nothing to enhance the living experience of all of us nor do we find that happiness is a priority. There is a cruelty that has permeated too many of us that feels the need to lord over others for some ego driven purpose. A cruelty that justifies itself in any possible way despite the perceived logic of it not being correct. In my initial take on existence I saw a world where we were all bright eyed and willing to challenge ourselves to fill in the gaps where pain and suffering could be eliminated. I saw a world that challenged us to do what was right and good despite the effort and consequence needed to accomplish it. We are all leaders here in this existence because we are all unique to each other. None of us is useless to making our world a wonderful place. I know the feelings of despair and injustice and why anyone would defend the continued existence of despair and injustice is not in my understanding. Leaders lead with a goal of succeeding for what ever purpose we all know is right. We are not here in existence to be punished, on the contrary, we are all here to be celebrated. Why is it that we cannot have a society that reflects what is best about us instead of our current one that punishes us for non-logical reasons? My inner child is still within me and he continues to know that what was possible back when I was young is still possible but how do we get to it?

Time doesn't wait for anyone (#2129)

However I will spend the time to get things right. I am in no hurry to do something that is less than right. After all, what's the hurry? It seems that many times we come to the conclusion that if we don't get what we can in the moment we will be worse off. I say no. Settling for less and then having to spend time with the less is not worth the trade off. For me, it is better to have nothing than to have something less than what is right for me. Take relationships for instance, if I settle for one that is not in sync with my happiness, not only will my life be less than right but I will be a wrong in the life of the woman who agreed to be with me. We would both be out of sync because we couldn't practice enough patience to wait for what is right even if the right never happens. I have learned this lesson throughout my whole life. Not so much on my experiences but in the experiences of those around me. Even beyond relationships like occupation and financial considerations, making a choice based upon factors not in tune with what is right for me is worse than doing nothing. I won't settle my principles for an economic gain. It is like dirtying myself out of fear. I know I could be walking down the street with only the clothes on my back and I would be more than fine. I trust the instincts of my honor and how I will not compromise them for a price. It is a choice to live like someone who is above the cynical outlook of "well everyone else is doing it". The record of my life is not some great book that is being recorded for all to view, it instead is only for me to know. I want my mind and my example of living to have the best of intent attached to them, not the lesser. I know I won't be perfect in the living of my life but I will continue to be the good steward of it, not selling any part of it for any amount of perceived advantage. Life is too precious to me to waste time playing games that have nothing to do with my character.

The awakening (#2128)

That moment when you realize the first part of your life is over and now you get to build from it to make something you can be really proud of. A sort of realization that things are what they are and the only way for things to get better is for you to make them so. I know I kept waiting for things in my life to get better without me being the one to do the work. I had the illusion that others would do the work for me for no reason other than they should. Talk about living in a fantasy world! A sense of privilege built up around the idea that I deserved more than anyone else. That I was special and as such should be treated above and beyond regular normal people. I think this is how Republicans must feel since they act as if others are less important than themselves. I grew out of my childhood fantasy but they obviously have not and are now immature children masquerading as mature adults. I keep trying to figure out how these right wing people can be so callous while calling themselves Christians. It is either that they are purposely gaming Christianity to their own benefit or that they are unaware just how ridiculous they see the world. Either way we are all paying the price for their misadventure and it's effects on us. It usually takes a dramatic situation for the cold hearted conservative movement to "awaken" to why we liberals have such a strong bond with the idea of community. It is because we have either been callous and cold hearted in the past and have matured to being a better person or we had always been caring and compassionate toward others. Republicans see this as a weakness and until they are exposed to their own personal tragedies and weaknesses they will continue to lord over the rest of us with their wealth and power.

Trust your honor (#2127)

We all make mistakes. It is part of the process of learning and growing. Yet we can become wise even though we continue to make mistakes. Because we can master those earlier mistakes and stop them from happening even though we continue to learn and grow from new mistakes. It is how life is for everyone. From the most intelligent on down, we are prone to live a life that challenges us in ways that can never be fully anticipated and given our emotional component, we will always be challenged to some new heretofore personal complex consideration. But as time goes by we start to realize that making the same mistakes over and over is not necessary. We defeat these previously recycled mistakes by looking to our honor. Most all of us have honor within us that we can muster to the forefront of our consciousness as a guide for how to rise above lesser considerations, like greed, lust and self-gratification. Our minds allow us to consider possibilities that reflect the most noble of our intents through our own personal behavior. We can choose to do the right that we have learned through our own personal experiences with the trials and errors of our life journey. We don't have to be bound and entangled in what others expect us to do. Only we know what our own principles of honor tell us to do. We need to listen to that inner voice of ours that sees our heart for our world and not the chatter that wants our cynicism to kill what is most noble within us. Our lives belong to us but in our society we share a good part of ourselves with others so that we all can find a way to live a more purposeful existence. But what good does that existence do to anyone if all we are doing is following what others tell and coerce us to do? Most all of us are good honest human beings and trusting our own inner honor to live by is our first duty to ourselves.

The American facade (#2126)

We need to do better at telling truths than we are doing now. It seems that truth telling is less important than a priority. We, as a nation, must find a way to move our country forward in the most honest way. There is no shame in being honest. Surely our thoughts and acts at times carry shame but hiding them is worse than not hiding them. We move forward when we are honest. Moving forward is how we leave behind our continuous cycle of bad behavior and intentional harm to each other. There are serious problems in our country and in the world generally and if we cannot discuss it with an agenda of being honest about it then we will never get to the solutions we have at our ready. The old paradigms of self interest above community must end. We need to stop living only for our own personal benefit. The relief that comes when people find it within themselves to be honest about how they feel about honor and caring for others is tremendous. We are just an eyelash away from realizing a better society. We need strong leadership from those who have benefited the most from our existing society in order to elevate it to a higher moral ground. We don't need to be pampered like babies in order to survive well in this world. yet all around us there are many millions who need our help and we turn a blind eye to them. It starts with each of us and grows outward until we all think and act as if we are the benevolent ones and not just waiting for others to start before us. Our country is still finding it's identity and although we are not what we seem we very well have the motivation to be. We are a melting pot of world identities and as such we generally represent the world's understanding of the realities of our time. We must break out of the commercialism we are currently consumed by and start to matter to not only the improvement of our own behavior but how we can positively affect the behavior of others.

The evil that men do (#2125)

This is not just some rhetorical statement. Some men and women who are in public positions of power have taken it upon themselves to contravene objective openness to favor subjective ulterior motives. Their intent is to do what they think is right regardless of the logic against it. Take the Michael Brown shooting case. My apologies to the family for using this example even as it is relevant and should be discussed. The police officer shot the young man multiple times over a dispute about little more than a traffic infraction. There is no doubt in anyone who has an objective mind that this case should have gone to trial and the facts exposed so that all could see, learn and understand an appropriate judicial decision. Regardless if he was found innocent or guilty, the sunshine provided by a court case would have gone a long way toward healing unresolved wounds. Instead what we got was a cover up by the prosecutor, not so much in the area of guilt or innocence but a cover up in how he proceeded with the Grand Jury. He used every advantage available to present the defendant's case in the best light for the defendant. Instead of treating the case like all cases should be treated he went out of his way to make sure the verdict had the best possible chance of coming out in favor of not indicting. The intent by the prosecutor is shameful and does no justice to the Brown family nor to American jurisprudence. The will of the prosecutor to alienate the community he serves for an agenda of justifying a most questionable killing is reprehensible and akin to evil. The prosecutor does not seem to care about the fallout that will follow and that effect to his community at large as long as he gets his way over the greater good. The evil that men do is clearly present here and for that our country once again becomes the laughingstock of the rest of the more civilized world while the Brown family and community of Ferguson, Missouri is left with another human killing of their democratic values.

Where is the will to a greater aspiration? (#2124)

Each and every one of us has a motivation inside us to think and do better than what we are actually living. How can we unlock that will to aspire within all of us as a simple process? I have wondered this too many times because for me it is natural to want to do better. It is instinctual as a rule for me so when I see others who care nothing for doing better it bothers me. I have a need to understand why something works within me and not in others. It isn't an all consuming need bordering on obsession, however it is important enough for it to be simmering on the metaphorical back burner of the stove that stirs and cooks my thoughts. Maybe my life experiences given their unique perspective unto me is part of the reason. Or maybe it is a misunderstanding of reality that separates our goals. It is all conjecture for me since I am the only one I can reasonably observe and understand as to why I do a thing or not. I cannot live and breathe inside any one else in order to know their truly deep justifications for why they do or don't do a thing. I would have thought that as a rule our species, which has sought to survive in a harsh environment over the millenniums for the purpose of tampering down the odds of our extinction, would embrace aspiration. We will not continue to tamper down the odds when we fail to change with what our knowledge and insight provides us. Staying in the status quo or even going backwards against the flow of reason and logic will not enhance our species' survival. In fact it will begin to increase the odds of our species' elimination. Why should we care? Ponder for a moment why we should care. The Universe without a human being in it is a Universe without a unique life force of extraordinary capabilities. If ever there was a life force capable of knowing the why of this existence it is we humans. To let that opportunity fail because we couldn't find a way to aspire toward it would truly be the greatest disappointment this Universe has ever experienced.

Community and capitalism (#2123)

There must be a mix of both for our great nation to succeed in not only providing for our citizenry but for elevating us above the past. We are a nation of change and to stay the same or go back to the days when we struggled to get where we are now is highly illogical. Yet it is what we are doing here in America. We as a nation seem unable to stop capitalistic forces that have us on a path of self destruction. How you may ask? Simply by diminishing our community care to favor wealth. There must always remain an equal balance between the two if we are to enlighten our selves and serve to enlighten the rest of the world. What is happening now is that other countries have seen our downfall from being disciplined in caring for our citizenry and they have started to replace us as a shining beacon of democracy. Our country has turned a hard right into plutocratic politics that has at it's heart a misguided notion that wealth is the answer to a secure and enlightened civilized society. Our currency used to have a modicum of care attached to it but now it has the feel of a cold dead lie. The pride we Americans took in our ability to rise to any worldly challenge is now less than a whimper when to comes to our own rotting challenges. The care has left and all that is left is the greed. A sad resemblance of the bright future many of us envisioned. We continue to fail our children in educational responsibilities by under funding our primary and secondary schools while raising the costs on our graduate and post graduate higher learning. It is inevitable that the overall national intelligence scores will drop and more and more of our less fortunate students will be clueless about basic and fundamental facts. We all share in the blame for this but not all of us care whether we are to blame or not. That must change and when it does we then can all move forward by returning the community back into our currently eroding democracy.

How long can you remain embarrassed? (#2122)

We have allowed America to become a laughingstock to the rest of the world by electing backward thinking Republican politicians to public office. Republicans are all about taking what is good and right about America and turning us into a backward ruthless society. Let me explain, first they have been allowing the flooding of money into our elections so that only those who support the wealthiest of the wealthy have a good chance to get elected. Second, they have restricted voting for all American citizens who cannot afford or who cannot get a Republican designated "proper identification" regardless of our previous voting history. Third, Republicans are in lockstep to dismantle our public social safety net programs as well as our public, self sustaining, retirement benefits. Fourth, they are decertifying collective bargaining for rights and wages for the middle class further eroding the quality of life most Americans enjoy through the previous struggles workers rights groups had achieved. Fifth, they are continuing to advocate for income inequality to benefit the wealthy as the middle class continues to lose buying power. Sixth, Republicans continue to exploit equality laws aimed at equal opportunity for all Americans to only help those they deem more desirable than "others". Seventh, Republicans desire to shoot first and then ask questions later as a foreign policy standard. They think that might is always right and no amount of logic will convince them otherwise. Eighth, Republicans believe that only Christianity is allowed as a religion and that other religions, atheism and secularism are character flaws worthy of being, metaphorically and not, being beaten out of the offending citizen in the name of God. This is my country of origin and I will continue to fight against the Republicans who have so bamboozled too many of us into their dangerously harmful philosophy.

If you want to be admired and respected then show some courage. (#2121)

Not doing something because you are afraid of what others may think of you is cowardly. But not letting the fear stop you from doing something is courageous and garners respect and admiration from those of us who put more stock in following honorable principles than from avoiding from them. Learn this as fast as possible, no one will care about you as much as you can for yourself. What others think is about themselves so worrying about what they think about you is ridiculous. Show some backbone and live your life as best you can under your own scrutiny and the honor that exemplifies. We all know what the differences are between right and wrong. Sure, sometimes it is complicated but in our hearts it isn't. Doing right by principles we all understand is a choice. Ignoring those same choices when the time for right and wrong is upon us is the fear that cowards employ. There is no honor in that. You must decide if your life is going to be an honorable one or one that just tries to avoid dishonor. You can't live on the fence waiting to see which side you will come down upon. Make a choice to be admired and respected or make a choice to be selfish and unworthy of being exemplified by those who look up to you. There is no middle ground. So those who are waiting to avoid the hard choices surrounding right and wrong in life are by default already choosing to be wrong. It does take character to move past fear and into action based on what is right. That is the key, moving past fear when fear can have a grip like the jaws of frozen steel. Remember, fear is real but it is not impossible to break free from and once you defeat fear, the next time it shows up it won't seem so debilitating. It gets easier to be a person of courage so get going and quit waiting to be who you really are.

Where cruelty and harm are allowed to exist (#2120)

Yes, this is what the Republican party has come to exemplify. Yet we as an American electorate are unable to stop there mad rush to even more cruelty and harm. Those who are not yet affected by their destructive policies are ambivalent to their strategy, however like all slippery slopes, the time will come for them to feel the effect of austerity and inhumanity. I tried so very hard last election to warn of the consequences of letting Republicans off the hook for shutting down our government and turning their backs on the NOT wealthy. Yet we as a society refused a call to action at the voting booth. Only about 1 in 3 of us registered voters actually showed up at the polls and the ones who did show up were overwhelmed by the Republican minority that have ulterior motives to their actions. Our great nation will in time see the folly of allegiance to a Republican party bent on destroying the engine of our nation's success, namely the middle class, but it now appears that we will only happen in the future, not the present. I wrote in yesterday's blog about how we seem to need to be in a desperate situation before we will act to help ourselves and I am still of the same mind about that. We will have to endure at least 2 more years of an austerity push and an inhumane coldness about the worse off in our society, and hopefully the necessary level of desperation will be achieved to wake voters up to their obligation to vote. The day of reckoning will come I do have faith in that but in the meantime we have allowed Republicans to continue to treat we American citizens as less than honorable. I fear that the coming days will show us just how hard Republicans are willing to make the NOT wealthy pay for being unable to be as wealthy as the current wealthy. How have we allowed this to happen? This is just an embarrassment that stains our lives and will be looked upon as a dark chapter by the future of our society.

The imperative necessity of voting (#2119)

I saw a news article yesterday about Indiana Governor Mike Pence saying that denying food stamps to his poorest constituents will "ennoble them". As if being poor is a choice. The problem with his thinking is that many of these poor folks who cannot go out and try to earn the money necessary to eat because there are no jobs available will be the ones who bear the most suffering from Pence's logic. How do these unfortunate ones who will now also be without food be ennobled? Again it comes down to voting for a leader who cares more about helping his constituents than hurting them. If we are not willing to muster the energy to do the one thing that can actually make our lives better, voting, then there is little hope nor anything I can do from here with my desire to make our world better. Do we always have to operate from a position of desperation before anything logical can get done? I feel for the poor folks in Indiana who may soon be without the floor of food stamps to help them stay nourished, for the poor folks in Texas, Florida and other states who are not now currently getting the expanded medicaid healthcare. But you folks had a chance to vote for politicians who were desperate in their own right to bring these possibilities to you. Yet you either ignored them by not voting or you voted for the ones who continue to deny you these life saving policies for some other unfathomable illogical reason. I know I am only a voice screaming out into the void for anyone to hear but it does wound me to see the majority of you ignoring your circumstances or actually voting to keep them on a reckless down hill slide. The inhumanity is obvious to me and yet not so much to those who could have caused a different outcome had they cared about themselves and others as much as I them.

Faulty logic, an acceptable compromise (#2118)

Otherwise similar to cognitive dissonance: "the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially relating  to behavioral decisions and attitude change."-Google. In plain terms, much like continuing to smoke when we know it is slowly killing us. Our desire is greater than our wisdom. So why do we elevate something we know is wrong above common sense and wisdom? I have seen many different reasons but clearly it is a form of harm that we find acceptable over not doing harm. I will surmise that it is a way of thinking that gives us some control over our own personal belief in right and wrong. As if we are not beholden to right or wrong in a logical way. A sort of god like power. Where dignity and self respect are lesser values. How did we lose our way? Are we just cynical because others have shown the way to use faulty logic as a tool to gain power and wealth? The more we accept illogical reasoning as our guide, the more we accept the destruction of logic as the reasoning for our actions. Our ho hum attitude about being held responsible to our actions stems from no clear principled foundation. Too many of us are still vicious in our attitudes about community and the power of the many over the power over the few or the one. Examples are abundant in what we can do as an entire nation. Yet we seem to forget great national sacrifices like the one shown most recently through our actions in World War II. No one person or some small cabal of capitalists could have swayed the horror being perpetrated by the Axis powers. We had to do that as a whole community, coming together as a common ally against a common foe. Had we not, the possibilities of that horror would still be with us. We have lost our way emotionally and logically and the only hope for our nation is that we find our way back. There are examples of nations understanding that their greatest asset is their entire citizenry, all of them, clearly using logic without compromising it.

My longing to explore outer space (#2117)

My life will be lived much too much unfulfilled. I had hoped with our Moon landing in 1969 that a new era of space exploration would dominate the future of our society. I have been wholly disappointed in that our policies do not reflect that. Instead our policies reflect getting more bunkered in with staying on Earth with only minimal direction aimed toward the Universe. It is a sad thing that our country that prides itself on courage and boldness would have taken such a turn toward selfishness and timidity. We were at the threshold of a new era in our civilization and our citizenry would have been wisely utilized to be a part of it. We could have made education our number one priority and educated ourselves into innovation and creativity like nothing else in history. We would have been the vanguard of the future. We should be colonizing everywhere in our solar system at this point. I know our technology right now is not where it needs to be but that is, in my opinion, due to 45 years of neglect in instituting a manifest destiny outside our planet. Once again I will state the obvious about our human nature. We are compassionate and curious as a rule. We are also a sensory being. With the capacity to see, hear, feel, smell and taste as means for acquiring information. We also are biological processors that have the ability to reason, analyze and conclude with an amazing memory storage capacity. Yes, I am talking about a human being, not just a machine. We have the intuition, gut feeling and common sense to not only make the most of the information we gather but to ameliorate it into actual action. Why we are not using our abilities to understand our surrounding outer space is a tragedy to not only our nationality but to intelligence everywhere.

Aspire to be great women and men (#2116)

My whole life has been because of this genesis. Never have I stopped from trying to be better than I was the moment before. With my aspiration comes the realization that I have never fully measured up and for those moments I have had my fill and then some. But, regardless of that disappointing reality, I persist in working to improve myself. I don't even consciously think about it much anymore. I automatically default to my aspirations. A sort of cruise control that when the temptation of selfish opportunities appears I cautiously pause. Once reflected upon I then dismiss the temptation as just another sign of my own weakness and the  distance I must continue to travel. When they say it is not so much about the destination as it is about the journey, they would be correct. My life is defined by  the choices I make, right or wrong. If I am ill informed then I will surely make too many wrong choices in my life, regardless of my  honest intent. So my aspirations are fueled by my knowledge and understanding of that knowledge to it's purpose. I have a duty to myself to be objective. It is a demand I do not place lightly upon myself. It is how I gauge the inner respect for myself which leads me to my own humility. There is so much peace and perfection in humility and it is a happiness I seek with all my being. I don't need adulation nor to validate my existence. I have risen above such immature and fearful thinking so that as a being in existence, I can focus on the next good thing I need to accomplish. Metaphorically, I am often on the road of life by myself accountable only to me. As such I am quite serene in the thought that as a living existence of more than no value, an example I must be to any and all who may ever may take notice of who I am and what I do. Not an aspiration for vain glory but for my own internal happiness and any good to others that may come of it.

It isn't policy that is wrong but instead it is apathy (#2115)

We progressive democrats are not so wrong with how we see our future. Where we are lacking is in convincing others to care enough to cast a vote. There should be no more question as to our policies and their ability to improve all of our lives. The bigger question is how do we get all of us to care? Short of offering incentives or disincentives, which would take an act of Congress, then approval by our President and then confirmation by our Supreme Court. I don't see that happening at this time so what else is available for us to consider? Scaring/warning people with dire circumstances works on many but not a near enough of a majority to be successful. The problem is that people seem to think that things are fine no matter who is in charge. They are not keeping themselves informed enough to make the necessary changes in our politics. Apparently to them all politicians are weak and corrupt to some degree so when they are publicized for their failures it is just business as usual, nothing to see here and people just keep about their own lives. So shaming politicians doesn't carry much influence in getting people to vote. Shaming people who don't vote doesn't seem to work either. I know I am listing a lot of ideas that don't work but through the process of elimination hopefully I, we, will find a way to motivate people to care about the direction of our country. We have had many hardships on our society because of greedy policies aimed at the wealthy but that has only limited effect in stirring people to vote against them. We have had a minority president for the first time and that seemed to stir more people to vote and in 2016 it looks like we will have the first female candidate for president who has a better than even chance at winning. She will attract more people to vote but still the underlying problem is voter apathy and short of something else I haven't considered here, voter apathy will be with us for many more years to come.

Taming the inner beast (#2114)

We all know who we are inside us that no one else knows. Yet those traits, thoughts and or desires are not what define us. Remember, we are from the animal kingdom but through sheer force of will we have evolved into a being that can choose how to think and act. We are not confined by our limitations, instead we are stubborn about overcoming them. So when we doubt the validity of our inner self just know that we have yet offer the world our finished product. The trials and many errors we go through, self inflicted and more often inflicted by others, are just the bumps in the road of our life. They do not capture the essence of us when we are still and quiet in our own peace. What has happened to me in my life is not who I am, it is instead a road map of how I have endured an existence that had far too little care for me as well as care for everyone else. We were nurtured and inculcated into a world where the confusion and chaos of it left us scarred with unthinkable experiences. Yet, we endure and here we are. Not whole by any means but at least not in tatters. So letting the roar in our heads subside to allow us time to reflect that regardless of the road we took to get to this very moment, we are here and the future is what we can make of it. Starting right now if that is what is needed. I have had my epiphany years back and stopped time long enough to set a course for my life that is much more like who I am inside, not the wild man with a cavalier attitude toward others that I wreaked in my wake. I have tamed my inner beast and now I can proudly hold my head up when honor is discussed. I don't shirk away from noble principles, I seek them out.

Incentive to vote (#2113)

Well we do live in a capitalistic economy so why not give each voter a prize for them performing their function of voting? For one thing those who don't vote don't get penalized but they don't get rewarded either so anyone who wishes to participate in our politics should receive some special choice of options established to help them in some way that is significant enough to cause due consideration. It is consideration we want to encourage not only in what we get for voting but why we vote for the party or politician who receives our vote. This is all to help us along toward becoming more informed about the direction and application of polices that directly effect us. All of us can be winners if we set out to make our society about all of us. Enough with the special interest lobby and all their tunnel vision about how our country should be perceived. We need a much more comprehensive approach to our problems and the solutions we formulate. Our aspirations and goals should be part of our future planning and not just our desire for wealth. We need a war free world and a clean planet. As we devise policies that move us away form the past necessary solutions for those times we need to devise and implement new more current technology and innovation to our vision. It takes consensus to build a community and the time for self wealth as the only goal is past. It will be hard to wean us off the idea that we are still a wild west country but we must if we are together to leave a better planet than the one we lived on. There is so much nobility in the idea of doing what is right and good. We all find pleasure in happiness and real accomplishment. We can do this but the rhetoric of greed must stop and the new booming voice of all of us must start to come to fruition.

Don't expect much at all from Congress over the next 2 years. (#2112)

With the dismal turnout of voters this last election, too many Republicans were elected and with that we are most certainly in for a lot of stalemates with our Democratic President. So anything that must be done will have to be done with a minimum of compromise since Republicans are only interested creating more wealth for the wealthy. So anything else that needs doing must be done with some other entity not our Congress. The states must now step up and deliver as much as they can since the federal government will likely offer little. The democratically led states will have to continue to find revenues within their own borders for their economies to flourish. While the republican led states have shown that they will continue to apply austerity to their budgets further reducing core community standards. Over the next few years we are going to see divergent economies within our country and quality of life will take a hit in the "red" states while the "blue" states will continue to flourish. The austerity versus the Keynesian model will be glaring in their results as already evidenced by comparing blue state California's positive turnaround with the negative turn red states like Kansas and others are currently experiencing. At the end of this next 2 years it will be painfully obvious to even fair minded Republicans that their economic model of austerity and tax cuts for the wealthy was the wrong way to go but in the meantime, the majority of voters who continue to support them will feel more and more of the pain of their choice now and into the near future. The sad fact is that we didn't need to do this to ourselves but since we did we are about to find out why objective considerations are far more important than subjective hoped for illusions.

Actions or inactions have consequences (#2111)

Consequences are the result of choices either right or wrong. Personally I would rather make the right choice and face those consequences than make the wrong choice and be left with the damaging consequences that brings about. Regardless though, consequences of our actions will surely follow. I know some who think that they can take a stance of meanness and still expect kindness from those affected. It is a sort of disassociation that seems prevalent in our society today. Well I for one will not reward ignorance nor meanness with kindness. I will instead give ignorance an ignoring. I will give meanness the shame and shunning it deserves. For those who are unwilling to take a stand when injustice is being perpetrated, they get the same response from me that those who are perpetrating the injustice will get. There is no escaping our duty to do right, not ignorance nor ambivalence. Especially when the duty to do right is being overrun by the willingness to do or allow harm. I have no mercy for those who are only greedily desperate for themselves without a cause or concern for the harm they are doing to others. As I live and breathe I will never condone the shirking of the valor and courage sacrificed in the name of our society. For those who have a by your leave attitude or an attitude of disdain toward honor I will hold only contempt and have no further dealings in the daily matters of life. There is a price to pay for being selfish and uncaring, and I for one will honor that price. No more will there be a forgiveness for strategies aimed at harm nor a forgiveness for beliefs that cloak fear instead of courage. I live in a society today that is more afraid of what could be and is unwilling to change from the known harms that currently plague us. There is no honor there, none, just fear and or selfishness masquerading as righteousness.

Ignorance is triumphing over logic (#2110)

When harmful ideology is valued to a greater degree than helpful ideology then we have what we have here in America. A reality that is in the process of turning from having a hopeful vision for our collective future to a nation that has turned in on itself. Gone are the days of collective agreements on fundamental issues. Now we are in the era of self loathing with little hope that we can lift our citizenry up to an example to be admired. Instead of leading the world into what could be an amazing future we Americans are more interested in ironical ignorant bickering over what equal rights we should allow each other. A nation founded on the principle of democracy is now becoming a nation founded on the principle of wealth idolatry. We have turned our economic system of capitalistic consumerism into a belief system that has as a dogmatic tenet an untouchable, even heretical, stance against modification. Thou shalt not regulate or require minimum standards other than to let the open market determine viability. Instead of using logic within our government representation to form and adapt the pathway consumerism should follow, the existing forces demand that the free market and it's profiteers should be the ones who decide what is best for our citizenry on whole. Instead of democracy having it's say as to how our society should operate there are those who think that a few wealthy souls should have their advantageously amplified voices heard above the many less vocal who have little ability to amplify. In other words, the squeaky wheel gets the grease maxim. We have done this to ourselves and we have no one to blame but ourselves. We have taken the good intent of our founders and allowed, through a lack of participation in our duty to vote, the erosion of their vision. As we Americans continue to ignore how our future is being manipulated by the wealthy the further we get from having the right to correct it.

Constitutional crisis, voter suppression (#2109)

As unbelievable as it sounds it is now happening. We have a conservative majority Supreme Court who are not above undermining the one principle Democracy needs to have to be legitimate, our unfettered right as citizens to vote. It is a national shame for us that we promote ourselves abroad as a nation of equality and liberty while inside our borders we deny less affluent citizens of their right to vote through not so clever poll taxes. A national shame! But shaming is not a persuasive enough argument for the Republican party and it's adherents. They look at being shamed as just an acceptable cost of procuring their ability to stay in power. They see an erosion of democracy as nothing more than an ends to a mean, which is their survival of the fittest philosophy. I know I am ashamed of calling myself a defender of democracy while the actual democracy I am defending here in America is being compromised. It is a catch 22 in the sense that being proud of my nations previous accomplishments is being contrasted with the shame I am experiencing with our nations current drive to deny democracy to many of our citizenry. This is all being done under the cloud of intentional rhetorical confusion and racial animosity. A great awakening will be needed to wake up our electorate to this attack from within as we are not there yet given the voter apathy experienced in the just concluded election. With 2/3rds of our citizenry not even bothering to vote we have become a nation suffering from a lack of will to lead our own lives through a duty to have a voice in it. We are allowing anti-democratic forces to infect our democracy to not only weaken it but to reshape it to their benefit. We cannot trust the last bastion of defense for our equality, liberty and justice to our nations highest court as the majority conservatives on it have lost any semblance of honor and pride in being objective arbiters.

Giving our all (#2108)

I never want to know that I didn't try as hard as I could after the trying time is done. No remorse or second thoughts for failing to give my all. I have learned over time that expending myself to the fullest is how life should be lived. I cannot go on forever with endless effort but during limited times of opportunity I can do just that. It is when the time has ended that I can then rest and feel how I have been effected by my relentless effort. I suppose I have learned this from the competitive sports I have always admired and participated in. Any endeavor to accomplish a goal is nothing if not earned with every fiber of effort. When Thomas Paine said "What we obtain to cheap, we esteem to lightly; 'tis dearness only that gives everything it's value." For me, dearness is either a connective emotion or a value earned with tremendous effort. What I am reminded of from time to time is that the time after effort is expended, there is a calm solemnity that envelopes me with a sense of quietness. A maturing of perspective that brings about a numbing realization that whether succeed or fail, the effort is where the living of life takes place. Being a part of the universal chaos of understanding without attempting to control or over think my place in it. I exist and for that my place is to know what is going on around me and actively accepting my responsibility. The beauty of knowledge is that we all can utilize it to our best abilities. We take in what our minds are able to understand and build upon that to logically wrestle with how our society should evolve. We must all start from the point of equality otherwise we will not sustain and improve our society as we know it. This is our purpose in the long timeline of human continuation. We are no different than those who came before us and those that will follow. We have the same duty to our existence, live our lives with the strength and courage to give our all regardless of personal sacrifice or the eventual outcome.

Time heals most wounds (#2107)

Today is a better day than yesterday was for me. I don't feel as let down. A large majority of our American citizenry chose not to come out and vote in our national election last Tuesday which assured a minority opinion party in our country the opportunity to take more power to lead us than we should have allowed. I accept that and today I have officially moved on from the stun of it. We are left now to feel the sting of their governing and maybe that is what we need to shock us into paying the due attention to who we elect with closer scrutiny. I would have preferred we all got involved with logic and common sense as our prod but it seems that an extra amount of self harm is needed in the mix. This isn't the type of society that I had hoped for. I had hoped that our society would be able to recognize and engage in the process in determining the best of who we can be in an equal society without having to be forced to participate. But instead what we have allowed to happen is a lessening of our current rights which will either stimulate us into rejecting those who would take bits a pieces of liberty from us or we will continue down the slippery slope of losing our democracy in order to allow a more plutocratic government to replace it. Although my faith in the overall national intelligence of our country has been shaken, it is not lost and for that I know we can still rectify our current dilemma with a new found awareness our just past election will reveal to us. Our human natures are stubborn when it comes to giving up our fears in order to serve our curiosities but as time has shown throughout our history, we Americans eventually quit looking to the past for our answers and at least for a time forge ahead into the future.

If not here then somewhere else (#2106)

I am not rooted to the ground in any way. If where I am is not agreeable then I must move on. This goes for relationships and geography. I live by a set of standards that make me who I am and if I cannot be around like minded souls then I am constantly at friction with myself. Life is a short term experience and any wanted time being in less than acceptable circumstances is time lost forever. I don't have fond memories of the times when I struggled to fit into a relationship or community where I was more at odds with it than in agreement. I have settled many places in my life and resettling is not a fear I concern myself with. Starting over from scratch is more like and adventure than a chore. Especially if I can find a relationship or geographical location more suited to who and what I represent. The beauty of who I am is that I want so bad to do right and good by folks, but I cannot do that if the folks I am with or surrounded by are not interested in the same values I am. There comes a time when the outreach to others is not working and a realization must come into the factoring of it's continuance. Not a matter of quitting, more a matter of better serving what I have to offer with someone else or somewhere else. I have a lot of thinking to do in the next undefined amount of time to consider where my life is best lived, either here in my home country or somewhere new that has a greater concern for all life. I am who I am and that is what I need. A sense of belonging amongst those who are truly seeking to improve our world, not just use it for greed and power. I know I am frustrated and a bit down right now given my realization that my country is not in tune with enlightenment. The frustration of that knowing will subside quickly but the realization will remain and thus my take on what the future may hold for me. Life is too short to grow roots where those roots don't have a chance to produce.

Politics aside (#2105)

Our national intelligence took a hit yesterday as the majority of we Americans could not wisely distinguish the forest for the trees. Instead of us coming together to cure the ails of our economic, social and political inequalities, most of us choose to keep them in an unequal state. I know in my heart that if we had been able to comprehensively understand what the stakes were yesterday in our voting we would have made a different choice. this is why I am going after our national intelligence with a brusque attitude. I cannot tip toe around the fact that our citizenry has been failed in educational matters and our highest court has lost all effectiveness as to being an objective defender of our right to evolve and improve. The lack of respect for the dignity of all of our citizenry to have an equal share in the duties and successes of our great nation has been exposed. We are not the enlightened nation most of us would think were are. Instead we have not progressed  in our understandings of new information and have actually stopped informing ourselves in truthful and honest ways. We allow for disinformation to flow from the fourth estate as if it is sacred. We have quit on the morality of care and compassion we should be exalting instead of demeaning. Most brutish, we have quit on the revolutionary idea that a society is only as strong as it's weakest link. Yesterday served as a warning to those of us who are left standing in the ashes of a progressive modernity. Our civilization has gone from 45 years ago from being the first to land a man on the moon to now questioning the idea of even leaving Earth to explore our Universe. We have regressed instead of progressed. For that I am sorry to say our generation has lost its way and hopefully we will not deter our children from desiring to correct our failures while having to shoulder a heavier burden to create a better American society.

Today we learn the intelligence of our country (#2104)

There is a choice to be made today. Whether the Republican vision of austerity for the less wealthy and survival of the fittest will be our future or the Democrat vision of returning the middle class back to a higher wealth level through stimulus and making the wealthy pay their fair share. It would seem to be an easy decision based upon the fact that a vast majority of our citizenry are either at or just above or below middle class status. One would think that we would vote for what is best for the majority of us and our children. yet it also seems that the case may be that a majority of us are willing to either ignore our right to vote and let things happen and the rest of us will vote for the Republican vision of making life harder on ourselves while making life even easier on the super wealthy. This is why I mentioned that this election today is about our national intelligence. The facts have been  there for all to see who would want to be an objective observer. No one is being forced to vote for anyone or any party in particular. This election for the most part is open for all of us citizens to vote, although, some are being denied the right to vote by the very Republican party that wants to harm the middle class more than to help it. Yet again here I state, we may be ready to vote to harm ourselves over helping ourselves. It is an embarrassment that logic and common sense are being relegated to a less than, in order to favor some emotionally biased rhetoric. Hatred seems to be our American experience at this moment and for that to prevail today is a stain on our society no amount of lies or ignorance will ever be able to hide. I love my country for it's democratic values and it's clarion call for equality of opportunity, justice, fairness and respect and dignity for all of it's citizens. What happens today will either shake my foundation about that or reinforce it. However it turns out I will continue to fight for what we should be proud to exemplify and against all who would dishonor our special compact.

The imperativeness of voting (#2103)

I will not equivocate on this. There is no excuse not to protect your right to vote. I don't care what excuse you may imagine or produce, no excuse is valid. We know that our elections have consequences that affect our daily lives so being a part of that decision making is what the precious founders of our country gave us an opportunity to become involved with. No where on earth has a modern nation built from it's roots the right and duty to determine the future of it's course in such a way. We have the right but I add the duty since if we don't exercise our duty there are forces that wish to deny us this process of democracy. There is a political party, Republicans, who think that many of our citizens should not participate in universal citizenry voting. They like to think that they are the only ones with the mental acumen to decide such complex matters. They would like to think that they are the adults and that the rest of us are slow minded and too spoiled for our own good. Their egos will not allow them to think that we are equal to them. This voting we have coming up tomorrow is all about whether Republicans can convince the rest of us that they are the patriarch at the main table and the rest of us are the children better seen and not heard at the children's table. I personally am offended by their vision of condescension. So much so that wherever I hear their pablum I speak out and buttress against it. Their arrogance of privilege over democracy grates against me with a finger nails on a blackboard irritatingly uncomfortableness. Further I want to expose them for their strategy of denying equality, justice and opportunity with bald face policies that have nothing to do with improving society for all but instead only for improving society for their few. If I spend my last breath battling against their greed for capital and power then so be it. My democratic country means more to me then their theft of our hopes and dreams ever will!

I fight for those who can't fight for themselves (#2102)

A heroes complex? Maybe, but from every part of my being there is nothing about harmful power that I admire. In fact I abhor it. I am no hero but I do act in the manner that has those qualities. I cannot stand oppression, I cannot stand human or other animal suffering or neglect. In my soul there is a beating heart for those who are trampled on for no reason other than someone else's greed or psychopathy. I don't have to be invested in fighting for others, I could do nothing, or even worse be part of the same oppressive forces that worship greed and power as their ultimate ambitions. Yet I can't. There is a civilized decency within me, although I observe this ancient and barbaric behavior in the animal kingdom, it does not define me. Surely those who claim a survival of the fittest paradigm can point out in nature the similarities that exist with the lesser species, and they would be correct that a survival of the fittest does exist with them and also with our own past human history. But our lesser animal brothers and sisters are not we humans and we current humans are not our more ancient ancestors. We are here now with the knowledge and innovative creativity we have evolved toward. So any looking backward in our historical timeline or using lesser intelligent animals' behavior to justify reverting back to behavior that we have evolved from is absurd and unintelligent. My only conclusion is that those who would yearn for a past existence we humans have evolved from are operating in fear and misunderstanding. It takes courage to be a human. That is a baseline by which no human should fall below. It takes understanding that we are in a continual state of change and the misunderstanding that we can go back to being something we have evolved from is not in conformance with reality. Our curiosity has brought us this far and it will continue to fuel our never ending evolution in the present and future. That is the observation we need to understand and embrace that nature has taught us. Our time is finite and for us to waste it not being human is the real tragedy here.

Blaming victims instead of the policies is un-American (#2101)

We have two major political party's here in America and for the first time since I can remember the distinction between the two is seismic. Not just in how we go about addressing the same problem with different policies, but instead about whether the problem is real or not. Democrats say that poverty is a result of bad economic vision and by restructuring economic policy we can alleviate much of how poverty is allowed to exist. Republicans on the other hand state that poverty is a result of people who are in it. That if they would just not be in it they would be better off. Think about that for a moment, I know, you have to suspend logic but give it a try, Obviously Republican politicians and their followers do. If you would just tell yourself that the conditions that have gotten you to having few educational and economic opportunities are your fault. That if somehow you can change the environment you inhabit or move somewhere more attractive to having a successful economic future, your problems with poverty will abate. Republicans want us to change our attitudes about our reality as a solution without offering a new reality. It is kind of like offering someone a glass of empty water and saying "Drink this and it will abate your thirst". It makes no sense. The problem here is that Republicans do not advocate for common principles of a shared civilization. Instead of modernity as a guiding principle for societal advancement, Republicans find that a regressive wild west survival of the fittest mentality will bring about prosperity for all who embrace it. A rough and tumble society that insulates the few wealthy from the masses. A king of the hill philosophy that rewards anyone who can get on top regardless of the means to that end. A last man standing philosophy that is exactly put since Republicans have no equal regard for women. this choice on November 4th in our voting duties should put an end to Republican barbarism and then allow our democracy to restore itself under Democrat leadership. Let us make it so!