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.

I have lived life hard (#1947)

I chose a different path in my life. It was my path, just mine. Now I can't take any of it back so regretting not doing something different isn't even an option. What I have though are some wild and crazy memories. That is a good thing. What I don't have is wive(s) or children. The trade off for me was kind of easy since I wasn't one of those who would settle on a relationship of marriage that didn't have enough true love to it. I was and still am a romantic, but in lieu of actually finding and recognizing true love from a likely partner for life I just went out as a young man and lived in this world. I worked hard and partied hard. One of those who would burn the candle at both ends. What had probably been my saving grace is that I didn't do that 24/7. I did spend time quietly and healthily recovering from some of my wilder escapades. Early on in my youth I did set some standards by which I would not violate. I didn't accept any sexual relationship with a married woman. That was probably my smartest move. lol. As far as partying, I didn't go out beyond the usage of normal mind altering chemicals that I knew were far more harmful than groovy. And I didn't allow myself to do too many things that were dangerous and just for kicks. I was a bit of a self controlled wild and crazy guy. But I wasn't one who lived to make myself successful. I worked at the type of jobs only strong men need apply. I was a carpenter, house and building framer specifically, most of my life but I also worked as an underground miner in the great southwest desert, while later working as a logger in the great northwest woods. My free spirit was all I could ever find as a good constant companion and now that I have traded in all the wild and crazy times for a patterned lifestyle, maybe now I can find that one woman who will fill my life with herself and maybe even still children. I am more than I have shared here but that is for another nostalgic time...

The wealthy are stealing our dreams (#1946)

Why is it that the wealthy cannot be satisfied with a lot and instead need our little as well? It seems that greed is the simplest answer but I think there is more to it. Greed is a symptom of their actions but the genesis of their greed stems from the wealthy wanting to control our behavior. It is like they have their own moral compass for us and another one for themselves. Their financial, good fortune or devious underhanded tactics, whichever or both, do not make them an expert on human behavior and the morality and ethics that come with it. I have no respect for those who act as if they are all knowing and totally convinced as to what you and I need to do about our lives. I can barely keep up with the decisions I have to make for myself so for the wealthy to think they can think for 10's of millions of us is ludicrous. Yet for all that, they still are trying to take from us what wealth we can accumulate so as to confine us within opportunities that they can control. I will not be one of their puppets who meekly follows their lead. Instead I will fight to stop their theft of our generations and also fight to reverse the income inequality that is still widening. There are a few policies that could be adopted that would work nicely. First we need to tax profit from financial transactions like we tax labor. Second we need to increase the minimum wages that are currently woeful and inadequate. Just these two steps alone would stop the growing income inequality and start it's decline. There are more policies we could adopt to strengthen the middle and poor class, like eliminating the contribution cap on Social Security and having the states that didn't expand medicaid reverse course and instead expand medicaid. We need to stop giving tax breaks to corporations that offshore jobs and instead give tax breaks to corporations that keep jobs here in America. We need to rid the House of Representatives of Republican control, keep the Senate in Democrat hands and then work hard to pass the legislation I mentioned above.

When greed over takes humanity (#1945)

Nothing fosters the fertile grounds for greed greater than a disrespect for life. We see it all around us where everything under our capitalistic system is for sale for the right price, even our souls. Many do not care about such things as souls or honor or a proper code of conduct. They just care about the bottom line of their bank accounts. It is the age old story of humanity being sold for, let's use a well known analogy, "30 pieces of silver". Greed can be a powerful emotional experience. It has within it some disturbing sensations like lust and ego-driven narcissism. Powerful emotions that must be fed to maintain their addiction upon our soul. Yet many of us who have felt these urges and weighed them against our better instincts, have found greed to come up short in the overall experience of our lives. We have discharged greed to the waste bin of tried but failed paradigms that do more harm than any good they could ever do. Yet there are still those souls out there that are so addicted to greed that despite the harm and tortuous outcomes their greed inflicts they falsely justify to themselves that it is a value of greater worth than not allowing their greed to come to fruition. The aftermath is akin to what happened at Hiroshima, though not as punishing, nonetheless, it is as mentally and morally crushing to those who pay the price for others to practice their greed. What greed also does is eliminate the good that could happen if greed were not employed. By the commission of greed, the omission of something better is never realized. that old saying of everything has an inverse proportionality is true and where greed exists goodness is lost.

Hope will always win out (#1944)

If there is only one thing I learn while I am alive it is that hope will never fail. It may not come to fruition in your desire for it but the act of hoping will never be taken from us. That is as long as we are not all turned into mindless robots. lol.  I guess I shouldn't laugh at that since there are forces out there that would prefer most of us are not allowed to think for ourselves. In the sense that I am relaying here bounds within the idea that regardless of how bad circumstances and situations get, we still have the dynamic quality of hoping for something different. It is the first step toward actually changing things toward the different and "hopefully" better. I had hit my utter bottom and saw nothing worthy of living for, except my hope, which in the end brought me back to seeing everything worthy of living for. It was hope that saved me and I have heard many others like me who had the same experience, where hope was the last straw to cling to for them as well. Every once in awhile I think about the title of my blog, Man of Hope. At the time that I created this site, I was caught up in our first African American's victory for President of the United States. It was such a proud moment for me and so many others like me who recognized that hope for our country to move past the old paradigms of racism, hatred and segregation was at the threshold. All we needed to do was pass through that open doorway and move into a new way of life. We have had trouble as a nation moving forward but we are slowing passing through that metaphorical doorway. But even deeper for me than the moment of creating this blog was the idea that hope was more than any one paradigm, it is the genesis of all paradigms if we will give it a chance to be.

Independent voters are moving toward the Democrats (#1943)

When the Republicans opened up their true agenda of dismantling social programs while showing they would rather segregate us than integrate us they effectively have discouraged independent voters from joining them. Something very positive about independent voters is that they are competent and logical in that they actually weigh the effects of the political party's policies. Because of that most independents, who are in the middle and lower classes, see the actual devastation Republicans are inflicting on most all who are not wealthy. This makes it easier for we progressive/liberals to tailor our message of improving the fortunes of the middle and lower class with real authentic arguments. The logic of the differences are not lost on independents and the polls have been showing just that. We still have 3 months of summer to while through before everyone who is interested in our democracy will actually take the time to coalesce around the vision of each party but nothing much will change between then except that we Democrats will get to continue to expose the Republican party for being anti-middle/poor class. The tide is coming for a Democratic take over of Republicans in key political positions and nothing more important than regaining the House of Representatives and holding onto the majority in the Senate. The House looks doable despite the wildly advantageous redistricting Republicans did during the last census in 2010. 17 seats are needed to regain control of the House and at least 25 Republican seats are vulnerable to Democratic takeover this November. As the weeks while down to election day more and more Independents are coming to see that Republicans don't offer help to the working/middle/poor class, instead they offer harm, in the form of cutbacks and denials of social programming meant to lift our citizenry up out of poverty. Democrats on the other hand are offering actual help to those of us who need help the most, first and foremost is creating jobs through jobs programs and strengthening our social safety nets.

Enlightenment or punishment (#1942)

Why is it that we cannot seem to make up our minds about what type of society we want to live in? We have two clear and distinct choices in political parties to choose from. One, the Liberal Democrats are the ones who want our society to improve with incentives and opportunities, while the other, Conservative Republicans, want our society to improve by denying incentives and opportunities. Conservative Republicans think that we don't need help from anyone and that we should all be responsible for making our own way in the world regardless of the reality and consequence. Liberal Democrats think that given reality, we all need to have an opportunity to start from the same level playing field without, nepotism, privilege or other built in advantage being given. Liberal Democrats also think that helping each other through programs that make sure no one should starve or be homeless is worthy of creating. It really does come down to how we see what civilized means. To Conservative Republicans, civilized only means what each should define it as, given their perspective about their goals in life. For example, if a person, preferably a white man in the Conservative Republican world, wants to create an industry that profits himself while also giving the rest of us some value, then he should be free to build his venture without any input from others, regardless of the impact. Now I know that is not in all the crazy extreme ways but just short of that. Liberal Democrats, using the same example, believe that any human who wants to build a venture that profits himself and gives society a value, should control his venture as long as it doesn't violate democratically instilled laws that protect not only all of us but our environment as well. Both parties want entrepreneurialism, but both do not want to protect the community at large.

The last time segregated religious fundamentalism was forced upon us (#1941)

The year was 1941 and the end of that year was the beginning of the end for the Nazi experiment. When a religious nationalist party that sets it's own interpretation of society comes into great power by force then nothing it does is justified. Not even the sneak attack by it's political ally at the time, Japan. Yet we Americans, having defeated those forces some 73 years ago are setting ourselves up to establish the same kind of religious nationalist party, the current conservative republican party, right here in america, the land that fought mightily and died valiantly, in helping to destroy the German "experiment". How could we have come this far backward in our thinking as to allow for a despised religious political philosophy to have infected so severely one of our leading political institutions? It is through ignorance and disrespect is how. The current conservatives have a mindset of individualism that is infused with some sort of distorted religious interpretation that breeds contempt and disregard for community while seeing compassion as an ultimate weakness. The ignorance is in not learning history and how it came to pass. Education had always been a hallmark of our national growth and had been a source of pride among our citizenry and envy from most of the civilized world. Not so today as many of our political leaders have taken on the illusion that education is a privilege and not a right. They have also advocated for dismissing the logic of science in favor of a belief system. Their disrespect shows up in the form of segregating us based upon our differences instead of integrating us based upon our sameness. It is the complete opposite of evolutionary processes yet that doesn't bother those who are always looking upon others as inferior, yet can only see themselves and their own sense of narcissistic ego driven superiority.

Making life easier inch by inch (#1940)

I often think of what Dr. King said "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." This one simple concept is what helps me to continue on a path of goodness that is both struggle and frustration. It seems that whatever I do nothing much gets done, yet the little tiny bit that does get done is what Dr. King's statement justifies. Sisyphus and his never ending of rolling the boulder uphill only to have it come back down again is my default position. lol. Yet like the Greek myth, I continue despite the well known outcome. For it is the act of trying that is the key to me, not the end result. I am doing what is right by not only my nature but by my enlightened mind. I know I am not as bad off as Sisyphus since I do make some progress but the idea of it is mostly fitting. What else occurs by my commission on behalf of my curiosity and my caring is that I am not doing nothing or even worse doing harm. So by doing what I know to be right and good for our enlightenment, I am not doing something that forestalls our advancement into modernity. What does it take to find the courage to slip out of the cave like with Plato's character in the Republic? It takes an inner resolve to spend the seconds of my life on my terms and not just settling for a lack of me being true to my nature. I feel a kinship with my species and the other species we cohabitate with on this planet, but I also feel a kinship with the Universe and all it's yet unknowns. I am not just a child of our planet, I am also a child of all that is, or will be, or has ever been. My link to everything is real and for me not to participate in the discovery of all that is, will not be borne! So despite my hunger for more of all there is I am also charged, by my own convictions, to reinforce the idea that we all deserve the right and respect to be the most human any of us can be.

Teaching fear is not moral (#1939)

When we are made to feel as a captive and punished for what we don't understand we all suffer. I think back to my young youth and how every once in a while someone who had temporary control of me used me to vent out their own transferred rage and anger. I remember having to cower with fear just to survive the onslaught of their callous behaviors toward me. I have seen enough of it to know it wasn't just me being treated as a burden, I also saw my family, friends and strangers thus treated. It is humiliating and embarrassing to the worst degree. I couldn't wait until I was strong enough to fend off cruel and inhumane treatment when it came my way. That is no way to live as a child, planning for my defense instead of enjoying the world and learning what good could become of it. What often happens is that though we despised being treated as worthless, we ended up doing the same to those who were vulnerable when we become adults. It is the way we were taught and treated and we survived so don't mess with success. Except that we were not all right, we were damaged and could not see it for ourselves. I am not saying that anyone who does what he learned is not guilty of doing bad, I am just saying that I understand how it is passed along through generations. It is still wrong to teach fear because it works for us in some demented way. Teaching fear is immoral. I remember telling myself numerous times how I was never going to make someone else feel the way I felt after being cowed and embarrassed. But what often happens is we don't plan an alternative method of teaching much different from the fear used on us. I can say that I have come to learn that being aware of my surroundings and the circumstances in play has made learning and teaching much more agreeable to those I interact with as opposed to those who interacted with me so many long years ago.

Smug arrogant Republicans and their disdain for the majority of Americans (#1938)

Republicans don't believe in helping lift folks out of misery, instead they advocate to leave folks to live in misery as a consequence of the inadequacy these folks must desire. Republicans are the ones who would rather whip people into doing better, rather than help create opportunities for folks to lift themselves from their inadequate lives. It is the classic case of punishing folks for not being like the Republicans, you know, self serving individuals who see no future in community. Thing is, these Republicans were nurtured by the very community they now destroy. It is like we are all in a hole and some good fellow has let a ladder down the hole to help us get out but it was Republicans who pushed their way onto the ladder and climbed out and then proceeded to pull the ladder up behind them. Telling the rest of us still down in the hole that we need to find our own way out. The pettiness and cruelty Republicans accept as a guiding principle in their policies is beneath all of the rest of us and if we want to do something about it we must take advantage of what power we have left, that being our Democracy and it's right given to all of us to vote. If we don't utilize our right to vote the Republicans will continue to grow in power and then they will make it even harder for us to vote. If you are waiting for Republicans to realize that the will of the majority of the American people is their greatest priority, you will be deeply disappointed as Republicans have decided that the American people are not worthy of being represented the same as the wealthy who are the foundation of the Republican party. This is a warning to all who take their right to vote as inconsequential. You will rue the day when you realize that you handed over your right to a democracy in America to a bunch of callous unsympathetic conservative Republicans who could care less about the majority of the American electorate.

Clarity and conviction to do good (#1937)

Little on this planet is as satisfying as doing something good and knowing that whatever else may happen you are a decent, humble, validated human being. We are all human beings at a foundational level but not all choose to exemplify the qualities of being human that are most admired. Most choose to stay inward in themselves and make their considerations only about what directly effects them, not in some complex way of reasoning but in the simplest of ways. We do things for ourselves without regard to the effects that has on others. They can do for themselves and all will be fine. Yet that is a false equivalency. We are not all at the same place in time with our possibilities and we are not all given the same opportunities. So what some do, that they make no consideration for the outcome, is in many ways a harm to those who are effected by their decisions. Much like with the dirty energy crowd. They extract and pollute because we are currently dependent upon those resources for power, but what they don't work to alleviate, the pollution and it's overall effect, is left as a consequence for us to absorb into our beings. Now these dirty energy folks gain their profit and success but at what cost to all of us? We need dirty energy for the immediate time but the dirty energy crowd wants that time extended indefinitely so that their profits are left undisturbed. They choose not to transition to cleaner energy sources to mitigate the harm they are causing as long as the harm doesn't affect them. Overall though, what they don't see is that the harm is going to effect the next generations coming up in the form of cancerous health issues, through our water, ground and air, and cataclysmic climatic disturbances. But who cares when there is so much money to be made!

Chasing illusions while giving away the farm (#1936)

If you want to vote as a Republican, this is your reality. You are hoping for something that will never exist while paying to let your future diminish. Now I am all for following my dream but not at the cost of abdicating all my other dreams. I want a safe world that is working to end hunger, disease and unnecessary suffering and death. While also discovering new lands whether here on Earth or beyond. I may yearn for a simpler time that I have within my head but the truth is there never was a more simpler time that right now. Everything in our past has been a mighty struggle to achieve and at no time in the past has life been the illusion of perfect. The greatest awareness all of us have to share is that both time and space are constantly changing so any idea that we can turn back the hands of time are just not going to happen. Reality is here and we are in it, no amount of denial or indifference will change that! Modernity is our future and innovation through technology is our vehicle. We achieve none of this unless we accept that learning knowledge is our path. We have no other path if we are to move our species from being static and more vulnerable, into a more enlightened adaptive being. We are not what we were 5,000 years ago nor will we be the same 5,000 years into the future if we can survive our own demise. The time is now for us as a species to accept the challenge existence has placed before us. Are we to remain like all other previous species who could do nothing to harness the powers of the Universe to affect their futures or are we now going to master the elements around us in ways that give us options to not only survive but to dominate this realm we are currently trapped within?

I am more than the sum of my actions (#1935)

Over the time of this blog I have "mentioned" that I, and all of us, matter. We have so much within us that it seems to be wasted because there is no all encompassing outlet to express all who we are. This blog gives me in a small way a chance to "3d print myself" on eternity. Now after I am gone and this forum has been replaced by some new more modern form of communication, the ether will still have my sense within this blog, albeit raw, but nonetheless there for the discovery. We don't hear this as often as we should but some folks like the thought of leaving an imprint of their lives on humanity in some tangible or otherwise way of recording their existence. This blog post is that vehicle for me. I have spent over 5 years almost every day to a tee, writing daily of some concept or idea I was forming on a particular day. This genre is the legacy of my life. Granted it is coming from my perspective, however I can fairly say that I don't sugar coat my failures nor do I denigrate my successes. Generally speaking this blog is about my life in a way that highlights the intent of my motivations while leaving me vulnerable to scrutiny. We all need a release or outlet to express ourselves however possible and none of us should be denied the opportunity to record who we are so others may know our true intentions. I am more that the sum of my actions, and as such, I need to be able to show that somehow or someway. Life is an unexplained journey. We know how we got here, birthed by our parents, but we don't know why life even exists or if it will continue to exist in the future. We have good scientific evidence of the creation of our Universe but what contained the space before our Universe erupted into being? The bigger questions will continue to remain for now, but who and what I was during my life will have a few clues left out there whether discovered or not. That is good enough for this simple man.

Reality is my intoxicant (#1934)

I am back to being that young boy full of curiosity about life that I lost growing up. I lost myself back then to the lure of the forbidden and stayed lost for far too long. Circumstances have brought me back around to show me the wrong path I took. I am back now on the right path for me since it is all I can do just to keep up with my own reality. That is how I know I am living life correctly now. All my energy and thoughts are needed just to maintain my own momentum as to my choices into the future. I am not some part of someone else's choice, I am part of my own. That is what happened to me previously, I abdicated my voice and my hopes for the little bit of fantasy I created in my head. Lost to me are all those days that I cannot get back that were dedicated to the trifles in life instead of forging my own future as productive and exemplary. Nonetheless, here I am today with a new regard for the rest of my life without the interruptions of artificial intoxication. I get to sense, really feel and know my reality in the clearest sense to date. Surely I will have even more clarity in the future but the path I am on is scrubbed clean of the obstacles I can control. That is the difference now. I can see what a waste I was becoming by not paying attention and learning the ever continuous new insights as they appeared daily. I started to and actually did lose hope for me being anything of any vital purpose. That was the depression part of intoxicants many do not advertise. Freeing myself from reality was supposed to make life better for me, but what it did instead was not only make life harder for me but it also deprived my family and friends from the kind of person I am when I am being the real me. The real me is the one who is in reality all the time and fighting the good fight to make reality better, even to the point where escaping from reality is not even considered a positive.

The inevitability of intelligence (#1933)

This seems like it should be a "no-brainer", however like justice, equality and opportunity, it must constantly be fought to not only preserve but to advance. There are entrenched forces that would keep us in a state of ignorance and captivated to what brings these forces their profits and power. They have manipulated the means to old technology that has run it's course and they do not wish to relinquish it's current control, despite the harm that old technology is doing to us now and into the very near future. It isn't about being pragmatic with them in choosing to keep us yoked to harmful practices, it is stubborn greed that has given rise to their insatiable lust for money and power. Instead of changing their practices like good stewards of changing paradigms, they have chosen instead to obstruct changing paradigms as a rule. Why is it that some of the wealthiest people on Earth have stopped living in a changing world? I suppose it is because they are not the intellectual giants one would normally associate with successful capitalism. Instead they are miserly souls who rely on the fear of others to make their financial gains. As such it is also evident that their miserly protocols leave them with the idea that anyone else, who is not them, is worthy of having justice, equality and opportunity unless it is by their leave. Yet in this society of ours, we can and will overcome our fears to build upon the greatness that initially established our nation. We will through science, technology and innovation overcome the hurdles this current crop of malfeasant beings is employing and instead intelligence will break through to guide us all back into a society that most all of us demand. We will rise to the occasion I have no doubt but all of us from all walks of life must stop and take the proper notice so that when the inevitable time comes, together we move to that smart, efficient future we all dream of.

I have to matter! (#1932)

I have made it my life's mission to know why I am here in this existence. Surely I will be disappointed in my quest, but nevertheless, I am never going to stop. In the meantime I am also understanding what destiny I wish to leave as my legacy to my time here. I am confident that no one thing is writing the history of my life but if my history were being recorded, what would I want it to be? I had decided some time back in my life timeline that I would just suppose that there is some sovereign out there, whether real or fiction, and found all things from there. It serves me well in that I check myself over controversial things I think about and act upon. In don't expect that nothing will stop me from doing anything I want to do that already isn't covered by law. In other words I work within myself with my conscious and in that working I have established some principles for living that guide me in what I do and how I do it. Sound familiar? It is like having a God but without the dogma that goes with organized religion. I call time and space my spirituality and although time and space regularly exhibit chaos and force, I prefer to reflect the calm and possible that comes out of such eruptions. Since I am the product of a new beginning, I feel right at home living like one. Why is this important to me? Why shouldn't I just worry about the best I can do only for myself and leave others to fend for themselves under worse conditions? Because of a little thing called enlightenment. It is an overview of the world that is comprehensively panoramic and not like before when I just had tunnel vision. I am an enlightened being who sees possibility everywhere which kindles within me my voracious appetite to learn. So I have to find a way to matter since I am not just some cosmic particle that happened upon this existence with no ability to question and attempt to comprehend the very concept of existence.

The superhero in all of us (#1931)

This is the main reason we should all care about how our society operates. We get to have a say. So who is it within us that dominates? Our uncaring self or the caring one. My story for the first part of my life was mostly filled with the uncaring one. I thought only of myself and those who were around me who thought like I did. I was the epitome of a miserable person seeking pleasure and gratification in many forms. I look back on myself from those times and hang my head low for the memories that are with me. Not all was gloom and doom from back then but too much of it was. Somewhere along the line of my life, before it was too late, something clicked within me that brought me back to my childhood when all dreams were still possible and I realized that my dreams were still possible despite the vast evidence I had accumulated over time to the otherwise. It all boils down to me when it is me choosing what to do next. I am the final arbiter of my life ans for that I am now humbled. I survived my reckless and unsettled past and now I have set my sights on releasing the superhero that resides in me. I can't fly or do miraculous feats, however I can spend all my time doing good things and advocating for even better things. This is the superhero I am trying to live as. Doing what good and better I can within what parameters I have. I don't think of me as the reason for living anymore. I am just a vessel, a host that precariously secures my life in this existence for the purpose of making this existence a little easier for all of us. It is harsh and cruel enough without me being part of that mess. I can't control anything anyone else is doing but I can try to influence others by showing my behavior and explaining why it is so.

Pushing through the hard (#1930)

After getting some advice from a doctor, I have really changed my diet. Most of it is just eating less, but some of it is not eating some things and eating other things instead. this has been tough for me with me being less than mobile since a car accident several years ago. I am not able to be as active as I was previous to the injuries and getting a whole lot less exercise has been costly. I still do some physical things but they are limited. I used to be a lot more active which is always a good way to channel hunger pangs. Not having that previous level of activity now has allowed the hunger pangs to increase in not only it's repetitive cycle but also in it's level of desire. Years ago I became a vegetarian so on top of hunger pangs, I am also getting internal signals to go out and have a big juicy steak. It isn't easy being me right now but that is my problem and one that I am working through. yesterday was hard in that the portions I have allowed myself are not enough to keep the hunger pangs from being a bother. I try to stay busy moving since I have known for a very long time that exercise not only burns off unwanted calories but it also allays the hunger pangs. A two-fer in you will. The hardest part about trying to lose unwanted weight has always been the hard days when it is all I can do just to survive the temptations from my own body to put food in it. Everything starts to sound desirous regardless if I really like it or not. Yet, I pushed through yesterday and today is much better. I also get the prize of seeing more weight gone which in itself bolsters me even more. This is no different than anything that is hard in life whether it is my diet or some other challenge, pushing through the hard is what gets us to our goals and for that I still have the will to accept.

Our human kindness is at the center of our souls (#1929)

I know we all have troubles that keep us anxious and in a constant loop trying to find solutions. It is never ending as if it isn't one thing it is always another. However, within this whirligig of problem solving we find ourselves taken during certain moments of raw emotion. There are instances of fragility and vulnerability that capture our essence with their seemingly insurmountable struggles. We set aside our less than critical problems to focus our attentions on the unfolding events. There is a reason most all of us rally behind the underdog. We have been there ourselves in some similar way and we have overcome despite the long odds we faced. So it is with others as they come into our noticing. We root for them and in some way hope to either encourage them or actively help in some tangible way. Regardless of certain politicians telling us we are individuals who need to care for ourselves and not to waste time on caring for others, we cannot do that. We are hopelessly bound to each other in the ways of overcoming struggle to succeed. It is within our very core as humans to appreciate the sentinel courage and perseverance we and others exhibit to move forward with strength. If others can do it so can we and that in itself gives us more hope than we thought we previously had. We lift each other up. It is how we learn and grow, in not only wisdom and experience, but in our souls. When all else is said and done, I care less for myself in most ways as long as I feel right and good about my actions. For me life isn't all about me, it is about what I do in life to help and appreciate others, which in turn makes me feel right and good.

Liberalism has been the cause of progress (#1928)

There is no other ideology on the planet that has done more for the citizens of America then liberalism. Instead of embracing a survival of the fittest ideology that conservatives love, we liberals want to take a lot of the competition for living out of our society and otherwise establish a floor by which no citizen may struggle below to survive. We believe in an inherent dignity of our individual souls to not have to suffer the wretches of poverty and inhumanity at the expense of the wealthy souls who would have little to no care for those who lose at the gamed competition that conservatives protect. I am all for competing on an even playing field in all aspects of opportunity, but those who come up short in this competition should not have to live in squalor as their consolation prize. This all or nothing approach is kin to a simpler time when enlightenment was only an unknown future consideration. All the great advances in our society have come from the minds and hard work of liberals and progressives. Think of any major policy our country has ever undertaken and passed into law and behind it was the genesis and momentum of liberal ideology. Our political parties have changed from time to time from being Democrats to Republicans and vice versa so that is why I use the political philosophy of liberalism and conservatism to describe change as opposed to political party designation. Remember, conservatives want less government and less social safety net for all, whereas liberals want greater and efficient government with a sound and secure safety net that cherishes each soul regardless of gift or talent. The days of the wild west winner take all proved to be dangerous and chaotic, so living in the community of our society that removes the incentive to be uncaring and wanton is to all our benefit.

If we know who we are then we can be who we are (#1927)

It all starts with knowing who we are. We are an organism with intelligence and senses. I have said this numerous times, we are like intelligent mobile data processors. We have 5 senses in which we accumulate information. It is a never ending process of accumulation, even when we are sleeping. This is who all of us are, data processors. We need information to exist. Without information we would evolve into something else or fail to survive. This is why I have formed this blog so I could generally talk about how we are a species that has three instinctual natures, we are curious, we care and we have an insatiable urge to survive. Two of these natural instincts are complex and have evolved within us since the beginning of our species, the other natural instinct, survival, has been with us in it's simple form always. Our curiosity and our caring are no different than the other living species who also have intelligence. We nurture our young and commune within family and societal structures as a need to express our caring. Our curiosity is evident in the continuing march toward modernity and enlightenment. As we are continually updated by our senses and our ability to reason, analyze, conclude and remember, we practice curiosity in every moment of our lives. it is who we are! We are designed to inculcate new information as a constant. I know who I am so therefore it is easy for me to know what I need. I have to have the freedom and opportunity to learn without being impeded. I have an insatiable hunger for new information just as much as I have an insatiable need for oxygen. So designing our society to match with our natures is simple and efficient if we wish to maximize the capabilities our species has to offer existence.

We decide what kind of society we want! (#1926)

Within the parameters of democracy we have numerous choices. We can have a vision of our society that allows for a foundation for which no one can go below. We can have a society where logic and facts are the grounds for deciding the issues of the day. We can have a society where equality of process is the same for everyone. We can also uplift innovation and creativity with celebration and awe while not destroying our society in rewarding it. It is from this type of vision that will make us able to spread our form of society to other human beings currently trapped in societies that devalue humanity as a rule. This is how we change the world to a place where our dreams can become real. The best of who we are is boiling just beneath the surface of our actions and thoughts and until we have a society that recognizes all of us as the next best thing for all of us we will continue to be frustrated and less than honorable, generally. Our fulfillment as an enlightened being is being crushed by the present circumstances of myth and superstition in the form of fear. We have many in power who are afraid of the future while longing for the comfort of an illusory past. It is a aggravating that our democracy has given rise to a political party that wishes to destroy democracy's progress. Yet the current Republican party is just on that path. They fear equality in it's naked form. For some reason they have decided that our future must return to a past that has shown itself to be illogical and regressive. We are all alone here on this planet and especially here in America where the greatest opportunity for our civilization to modernize and shirk off the old paradigms shrouded in fear have previously dwelled. It is time for us to act and soon we will have that chance.

Leaders point a direction, followers must choose... (#1925)

No one has all the answers. No one has most of the answers. Very few have some of the answers. So being a leader has a lot of unknown qualities to it. I like to think of myself as a leader and for that I am humbled. It is hard enough justifying to myself the directions I choose but in the end I do go forward. If anyone thinks that leading is easy they are profoundly mistaken. The problem is that if the direction chosen does not have the best of intentions, along with the purest of principles throughout, it is likely to fail. My rule of thumb is to do nothing that harms. If there is no harm in the way I choose then at least no one will be hurt. If there is more than no harm then benefits are all that happen and the choice taken is a good one. The history of our species, Homo-sapien, has by all accounts been a rocky one. Throughout our history our leaders have mostly been less than genuine. Power, greed and lust has most always seemed to permeate the control of those who are, by coincidence, serendipity, choice and by force, given the honor of leading our civilizations. The idea that leaders get to be leaders because they are special in some intellectual way is highly illogical. That is an ideal idea of how we come to lead. Most acquire the post of leadership through ulterior motives and underhanded alliances. For a leader to rise up out of the masses and show him/herself worthy too many obstacles are placed in the way by those who wish never to give up power for a worthy leader to rise to the top. We are left instead with those who manipulate the current power structure as best they can and hope to ascend with as little resistance as possible. Not all is lost as we have some who are fighting mightily against the old guard that protects the power in our country and if they continue to fight and lead we will then have a real choice to follow.

Polar opposites (#1924)

Liberals, (Democrats), idea of a good society is to help folks; conservatives, (Republicans), idea of a good society is to harm folks. Somehow conservatives got the idea that in the carrot and stick scenario, there is no carrot, while liberals do use the carrot and the stick. We use the stick, in conjunction with the carrot, as an alternative after the efforts with just the carrot have failed. Another paradigm where liberals and conservatives are polar opposites is in the understanding of basic facts. We liberals use logic to differentiate between cause and effect, while conservatives see only the effect and base their policies from there. It is like two different human beings become either liberals or conservatives. Those who have insight into the evolving, comprehensive and panoramic knowledge of our existence and society, become liberals, while those who have given up on their curiosity and narrow their understanding of possibility to follow only their fear become conservatives. That may have sounded harsh in my definition of a conservative but from my chair, there is little wrong with my statement. Conservatives have come to rely on faith based calculations as the reason for their existence, which necessitates a withdrawal from the sciences and the discoveries of what curiosity demands. If that isn't fear of the unknown then I am mistaken. As a liberal I celebrate the unknown as just another arena for me to wrestle knowledge from. I have come from the proposition that I know little and want to know more, which doesn't tie me to either a belief system nor a fear system. My life is too short to be afraid of what life means if I am in it for only a short amount of time to begin with.

Too lazy to vote Democrats (#1923)

In a nutshell. We Democrats have the majority registration when it comes to voting but apparently we can't bother ourselves to actually go out and vote when it is time to do so. We are apparently so pampered in our thoughts that we actually think there is no real good reason to do so. We are about to lose our democracy to the Republican party and it's drive to segregate the wealthy from the not wealthy and we just stand by thinking nothing of it. What can it be that so insulates us Democrats from the obvious? The only thing that comes to mind is that we don't fully understand the significance of every election. One day every two years we need to be aware of who wants to do what to us and then vote accordingly. But that seems to be too much to ask. Meanwhile those of us who are spending our conscious hours imploring everyone to take notice at what the Republican party is doing to the detriment of every aspect of our lives goes right on by. The frustration at seeing the actual decline of our society while most everyone else is too busy playing games or dismissing it as irrelevant. Well, the fact that it is happening won't be stopped by ignoring it. I am of the mindset that if our Democratic party is too lazy to spend just an hour of one day every two years making a difference then we get what we deserve. Sadly, it could all be avoided by we Democrats exercising what is left of our voting rights. Another sad consequence of us losing to Republicans at the voting booth is that our ability in the future to vote will be even further restricted by Republicans. I feel like I am fighting for my party but my party is to lazy to care. If we Democrats just come out and vote all this harm Republicans are about to inflict could be avoided.

Prosperity, Democrats; Austerity, Republicans (#1922)

Here is your quiz for November. Do you want an economy that has many opportunities for growth that are realized from most of our citizenry? Or do you want a stagnant tight economy that only benefits the wealthy? I know I may be biased toward the Democrats here but I am not far off from the truth either way. Republicans would have us deregulate industries so that those industries become their own cops as to how they serve us with their products or services. We have seen the similar paradigms in not only our past, before regulations, but in our present with corporations subverting safety and health regulations where ever they can get away with it. Republicans would have us believe that cutting taxes for the wealthy will give us great economic growth but under the most recent Bush administration where taxes were cut for the wealthy the least job growth in the modern history of our country for an 8 year period followed. Republicans want to shrink our government down to one major function, fighting wars. If this is your vision also then the republicans are for you. If however you like that government is here to serve it's citizens in more ways than just giving them an opportunity to die, then Democrats are for you. Not only are Democrats into the government helping to spur the economy but Democrats are into keeping the social safety net strong and expanded. Americans should not have to worry about their retirement or their health care when they need it. Americans should also be free from inequality and injustice as these are the by product of the Republican austerity agenda. Prosperity or austerity, the choice is yours this coming November!

Republicans and the Wild West (#1921)

No doubt Republicans have chosen to go back to the days of the old west where the strong take from the weak and this time, with technology and innovation serving them, they are not in jeopardy of being held to account for their actions. Wealth can buy you a lot of forgiving especially when our justice system is compromised. There are two different forms of justice here in America, the justice you can buy and then the justice that sells you out. Enough of this recklessness. The tenets of our democracy are being subverted right before our eyes and the lack of courage and honor among our citizenry to stop it has waned. We rarely get 50% of our population out to vote so how are we to manage equality and fairness when the wealthy, for the most part, don't want equality and fairness? What is even worse is that our majority citizenry are incapable of distinguishing truths from fiction. The way free speech in our constitution has been interpreted to allow for falsehoods to pass as truths will be the death of our great experiment. The current Supreme court conservative majority cannot and will not stop the carnage that the lies are doing to our nation. A simple interpretation by them would allow for lying not to be protected speech. Surely a four or six part test can be devised to distinguish the intent of both truth and lying? yet there is no mental acuity in the conservative majority on the court able to rise to the defense of our democracy. Instead the lies are allowed to continue so that the wealthy may force our country to a point where protections for all citizens are stripped and laid bare. Leaving the many vulnerable to the dishonesty and recklessness of greedy democracy saboteurs. 

Republicans want no minimum wage for workers (#1920)

The silver lining here is that Republicans have finally decided to quit hiding their agenda. It is out in the open now that current Tennessee US Senator, Republican Lamar Alexander, has come out to the press that this is what he wants. We are now hearing it from other Republicans as well, Oklahoma's US Senator, Republican Tom Coburn agrees, there should be no national minimum wage. They either want to abolish the whole concept of protecting workers with a base minimum for wages or leave it up to the individual states to dictate if there should be a minimum wage protection for it's most vulnerable workers. It is clear now that Republicans are not going to help the working/middle/poor class in our struggle to combat the widening gap in income inequality. The Republican idea that the wealthy should have no restrictions to how much money they can make while reducing our government down to the size that will only accommodate a massive military force is real. That is the agenda of the Republican party and no amount of subterfuge or misinformation will change that very fact. I have dedicated my blog to warning about Republican policies that threaten and undermine the American working/middle/poor class and this post is no different then the previous ones and the ones to come. If we don't have a minimum wage to keep workers from having to fight to get a job by accepting lower and lower wages for hard, dirty jobs, then what and who will? I can envision workers having to work for less than a dollar an hour in some cases. How is it that the wealthy should have the power to make us work for practically nothing? If we don't get out and vote for Democrats this November we may well have to deal with Republicans leading our nation from the people to the wealthy.

Mad as all get out and spitting nails (#1919)

The other day I wrote about how sometimes I can feel defeated and want to throw in the towel, well today I am as mad as a provoked angry Hornets nest. That is me though, just being my hot and cold self. lol. Regardless, I am fed up to my ears with folks who want to supplant our secular government with a Christian one. These folks have deluded themselves into thinking that there is only one religion and it should be the law of the land here in America. While I appreciate the Christian faith for so many good examples of morality, I draw the line when their proselytizing invades the neutral application of the free spirit contained within secularism our founders inscribed into our Constitution. Let me be very clear here, faith in any religion is just that, faith, not logical truth. Our government must not and shall not subscribe to any religion being the model for our government function. Our first amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,...". Which brings me to our discussion about Christianity being our playbook for governmental guidance. We are strictly prohibited from using religion to model our laws. Can it be any clearer? If you want to overthrow our government and establish a Christian nation then you have that choice but don't expect the rest of us who honor the very first clause of the very first amendment within our US Constitution to let you do that to us. The other side of the coin here is that those who want a Christian nation are voiding all those others who are not Christian but some other faith. Furthermore, the very many who don't subscribe to a belief system at all are harmed by those who only see Christianity as the only model for our government. Leave our democracy alone religious zealots or you will have all the rest of us to deal with.

The wealthy don't know us non-wealthy (#1918)

I know that people get afraid when their economic livelihoods are threatened and just going along with what seems like minor injustices is better than losing that security. I get it! But what I also get is that if we don't stop the tide of economic injustice, it will not stop by itself. What is further complicating things is that somehow we non wealthy have put some trust in the wealthy to look out for us as if we are some child that needs parental supervision to function. The problem with that is the wealthy are not into adopting us as their wards, instead they are of the mindset that if we let them they will strip of us our dignity and continue to reduce our economic value. For the most part, gone are the days of a wealthy benevolent owner who instills loyalty in it's workforce and responds equivalently with economic reward. What we have now are owners who see a job market that is overflowing with unemployed workers thus allowing them to control the narrative when it is time to negotiate for work. The supply and demand component of the free market allows those who have what many want to dictate the terms of that need. Those of us non-wealthy who are in the situation of having to depend on others for an opportunity to work are left with having to accept whatever terms the wealthy offer or go without anything at all. As long as there are massive amounts of workers who have no work, when work comes available, the wealthy owners can lower the wages and benefits as leverage. We will accept the lower wages and benefits because we have no other choice. This is our current reality and for those who are forced to accept this, realize that something better must replace it. That better is us taking control of our voting rights and putting that voting to good use.

Quitters don't realize their dreams (#1917)

I am not saying anything new here. We all know this to be true. When it seems like our work to do good and great things is not going well it is natural to feel despondent and think about chucking it in. For myself I actually think why waste my time trying to help others improve their lives when they don't seem to want or care about my efforts. Day after day I present evidence of misdoing by some and good doing by others in the hopes that the right observations will make a difference. But moments like today it just seems so useless and irrelevant. But after a few seconds of wallowing in the mire of my inadequacies, I regain my composure and gird myself again with the knowledge that it is always darkest before the dawn. I know that my humanness is part of who I am and humans like me, being imperfect, will have moments when it just seems so tiresome fighting for those who don't even know and or don't care that they are being abused. I am beginning to think of these moments as recharging plateaus, where I need to stop for a moment and gain my overall perspective again. I know wrong when I see and sense it and as such, being who I am, I must not allow it to continue. I am that way by my own particular nature. So the idea of quitting on being me is not really an option and more of default moment for me to remember who I really am. If I have to be tired most of the rest of my life fighting to not only stop, but to reverse, the injustices that enter my consciousness then so be it. There is no manual for living only what is in front of us every day and the choices we make to address them. That is all there is and for that I am happy enough to know what my purpose really is. Quitting on my purpose in life will not happen despite my own frailties and the determined underhanded actions of those who continue to harm.