False prophets of the conservative airwaves (#2506)

Conservatives have a lock on riling up the masses for causes that are dubious at best. It is a sign of our times that the masses are less educated and therefore susceptible to misinformation being given us by what we think are trusted public informers. What we masses fail to realize is is that these celebrated messengers of right wing propaganda are not here to unravel mysteries and reveal truths, on the contrary, they are more likely to be hiding the truth. Just because someone is famous for no worthwhile reason as a personality like say a Kardashian, does not make them trustworthy and ethical. There is a philosophical war going on in our country where the Democrats are trying to make life better for all Americans and the Republicans are trying to make life better for very few Americans. So how is it possible that most Americans don't see through the illusion that Republicans are presenting in their airwave attack against democracy? Simply enough by playing us off against each other. Think about it. Every time there is an election coming Republicans either work us up into a fearful state over some war or some threat of a war as a way to keep from having to explain their policies that weaken and harm the working/middle/poor class. If you listen to their rhetoric you will hear them constantly banging the drum of the lessers wanting to take from the mores. We live in a society that has the greatest income inequality between the richest and the poorest in history but Republicans continue to push for greater tax breaks for the wealthy while trying to cut what is left of the social safety net for the shrinking middle and poor class. It is always pitting some of us against each other that Republicans deploy as their cudgel to shape our society into a survival of the fittest one and with their airwave mouthpieces fanning the flames of discontent we seem to have been culpable to their message of division and condescension. I hope somehow we masses find the time and energy to open our minds to what is happening before it is too late for us to do anything about it.

My Earthling experience (#2505)

I come from an analyzing, reasoning and concluding type species. I am a human being. What has been my experience as a human being? For the first part of my life it was a struggle to understand what our society was evolving towards. As a young person I had no idea about the intricacies that were being used to either disguise the truth of things or at least misdirect from the truth of things. All I knew was that common logic and decency were being devalued for the sake of some ideal having to do with commerce and profit. I would sit back and try to think why we were so consumed with irrelevant actions when the universe was ours to explore and experience. I assuredly became frustrated and demoralized at the intense pressure put on all of us to live within certain boundaries for the length of our lives that required us to let go of the best of our curious natures and instead fit into the cog of machinery as an ideal. I get that we need to have a functioning society and that work is part of our civilized behavior. yet our greed for profit has overshadowed the basic utility of keeping us busy while we advance out and beyond our planet. It seems now that the greed has superseded our advancing out into discovery and instead has focused back in toward a survival of the fittest mentality that is willing to let us ween our society down in order to maximize profit for those few who are able to game the system most effectively. The reason we have commerce and industry is not just to survive and create profit, it is a stand by position until our technology and innovation can give us wings out into the great universal void. My earthling experience was kindled with hope when our species landed on the Moon those many decades ago, but that kindling has been tempered by those shallow, fearful, greedy souls who are content to sit on Earth and lord over any and all who would exist here.

I dream of a better world (#2504)

I suppose it is easier for those of us who have had little in life to dream of wanting something better. It isn't dreaming just for myself that I dream of something better but I dream about a better world for all of us. Yes, even those who have plenty. Because this great wall of income inequality that is our current status is keeping us from each other. The wealthy barricade themselves in communities that exclude those who are not wealthy and the poor are left with complaining about the lack of resources or the fear of racial differences. There can be a better way. We don't need the wealthy continuing on the trajectory of accumulating all the wealth for themselves. There can be a better distribution process where we all profit off of our efforts in a more logical and merit based way. I dream of a world where hungry adults and children are not the normal but if anything are the rare exception. I dream of a world where education is not something that is a social selection process but instead a paradigm where all can participate for the full extent of their life if they so desire. I dream of a world where prejudice and ignorance are shunned to humiliation. No amount of bias or condescension should be acceptable behavior. I dream of a world where advantage and privilege are never part of a consideration for who deserves opportunities in life. I dream of a world where poverty is not acceptable by all of us not just by those of us who are mired in it. I dream of a world where we celebrate creativity and innovation as a greater achievement than merely accumulating wealth. I dream of a world where The kindness of heart overrules the hate of intolerance. I dream of a world where we celebrate national and international goals that move the human species forward toward conquering the unknown, and satisfying our never ending quest to understand the why and the how of our existence through the logic and science we continue to realize. I dream of a better world...

The challenge of the idiocracy (#2503)

The idiocracy are those who continue to deny the existence of reality in order to further their own personal or economic interest. You should know them rather well as Republicans. Yes, there are a few Democrats in their but overwhelmingly they are the base of the confederate leaning Republican party. Where they deny climate change as a threat to our very existence, claiming that science and fact are junk and not real. Where they continue to deny racism or claim that racism is aimed at them. Which for me is a classic example of cognitive dissonance, or in a layman term, dissociative hypocrisy . Where they base their lives on a belief system to the point of ignoring human nature and our very real environment. At a cost to progress and modernization coupled with our unique human ability to create and innovate. Where intelligence must not be allowed to disrupt any illogical machination that has to do with the greatest profit possible, despite the harm to those lives who are the engine of that profit making scheme. Where the only form of diplomacy is surrender or a brutal attack will ensue. Where women are treated as less human than their male counterparts. The idea that a woman hasn't the same rights as a man contradicts the doctrine of democracy and the principles of liberty, freedom and equality. Where they see no value in protecting the vulnerable among us and in fact would rather the vulnerable die off as a consequence of their distorted survival of the fittest ideology. The idiocracy that is the Republican party has no moral compass other than profit and if they must lie, cheat and steal in all paradigms to protect profit then that will be the course. These idiots are about to destroy not only our country with their wanton uncontrolled greed but they are on the verge of destroy our planet for living creatures such as ourselves.

Progressive liberalism is the best path forward (#2502)

We here in America need to quit deluding ourselves to the idea that survival of the fittest is the only way to structure our society. In as large a society that we have the disappointment and unfairness associated with uneven and unequal starts in life make it starkly clear that not all have the same opportunities to succeed. The wealthy will always have the advantages and privileges that wealth bring thereby keeping a small subset of people in the most advantageous successful opportunities. Whereby those of us who are less fortunate with no money have to pave our way with nothing more than genius to hopefully succeed. Even then genius cannot many times overcome economic disparity nor social unrest caused by economic inequality and racial/gender condescension. So a foundation fro survival must be established. It isn't proper or good that spending all our time to just barely meeting the demands of renting a space on our planet is our reality. I saw something the other day that hit home quite starkly with me. We humans are the only ones who must pay to exist on our planet. No other species is given this burden, and the worst part is is that we do this to ourselves. So instead of forcing ourselves to waste time and energy that is limited in each of our lives just to survive, we should have a basic income for all human beings from which to survive on and then let us use our time and energy repaying society with an established and efficient life that focuses on what a better future we can all agree on. Outer space is our next evolutionary step in our manifest destiny to explore the unknown and satisfy our curiosities. Schooling must be available for all of us who want and need it so that our most productive minds are available to grow and nurture our greatest imaginings. Progressive liberalism gets us there to being the best humans we can be without the drudgery of disappointment and unfairness that is currently the status quo.

How many people must needlessly die before we admit we are wrong? (#2501)

I have been paying close attention to the recent debate about guns and the lack of many controls to keep them from the dangerous and mentally unstable. It seems that those who cherish having a weapon care more for their right than they do about needless and senseless death from those very same weapons. The contradiction is blaring in that these absolute gun right protectors use the logic that they need their weapons without regulation to protect themselves from those who have them illegally or are too unstable to use them responsibly. It is illogical to think that a responsible gun owner would have to worry about regulations tailored to keep weapons out of the arms of the irresponsible. Yet this is where we are in the current debate and too many responsible gun owners are now in the position of protecting the right of the irresponsible to own and carry weapons. In the meantime an epidemic of mass shootings continue on almost a weekly to daily basis. So my question continues to remain how many people will needlessly die before we admit we are wrong about protecting the rights of the irresponsible and mentally ill people having the right to obtain and carry weapons? It has been obvious for years we need to do more to protect the innocent in our nation from the bad intent of murderous souls yet because of the responsible gun owners and their lobbyists we are unable to get our politicians to address a serious debate about what we can do to protect society at large. I put the blame of this on the responsible gun owners who are not advocating enough to their politicians to enact gun regulation where we can in order to keep the irresponsible and mentally deranged from possessing weapons. Instead of making this a partisan issue that only benefits weapons manufacturers, let's make this what it really is, a people issue, and stop where we can the continued deaths of those who are the victims of weapon violence.

Twenty five hundred blog posts (#2500)

So it seems that my individual mind must have a lot of thoughts in it. Almost everyday for close to seven years now I find something to write about that takes up approximately 250 words. I sort of set myself to around that limit so as not to become redundant or too boring with the discussion I present each day. So far the amount of words seems to be working as well as the time of day, early morning for the most part. I missed 3 days of posting back on day three, day 622 and day 1042. I missed day 3 because I just hadn't gotten into the rhythm of writing everyday. Day 622 and day 1042 were bad sick days where I was just unable to write. On all three occasions I wrote two the next day, one for that particular day and one as a make-up, to keep at least the count correct if not the streak of everyday. So here I am with 2,500 posts covering 2,500 days and still with a lot to say. The one thing about this is that although I have covered many subjects a couple of times, as I continue to grow and see things with a greater perspective I am able to comprehensively add to my previous observations. So no matter what, there will never be a lack of insight for me to try to articulate. I suppose I am the type of person who needs to get things out of himself in order not to carry them around without a vent or forum to release them. This blogger site allows me that immense opportunity. I would hope more people like me would start something similar although maybe not the same but something that is more tailored to each individuals need to express. Some may want to post more than once a day or less than once a week. Whatever works to give ourselves a chance to let our inner thoughts reach publication. I hope that this form of expression will end up in the ether of the universe and in some way mark my existence within it. My form of letting all of existence know that I was here and although I am gone here is what I think and feel.

A living document (#2499)

Our mighty American constitution is just the floor from which we grow from. it was a declaration of intent based upon the time it was written. 226 years later most of our constitution has evolved with our nation's enlightenment and modernization. There is still work to do concerning the intent of some amendments as they now apply to our modernization. I will use the second amendment as an example. Back in 1789 when we first assembled our constitution the times then dictated a national defense network based upon the ability of individuals to protect home and state from outside aggression. The need was clear since no national or state standing armies were practically formed. So the need for people to bear arms was not only important for our defenses but it also allowed our people to hunt for food. Flash forward to today and you can see that although in the past arms were used to consolidate and feed our country while building armies and state militias, the need is no longer required. We have state and local policing services to uphold laws that protect life and property. We have the strongest national army on the face of the Earth and as far as needing arms for food, that is also moot since we have grocery stores everywhere in our country that fill that void in supplying all the food we can afford. So the argument today that we need the second amendment because it is necessary for national and individual defense or hunting food is not a valid argument. What has happened instead is conservatism has taken the second amendment and applied it mostly with no regulation. So we have almost anyone who wants a weapon able to secure one. With all the mass shootings we have currently, we can see that this is the wrong approach. A valid argument can be made that the intent of the second amendment has been fulfilled thus making the second amendment clause pertaining to bearing of arms by the people, moot. It is time to move beyond what was needed over two hundred years ago to a more common sense intent of what is needed today.

Knowledge is power (#2498)

For those who refuse to keep learning a dark future lies ahead. Knowledge is ever changing and for one to keep up with new advances and history repeating itself it is vital that we know how our society operates. It isn't enough just to finish school and go on to make our own way financially in the world. We must understand how society is most efficient under the governance of democracy. Without a government that equally protects it's citizens from harm, our government is not a democracy. If it is not a democracy then what is it? Would we know how to define it on our own or would we need to learn how and why different types of governments exist. Should we have easily available access to higher education? Should we value our teachers as some of our most important human resources? Our nation can be whatever we want it to be but we have to know what is possible. That is where knowledge comes in. We cannot rely upon politicians to lead us in this current paradigm of elections that are rigged to only allow certain types of people to run in an effective way. The prohibitive cost to running for public office is not democratic yet we cannot seem to get our elected officials to make the proper legal corrections. However, Democrats are trying to get public financing of elections as the process for participation and inclusion of anyone with a platform of ideas to share and possibly win an election. Republicans are not going to change the status quo of big money elections since they are the ones protecting the big money candidates. Knowledge is power and knowing that Republicans are the party of the wealthy while also knowing that Democrats are the party of everyone else is crucial to knowing how to disseminate information properly and rightly for the most efficient and beneficial effect.

Democrats are the big tent political party (#2497)

I hear some Democrats say that Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat so he doesn't deserve democratic support. But I say I don't care which party a person may be affiliated with, as long as his policies and values align with liberal progressive ones that person is welcome in the Democratic party. Because we are the big tent party. Since in the final analysis we Democrats are a varied lot not given to aligning ourselves through some expected protocol. We are much different from each other in so many ways and those differences are what rallies us to each other as a party of unique and valued individuals and groups. The core of our party is that we are simply liberal and progressive. Anyone who meets that threshold will always be welcome to join forces with us to protect our equality, justice, freedom and right to opportunity. We are not the party of privilege or advantage, we believe in merit and community, both equally. So for any member of the Democratic party to say that because someone is not an official member of our party yet is running as one of us cannot do so would be blatantly wrong. I would accept a Republican running as a Democrat as long as his/her policies and values aligned with the best interests of our Democratic party. We include folks to be members of our party, not exclude them based upon some inequality ideal. That is for the Republicans as they are the ones who exclude. So open wide your eyes Democrats and know this that if someone is a liberal and progressive and is looking for a chance to lead our party they are much more than welcome to try. Any attack on those who meet this criteria are subject to a cynical rebuttal based upon the intent of the attacker. Either we Democrats truly believe in equality or we are just playing at it.

When delusions are called truths (#2496)

The belief that many of our political leaders are actually telling the truth is a delusion in itself. Especially on the conservative Republican side there are plenty of examples of leaders trying to influence the electorate by intentionally passing off disinformation, propaganda and out and out lies as truths. These corruptible politicians are only interested in forwarding their agenda instead of solving real problems with facts, common sense and logic. They have sunk so low in their quest to obtain higher office that they are now putting segments of our society at risk. I can present this one recent example of a prominent Republican candidate for President claiming that Planned parenthood is offering up baby parts for sale. She relied on video footage to back her claim. Since her claim about Planned Parenthood has been shown to be based upon a fake video montage, she has nonetheless held firm with her claim. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence no such offering of baby parts from Planned Parenthood is occurring she refuses to deny her false claim. So in the intervening weeks since she has continued to promote her wrongfulness on the fox "news" channel a man has taken her word for it and has committed a murderous atrocity at a Planned Parenthood facility. Words have consequences so this female conservative Republican politician has taken her own strategy of arousing Republicans to her side based upon lies and now deaths. For me I know she is not clinically delusional as far as I can tell but her strategic ambition to win at any cost does have stench of delusion. There should be no reward for her and many of her Republican colleagues who also parrot lies about Planned Parenthood and other social programs designed to help our society. The hate that has to be involved in this type of behavior is beyond shameful now as this type of appeal to our baser instincts has become a Republican staple that has injury and death as it's effect.

We for the most are are products of our environment (#2495)

Unless we question those things around us that influence who we are we eventually become those very things. It is natural for that to happen in a state of status quo. Again, unless we question we won't move beyond our immediate environment. I can usually observe someone and their behaviors and generally point out some opinions. Surely just opinions but with an Occam's Razor approach my opinions are at least possible, even probable in some cases. I do not equate myself with being a psychologist/psychiatrist but on a basic level logic can get us to at least a general idea. I look at myself and the family and friends I grew up with and see how I am now. I have carried forward many of the behaviors I grew up around. However, many more I have discarded due to my questioning the behaviors lack of honor or equality. So when I see someone acting out in a behavior that is crude or brutish I can somewhat assume that they are encultured by the behavior or that they are under some force or duress from circumstances that influence the behavior. Now some are just sociopathic/psychopathic but those ones can be singled out through their reactions to other behaviors. Leaving aside the mentally ill, I find that behaviors are linked in some way to past experiences or some form of acting out. I am not saying anything specific here but just that some tendencies point us toward possible causes more than other tendencies. Cause and effect is generally considered a paradigm that explains behaviors and that is all I am saying here. Not that it is the answer everytime but only that that is where I begin. It is difficult to know why some do some things and others don't but given enough patterns we can generally propose why something is happening or at least give an informed opinion as to the observable evidence. All this to say that recognizing our behaviors for what they are in a more comprehensive way is how we conquer them when we keep our own counsel and those behaviors have us strangled and discouraged.

Why I am a liberal progressive Democrat (#2494)

I believe in social security and what it does to keep our seniors out of poverty when they get older and have physical problems, keeping them from working for a living. I believe in medicare/medicaid for our seniors and others who cannot otherwise afford health care. Why wouldn't we want our lives to be healthy while we are alive? I believe in modernization of our country to the point where we are the envy of the rest of the world for our ingenuity and creativeness in aligning our states with smart energy, communication and opportunity. I believe in equal rights for all our citizens, women/men of all persuasions. No one person should be without the guaranteed protection of rights as outlined by the intent of our national constitution. I believe in unemployment insurance that provides for us when jobs are hard or next too impossible to find. I believe in food stamps to help the families who are underpaid or out of work to feed a nutritious meal for themselves and their children/family members. I believe in government sponsored work to create jobs and opportunities for companies and industries to expand to the point of employment for anyone willing and able to work. I believe in taking care of our veterans who have gone into military service to protect and sacrifice of themselves for our liberty and freedoms. I believe that education is a high priority within our society and that all means to allow our citizenry to learn and become enlightened in order to escape ignorance should be explored. I believe in a taxation system that is progressive with fewer taxes on the poor and graduating up to higher taxes on the wealthy. I believe in campaign finance reform so that all candidates are funded the same so that the ideas of the politicians are what gets them elected, not the size of their bank accounts or the size of their influential friends' bank accounts. I have many more reasons for why I am a liberal progressive Democrat but I am out of space that I allot myself for posts.

We need to protest at fox "news". (#2493)

There is one entity that subscribes to planting hatred within our populace above all others, yes even more than Limbaugh and many church pulpits, and that is fox "news". For all the real news out there based upon facts, few of these ever show up on fox "news". Instead we get opinion pieces that align with biases and prejudices against our citizenry. It is as if fox "news" is a hate channel solely for the benefit of riling up nefarious factions of our society against anything beneficial to the working/middle/poor class that can be twisted into hate. I am past the point of giving fox "news" any benefit of the doubt. They do not align themselves with the pain and suffering of most all Americans, instead fox "news" trumpets out incomplete information that is less than subtle and devoid of hard facts. They take innuendo and opinion and present it as fact with no one on the programming who is able to challenge it. It is legal what they do but not moral or ethical. As the conservative majority on the US Supreme Court have been silent about truth in news laws in order to stop the massive campaign of misinformation, we are left with fox "news" able to frame the narrative of events in a way that riles the most extreme among us. The recent case in point being the Planned Parenthood killings and the Indiana mosque burning. The sick unraveling of news being used to foment atrocities is our current status thanks in large part from fox "news" and it's agenda of disrupting and destroying our working/middle poor class. Everything about fox "news" is aimed at helping the wealthy and large corporations to own more and more of the wealth generated here in America and abroad. If fomenting unrest and taking the focus off of the wealthy getting more wealthy and corporations gaining more control of our government and financial sectors than they are succeeding. It is time to pull the plug on fox "news" and the best way to do that is to protest them at their corporate headquarters and at their national cable broadcasting venue.

Republicans do not understand how facts work or they just don't care to use them correctly (#2492)

I have been amusing myself, since I have grown immune to the despair that I normally feel when someone is a conservative Republican and not able to understand logic, by interacting with some real uniformed right wingers. If they didn't have their hate for our President or for the merits of liberal/progressivism I don't know how they would function at all. Although on second thought, they do know greed so maybe being a survival of the fittest devotee in a free market system is how they function to survive. I say amuse myself but only in the thinnest of a veneer way. Instead of being comprehensive and cognitive of the words they use to defend the policies, or lack thereof they are promoting or disapproving, they throw bits and pieces of illogic out and call it complete. Well I am not completed by innuendo nor am I completed by fallacy. Yet they stand up for it and defend the lack of merit they are unable to grasp. To me they are the ones who took the shortcut to reasoning and instead just follow along some cliff notes that they are unwilling to verify through rigorous research. Such is the way with those who like to think they know things and then parrot off some bits and pieces of that fit their narrative. This example reminds me of the scene in "Good Will Hunting" where Matt Damon's character not only confronts the obnoxious condescending grad student in the bar but schools him on his plagiarism as his own original thought. It seems that the right wing conservative/libertarian Republican party is full of short cutters who want to sound pious and full of gravitas while actually being wholly shallow straw men. There is no nobility, nor pride in a good way, of one's actions when it is not of there own thinking nor their own understanding. Such is the Republican party of today and we are all worse off for it.

When the white race here in America refuses to acknowledge the effects of slavery from our past (#2491)

There is so much push back from the new confederates of the Republican party who are flailingly trying to blame black folks for the current racial tensions. Sure black folks are out there protesting the disproportionate killing and maiming of their race at the hands of the police and vigilantes. That is right of them to stand up to injustice especially since it is being tolerated and even accepted as reasonable by the Republican party and it's sub base of confederate apologists. I am even getting illogical arguments back to me about how the black folks are the real agitators and they are the threat. It seems to me that if someone had no idea that slavery was law here in America for over 300 years and that even after the Civil war, and the reconstruction period of about 12 years, slavery just transformed from outright ownership of black folks to them being relegated to second class citizens and still being treated as a plague. The new confederates of the Republican party do not see black folks as equal in our democratic society and the Republican party does not dissuade them. Instead the Republican party has embraced these new confederate Republicans as well within their agenda of maintaining a white majority through law and strong armed tactics. I hear these new confederate Republicans complain that the black folks are the ones who are stirring and creating racial discord. As if it isn't black protesters being shot or black folks being murdered, when that is exactly what is happening. In the view of these new confederate Republicans any protest by black folks against white folks is an attack on white folks, not a cry for justice in an often unjust reality. The ignorance or cognitive dissonance it must take for white folks to ignore history and the present to complain about themselves being victims is monumentally absurd. We white folks did and are still doing horrible things to black folks and yet we still continue to deny we are the problem.

Testing my resolve (#2490)

I have to live with who I am and if I am not being who I am then I am betraying myself. I have to find my way to doing what it is that best defines my own being. Most times the attractions and addictions of life are manageable to some degree in order to combat their control over me but there are times when it is so difficult that the only way forward is to rebuke my better instincts and give in to the guilty pleasure whatever it's form. Yet, even then I know what I am doing is wrong and the pull to stop and rationalize the bigger picture does have some positive effect. The struggle is do I allow myself a modicum amount of bliss as a benefit and then live with a guilt that not only weakens my character and resolve but also crushes my ability to be totally honest and forthright as a cost. Upon further reflection I have concluded that I must continue to sacrifice my own desires in order to preserve my own dignity and respect. I cannot judge others for something I find above being judged. Life is never just black and white, there is always some mixture of grey that moderates our thinking when confronted with choices that are strong within us. The same it is with me. A crossroads has been reached and I have a decision to make now that I thought earlier I had already made. This recent reflection has given me a much clearer perspective on a unique but harrowing situation. Although I find my decision now is against the grain of my needs and desires, I am still willing to make it based upon the greater cost not only to me but to others. The idea that I should have to sacrifice given my disdain for the myths, mores and superstitions that govern things is what grinds at me the most. But I don't get to define anything beyond my own life when my decisions positively or negatively impact others. I know this posting may seem personal or strange but it is not unique in the annals of human experiences and this time it just happened to me.

Fear of what could be instead of fear of what is (#2489)

Once again the illogical fear of the Republican/conservative movement is showing. As the racist and intolerant members of the Republican voting block go out and kill those who have philosophical differences with them, while claiming they are scared of those who have those different philosophies, expose their flawed logic. Racist and intolerant Republicans are the ones everyone should be scared of. Somehow these Republican/conservatives see themselves as a more privileged human being than other human beings. That is racism at it's core where the whites in the Republican party see themselves as better than the minorities in the Democratic party. How that cowardly nefarious type of thinking has evolved for them is disturbing while ultimately being dangerous. These Republican racists arm themselves with weapons and parade around at gatherings where Democrats hold rallies and then claim they are the ones in fear. These pitiful Republicans have so ingrained into their belief that whites are under attack by everyone else that no amount of proof or reality will change their view. What they fail to understand is that we are all human beings regardless of the pigmentation of our skin. We were all from the first humans to reproduce yet that concept doesn't fit into their encultured racism so again, nothing that isn't at least white will ever do. I am sick and tired of the ignorance that is allowed to breed, and sanctioned by the Republican party. Especially since no amount of proof or evidence is ever given to show that racism is right and good. Racism is bad yet people will defend it like it is an honorable principle for living. It isn't the perpetrators of racism that should be scared of those who are under attack by racists, it is the victims of racial targeting that are the ones who need to be afraid of Republican conservative narratives that actually lead to dead non-whites by Republican/conservative white racists.

My life was shaped at an early age (#2488)

Some monumental events happened in my youth that have served as a floor from which I have built my life. The death of my biological father when I was 6. The assassination of President Kennedy when I was 8. The landing on the moon and then quickly followed by the Woodstock festival when I was days short of being 14, which defined my generation's angst against the Vietnam war. These four significant events have been at the root of who I am and who I will always be. I am not one of those who changed his principles with age, on the contrary, I fight for the vision of my youth harder now than at any time in my life. Nothing compares to an eye opening events that fill our souls with so much enlightenment and chaos that can never be duplicated. So losing sight of significant events that make us consider our future when we hardly even know what a future really is a tremendous waste of who we are. Staying focused on the ramifications of these four major events is my equation for advocating and finding purpose for myself. The idea that we go from being liberals in the hubris of our youth to a more sedate conservatism has no logic for me. The reason I suppose is that I am still that little boy inside who experienced all those events in my youth and nothing in life since can change that. I am who I was in the past as well as who I am presently. Back then time was irrelevant to me. I had to live as me and nothing could nor should replace that. So today I am that liberal/progressive democrat I became as a youth with even more conviction now that I am wiser to how other people work hard to destroy what brings us together. My perspective was shaped by tragedy and jubilation. The two will co-exist since we are human and frail, but we also are formidable and capable of imaginings that astound and motivate our species. I can't trade my life for a do over but I can take what is best about me and my experiences and turn them into something greater than what they were separately.

The poorest among us are not the problem (#2487)

The wealthy have turned a dirty trick on most of us. They keep our wages down so that when we see those folks who are in need of public assistance, workers get angry at them for having some of the things the workers have to toil for. The problem here though isn't that folks need help it is that the wealthy keep workers in a low standard of living. It is the wealthy who are hoarding and hogging all the profits off of business instead of sharing the wealth with it's hired hands. The destruction of unions and collective bargaining have allowed the wealthy to dictate what workers wages are and with so many still out of work or working lesser paying jobs, the greater competition for a decent wage forces workers to accept even less for the same work as before unions and collective bargaining were crushed. The wealthy and their Republican political party have brought this about and that they get workers to vote for them because workers are angry at the less fortunate, (ie..greedy freeloaders off of Democrat social programs) is a bonus Republicans are giddy about. I don't know how much longer workers will remain fooled by this sleight of hand by the wealthy but for now it is working. People like me who see the dastardly duplicity Republicans have pulled on the working class are required as a duty to scream it out to the world to see. The wealthy have created the greatest income inequality our history has ever seen yet they get those who are unfairly affected by it to blame the even more less well off. It is sad to see that the deception the wealthy and Republicans have turned into a cruel success is so ingrained now with the working class. We working class are being paid less and less and the wealthy are acquiring more and more wealth yet we blame the poorest among us for it. How sad indeed and how utterly cowardly of we workers who cannot nor will not see the truth of what is going on. I suppose workers condescending to the most vulnerable in our society is better than standing up to the most despicable in our society. What the hell does that say about us workers?

We must never lose our comprehensive perspective (#2486)

Comprehensive perspective, a wide mental grasp of most or all things. This is what we are capable of as human beings. We should strive to be nothing less than a being that can take in the whole panoramic view and then analyze, reason and conclude for our present and future. The current refugee crisis that we have helped to create by through our foreign policies gives us a chance to exhibit our grasp of most or all things by doing our part to help alleviate the regional displacement of Syrian, Iraqi and Afghani families. Furthermore, as Americans, who for the most part are immigrants ourselves, should welcome this new opportunity to add to our "melting pot" heritage. America is the cauldron that boils out our differences in order to give us liberty and freedom to become more enlightened. We don't have to live under the myths, mores and superstitions of the past if we so choose. Adding the mostly Syrian refugees to our open culture will allow them to add to us and inversely receive from us. We must not allow Republicans to demonize others because Republicans see an advantage in making us afraid. We need to welcome the refugees and allow them to see what it is about America that we fight so hard to protect. In time they will love our democracy as much as we do and will fight just as hard to protect it. We are undergoing an internal attack on our democracy by the Republican party and their wealthy donors but putting that aside for now, the refugees deserve to have a life like the rest of us that allows us to protect them from the worst of what is out in the world. Nothing is easy or black and white, yet we do know the difference between right and wrong and allowing the refugees to assimilate within our society is just part of who we are as Americans since the founding of our country.

The difference between Democrats and Republicans (#2485)

As I watch the presidential and congressional election process heading into 2016 one thing has become crystal clear. Democrats are talking about the positive nature of our species and Republicans are talking about the negative nature of our species. So with Democrats it is about attracting our hopes and dreams for a better world by activating policies that actually move us forward with finding solutions to shrink poverty, create more work for our workforce and establish a better quality of life we all should have as a default. Whereas with Republicans, it is them talking about how they can restrict our rights, segregate our populace through intimidation and fear, while arguing among themselves who can be the worst humanitarian. Democrats want universal voter registration throughout the country, while Republicans want to make voting harder for the poor, students, elderly and transient among us. Democrats want to create work through national work projects that tackle our crumbling infrastructure and reinvent our energy and communication systems. Republicans are against any national works programs and their failure to produce legislation for rebuilding America is the de facto evidence. Democrats want to raise the standard of living for workers given that capitalists rarely are the ones concerned with quality of life issues when their bottom line is affected. Republicans want to protect the capitalists bottom line and actually legislate to destroy worker's rights by ousting unions, eliminating collective bargaining and eliminating the "minimum wage". Democrats want to give women equality with men as a rule not a privilege. Republicans want to keep women in a "less than man" status despite the conflict with the founding principles of our constitution. After you have filtered out all the rhetoric from this coming election remember that Democrats actually represent the working/middle/poor in our country and Republicans do not. Vote accordingly.

Right wing dirty energy owners and the Republican party (#2484)

Why is it that the dirty energy owners are all in for the Republican party? Because they were invested so deeply into dirty energy that they condescended that despite their opportunities to invest in clean energy they would force their dirty energy upon us regardless. This is who the Republican party represents. Why is it that the NRA are all in for the Republican party? Because the NRA are supported by the same dirty energy suppliers that could care less about safety and common sense when it comes to gun ownership, and instead condescend to put our citizenry at risk in order to wedge an issue of discord aimed at logical Democrats. Why is it that education is not considered a priority with the Republican party? Because those same dirty energy owners like the fact that the less intelligent our citizenry is the more we are dependent on them and therefore the dirty energy owners can condescend to pay us less and less for more and more production and ultimately profit. Why is it that healthcare is being attacked by Republicans as a waste and wrongful use of government? Because the dirty energy owners can't have social programs that unite us because we being united is a direct threat to the dirty energy owners. Dirty energy owners can't condescend to us if we have some power. They are forced to treat us with less contempt since we are then able to control some of the overall narrative. This is why the Republican party is going after the other social programs that unite us like Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, Food Stamps, Unemployment and Veterans Benefits. These social programs take power away from the Republican party and their dirty energy owners who control Republicans. It is all very clear if you can just try to see who is making national policy for the working/middle/poor class and who is making policy for the wealthy and powerful. It is time for all of us to decide which side we are on. There is no more time from committing to a future since all of our futures are being decided right now!

Life would be so much better for everyone if Democrats had the political power here in America (#2483)

Yes, even the 1%ers would be doing better. Surely they would be paying higher taxes but their quality of life would be one of respect, not like it currently is as one of disrespect because of their greed. The rest of us 99%ers would have a better economic environment with higher minimum wages, more work available through jobs programs and easier access to education to enlighten ourselves and improve our lot in life. Access to health care and voting would be universal, retirement benefits would be gauged upon real cost of living formulas that are directly linked to older age spending and costs. Homelessness would be addressed not only for our veterans of the military but for our overall population. Immigration reform would be achieved in a common sense way that values the effort of all who would be Americans or transitional workers between our nations. Our public schools would be funded at levels that account for modernization in order to better educate our children and adults to the ever growing technological boom that is part of all the modern industries. There would be laws that uphold the rights of all citizens to be equal in every respect of endeavor that does no harm to anyone else. Women would receive the same pay for the same work as men. Women would also have control over the functions of their bodies as they rightly should have. Elections would be made as easy as possible for all to participate without special rules for the wealthy to dominate the narrative. I could go on for a lot longer about how our society would operate better with Democrats in control but I generally limit myself to a word count on each of these posts. Suffice it to say, with Democrats in control, there would be serious folks working on our most troublesome problems to find the most effective solutions that do the greatest good. I for one remain hopeful that Democrats can get back into the leadership of all the most important political positions.

Bullies need to be confronted (#2482)

Whether these bullies are children bullying other children or Republicans trying to force the rest of us to adhere to their ideas of inequality, segregation and lessening of our inherent rights as Americans, or the world's bullies trying to scare us from stopping them on their quest to dominate the world through force, we must always stand up to them. At all levels we are faced with decisions that effect who we are as individuals and as a society of humans. It is important that we maintain our dignity and our honored principles at every turn. I have not always been this stalwart but I have learned that not standing up is a fate worse than any perceived or actual threat at the moment. Come what may is my motto now when faced with a bully. I will not tolerate being ordered around by anyone who takes my life or others' lives for granted. Bullies are just cowards who need to be shut down however possible. Our world has enough work to do just to maintain equality let alone increase it and for any bully to come along and divert us with fear from our duty to make our world better than when we found it will and shall not be tolerated for any second beyond that step to rebuff and put it down. There are many challenges our world needs to address with as many of us as possible involved in finding the solutions. Bullies are not part of that and instead they represent what is wrong with our society as a constant reminder. The quicker we quash the bullies from being at all successful the quicker we get back to facing our real problems like poverty and a broken education system. One could actually make the correlation that bullies are spawned from our inability to address our most inhumane practices. However, bullies have chosen a path forward that gets no sympathy from me unless they are willing to express and then act in a humbled remorseful way. There is redemption for any of us as long as we draw a breath but notwithstanding a turnaround, bullies must meet their end at bullying no matter how hard it is to stand up to them.

Poverty, despair and suffering are our problems (#2481)

If we are ever going to stop the perpetual paradigm of unrest and upheaval we are going to have to get serious about how we work to solve poverty, despair and suffering. The purpose of our lives is to experience what tremendous abilities we all have, not just to exist for ourselves to the exclusion of others. Do you hear me? This existence is not about survival of the fittest or chasing some bottom line. This existence is about celebrating our perfectly recognized humanness. We, each of us is the the most amazing organism that also has the ability to define it's own destiny beyond any parameter known in this Universe. Not only do we have the opportunity to excel within the boundaries of physical laws but also beyond them. There are new and exciting scientific discoveries happening all around us that defy what we knew as common sense, so much so that what we take for granted as absolute truth is being tipped on its head with respect to natural law, physical law, superstitions, myths and mores versus enlightened mechanics of logic. What I am saying is that we have not arrived at anything that explains much more than we exist. So, unfortunately, because of that we are in a never ending struggle to mold our societies to fit into old paradigms that are obsolete nor should never have been actualized in the first place. What we need to do is to recognize each human being as the most valuable and precious creation to exist in this environment. To make that a reality none of us should have anything less than what would grow us into mature human beings able to contribute to the next generations in more and more dynamic ways. We all need a solid floor from which to grow from, one that does not have the hint of poverty, despair or suffering. The solutions are out there but we must reexamine our priorities by shifting from a "dog eat dog" reality to a nurturing and benevolent reality.

Please everyone prepare to be registered and vote (#2480)

I have no doubt that most Americans know which party to vote for given the stark differences in our two parties. The time now isn't so much comparing and contrasting the differences between us but instead mobilizing our voters to actually vote. We have seen what low voter turnout can do when we see what happened in Kentucky. A rascal and scoundrel can be elected by any less informed radical electorate if they are the only ones bothering to vote. One thing is for certain, if we do not protect our democracy with our right to vote we will lose it to Republicans who have aligned themselves with the thought that discrimination is good when it can punish those who don't agree with them. If we continue to allow for Republican politicians to get elected because we can't take a moment out of our lives to cast a ballot then all of us will be punished as a default. Democracy is under attack and the fight is now to save it. We only have to vote to save it. If we don't, later we will need to actually fight and die to save it. Which seems more reasonable to you? If you doubt my conclusions here just look at the Republican agenda to disenfranchise voters wherever and whenever they can. Also look at the Republican agenda to shrink education and increase prisons. It is all happening right in front of our eyes but if we are not paying attention to what is happening to our country then we will surely pay for that inattention. The look of a surprised deer in the headlights is what we are trying to avoid here so pay heed to the obvious strategy Republicans have of lowering voter participation so that they may continue to wield the power to decrease freedom for the rest of us. We all must think of voting as our badge of honor we wear to show the world that freedom, justice, equality and opportunity for all is not only doable but necessarily vital . We get to do that with our individual votes, but only if we actually vote.

Is reality so bad that we have to live in an illusion? (#2479)

Why is this so hard to understand? Reality is true and factual. There is nothing about reality that is not real except our own insecure desire to make it less so. Our species has this idea that reality is too much so we must invent myths and superstitions that help us to cope with what we don't know. Enough! We have the scientific method and logic to help us learn and know what we don't know. Not some set of standards or dogmas that rely on a version of the fantastical that no living reaoning human being should ever consider to be logical. I am not saying that possibilities for some otherly world paradigm is not out there but we do know there isn't one given our present understandings. That is where we all should chose to live our realities, not in some concept that is unproven and designed to restrict our natural instincts to command and control our own existence. The absurdity of any argument that would placate our manifest destiny to explore and master our own reality is the first step toward what Voltaire aptly defined in his truism, "Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities". We have seen the absurdity and we have seen the atrocity, may we now admit to ourselves that belief systems are not facts, they are not truths, they are not absolutes. Instead they are pacifiers designed to alleviate our own fears about why we exist and what we have as a purpose. Yet, even more belief systems are used to manipulate us against ourselves in ways that belie any rightful suggestion that belief systems are a moral imperative. Our own ethics derive from our own natural instincts to do no harm, to care and to wonder. Why would we bind and fetter ourselves with constraints designed to debilitate us. Enough of belief systems and instead more of reality. It can be a hard world but we are an amazing species able to adapt to anything this existence puts at our feet without the need to create an illusion to supplicate our fears.

The secret to life (#2478)

Always look for happiness. Never take your eye off the ball for one second. yes, things happen in our lives that distract us from our happiness, like tragedy, loss and oppression but whatever it is that takes from our happiness is not satisfying nor worthy of our time. I have had many setbacks in my life and yet none of them is greater than my search for happiness. I have had some terrible losses in my life and they hurt me emotionally and physically, yet none of them can really change the very next second of my life. I have been oppressed in many different ways but still I find that despite the oppression, my will to have a better life is greater. So despite any terrible or horrible event or circumstance, I am on a focused mission to find whatever happiness out there I can find. Sadly, nothing I do in the big picture of human life is going to stand out as an historical event worthy of notation or mention. I accept that and although it is hard on my ego, it is the fact of things. Yet I can do one thing that many fail to recognize as the real purpose in life, to enjoy and share that enjoyment. Happiness can be had at almost every situation or circumstance. It takes looking at life through a lens of possibilities and hopes. I can't always say happiness is there for the taking but I can say that the effort to achieve happiness is always there for the taking. Pessimists are those who cannot find optimism palatable for whatever reason. Those who are like that have never understood that happiness is more important than a bottom line or a never ending quest to accumulate. Happiness is soul fulfilling and when the soul is fulfilled, there is nothing left to be cynical about. Not much of a secret to living but few truly understand the perfect view of how we see the world when we are happy and just what it takes to help all others to find their happiness as well.

"Free market" is an illusion, everything has a cost (#2477)

When I hear Republicans talk about the free market taking care of things it astounds me that they don't get that having a market that costs just to visit is the first evidence that a "free market" is an illusion. Just to get to the market I need electricity, an Internet connection and some kind of device that will get me to a page where I can then potentially buy something. Or I need gas for a car, or money for a bus ride just to get to a market. Everything after that is cost prohibitive based upon factors that are due in most ways to some form of subsidy. So even the concept of bringing a product to market has a cost. Nothing is free about a market. So when few have most of the available money and many have but a little of the money we get poverty on a level that is unsustainable. What we should be doing is reducing poverty anyway we can since we see that having the illusion of a free market does nothing but exacerbate poverty. The reason I say that is because Republicans want to lower taxes for the wealthy and as a result the wealthy have less incentive to cycle their profits back into the economy in search of profit. Instead they bank their profit for various selfish reasons in order to accumulate unfathomable amounts. While this banking of profits is going on less work is available for the many and because of that the cost of wages is lowered through increased competition for work. Republicans do not want to expand our economic possibilities since increased competition would threaten their already secured profits. The Republican cold hard fact of keeping poverty as a paradigm is strategic and well worth the cost benefit they realize. Yet the illusion of a free market continues and the rest of us are left with little to no way to participate in the uneven practice. Our society needs more than an illusion, we need to effect economic policies that not only regulate how much wealth one can attain, while never letting anyone try to survive with no wealth or an opportunity to attain wealth.

Rise above the mundane (#2476)

Life is not about the automaton actions we force ourselves to live with. Our expectations of what life is should be greater than it actually is. I have no fear of losing everything I have since it is just by chance that I wasn't born into poverty like in other parts of the world where strife and oppression are the daily norms. I don't want to be part of a machination that only secures a better life for some while leaving others out in the cold. A cog in the wheel of less than is not how I want to spend what little time I have living my life. There is great potential within me and I want to rise above the ordinary and mundane to experience it. The narrative most of us live within contains only some of who we are and for all its good intentions the narrative is faulty and inconclusive. I am not one who settles for incompleteness as a rule nor am I one who settles for less, especially from myself, when so much more can and should be done. The only way I can become more of what I should be is to stop with the incessant ambivalence to not care or to act as if everything must be fought for as a survival instinct. Our human species is not at the beginning of our evolution. We are well into our evolution and the time for us to be moving into the renaissance of enlightenment is waiting for us to embrace. We know we can do better with our society and our individual lives yet we are stalled for too many reasons that are not noble. We often live in fear of what we may lose of a lifestyle value instead of preparing ourselves for a necessity based existence that relies on whatever our endeavors will supply. We are not beholden to anyone who would control how we think and feel. Yet we abdicate that and our reasoning in order to fulfill some need to have more and be liked. The essential point of our lives is to be ourselves, not some expectation that we have created in our own minds that helps us to fit in to something that in actuality is inversely proportional to our better natures.

We baby boomers (#2475)

Those of us born between the years 1946-1965 are the baby boomers. Our best memories are behind us but our best abilities are ahead of us. Not in a physical sense of our own power but of the leadership role we all are able to wield. Our hopes and dreams of our youth are now in a position to be realized. We just have to remember their priority and then accept that what we thought back then in our youthful hubristic days is the real deal for life. The greatest challenge of our generation back when we were young was finding peace in the world and eliminating poverty. We know the causes, racism, inequality and too many sociopathic tendencies among our elected and capitalistic leaders. We can create laws that deal with any form of racism because we know what the ideal is, to give everyone an opportunity. We can end poverty by giving living wages as a baseline and paying for merit according to it's function. Our greatest challenge though is eliminating those who would lead us that have such a disdain for human life. Regardless of party of politics, no politician or wealthy capitalist should be allowed to denigrate one faction of our society over another. We boomers are in a position of high influence, now is our time to put a stamp on our amazing vision for the present and future. In all walks of life our example should remain consistent. We are not about vainglory or obscene wealth, we are about making our society function for all of us out of a sense of duty to each other. Peace and prosperity has been the clarion call of our generation and we are now in position to answer that call and create results. Let us not forget what drives who we are as a generation nor let us not forget the mighty vision we have that is especially ordained just to us and those who now follow us to remedy.

Social justice through modern culture (#2474)

I have been thinking about how many of the African American Missouri Tigers college football players have decided to stop playing football right in the middle of the football season in order to protest prevalent racial incidents related to their university. I have been thinking on this for a little while concerning other southern schools who still practice overt racism while fielding and rooting for African/American student athletes. The inherent power of these athletes is monumental. What the African/American Missouri student/athletes are doing is what I suspected they could do all along. Force a majority of our culture to face and acknowledge racism for its vile nature. Nothing gets the attention of our society like our sports teams and our loyalty to those hallowed learning institutions that field teams. Anything like what is going on with Missouri is bound to capture the attention and the emotion of the core of our society. Our allegiance to sports is where the majority of Americans find commonality. Our sports endeavors have no boundaries when it comes to the fans they attract. If you want to get at the heart of our citizenry, just mess with their sports teams. Well, let the messing begin and it is starting with the University of Missouri. We will see how quickly this particular racially based problem is dealt with. The passion for sports too much of the time overshadows the despicable nature of inequality and unfairness in our society on whole, so linking the two now is a unique opportunity to turn that passion for sports into a genesis for upheaval in the too often accepted nefarious paradigm of racism. Other southern college sports teams will have an example to follow hopefully from this courageously stalwart Missouri break from the status quo. Societal change through sports in a way I hadn't fathomed not much more than a year ago.

It is time to have a direct cost/benefit voting law (#2473)

It seems that we citizens are not aware of how important it is for all of us to vote so I suggest we pass a national law that mandates every eligible citizen to vote while making voting as simple and easy as possible. For those who see this as an infringement on our right to do whatever the hell we want to do I say tough. Our nation has had enough of this "I don't care" attitude about our democracy. We mandate other things in our democracy so it isn't so outlandish to require eligible citizens to have a say in how they are governed. If we weren't having such a problem with citizens actually voting or if some states weren't about making voting harder this kind of mandate wouldn't be necessary. However we have too few people taking the right to vote seriously enough not to have some law that incentivizes voting participation. I suggest that we offer citizens who vote some kind of tax break that has a positive effect and is genuinely a reward, while at the same time having a punishment meted out to those who refuse to participate in voting that is also not insignificant. We are all part of this democracy so sitting back with the excuse that we have a right not to vote is just not cutting it anymore. If there are no candidates worthy of your our vote than we can always leave the choice blank or write in a candidate. What me must do however is turn in a ballot. Sometimes measures need to be taken that propel our society toward our future and making voting a mandatory requirement to rectify a real problem with non-voting citizens then so be it. For those who cannot vote who are otherwise eligible there will be dispensations that are agreeably reasonable. However, we all need to make the time to know what our society is about on at least a basic level and this is my solution toward that end. I can see our democracy and the intellectual growth of our society as being enhanced through mandatory voting.

For the pure moments (#2472)

Those moments when all is perfect. When I was younger I had an expectation that these types of moments were the normal not what I found out much later in life as the exception. There are some regrets I have now and it is that I didn't fully see those moments of purity were rare and not to be treated as anything less. I should have known that in my youth I was going to be living the greatest part of existence. I always thought that life would get better with age but that is not the case for me. Maybe it is just me but my youth was a force of nature. I had the world in front of me with so many ideals to live up to and to be inspired by. I loved and was loved back in ways that I have not been able to recapture as I have gotten older. Maybe it was the hubris by which I behaved or maybe it was the vigor I had about my role in existence. Regardless of the underlying genesis, life when I was younger had been the greatest store of memories for me to earn. Not that I don't find satisfaction and gratitude in my intervening years it is just that the world is not my oyster to retrieve my pearl from anymore. There was a strategy to my life that I purposely constructed, and that strategy favored my youth to the extent that even then I knew I was at my best as a fresh being starting out in life. What I didn't include in my strategy was an appreciation for those special moments I thought would be woven throughout my life. I didn't safeguard what pearls I did happen upon and now that those pearls are gone and just memories I find the regrets of lost pure moments that still linger and haunt my conscience are my only condolence. There is a lesson here and although I have lived a remarkable life by my own standard, I came up short in the area most desired by myself. Our lives are a comprehensive series of trials and errors and how we match up our successes with our failures is always going to be the panoramic view for how we find our way to our very own precious moments.

Quitters don't win (#2471)

Even when the reality seems unfavorable, quitting on whatever it is I had set my sights on is not how to succeed. I may lose or not fulfill my quest, whatever it may be but giving up takes all doubt away as to the final result, which is defeat. There is one thing about me that is indomitable. I may not win at whatever I have set my mind to but I know I am right about it regardless of outcome. I only back hopes or visions that are positive and helpful so that my energy and effort at making them come true are solid and determined. I don't give up just because things aren't going my way. Instead I fight the good fight with all I have until I can no longer breathe. Such is my life when it comes to honor and respect. I am not perfect nor most effective at all times but my resolve and my momentum will not be swayed. I know that outcomes can become very disheartening and even seem impossible but I am not a quitter, nor am I one to sit about with a woe is me attitude. Instead I am a bulwark for whatever progress I have set myself to represent. I may be beaten down 100 times before I finally succeed but that only makes the victory that much sweeter. When you know you are right about something and you persevere at it, being defeated or failing to succeed is only fuel to the fire to keep going. Eventually right will succeed if we don't quit on it. I have quit before so I know the nothing that accomplishes. I have also felt the sting of rebuke in utterly unfathomable ways and instead of being crushed by how a devastating defeat may feel I allow myself a moment to rebuild my momentum and then head right back out defending and advocating for what I still know is right. I cannot quit on what is right and accept what isn't. That is not in my nature nor is it naturally in anyone else's either. We are human beings capable of majestic things and quitting isn't part of any majesty that I know.

No fairy tales here (#2470)

What are we doing to ourselves? We pretend more than we face reality. I would rather face the darkest part of our species' behavior than to lie to myself by ignoring it and playing at make believe. Enough of these sugar coated confusing mores, myths and superstitions! What is wrong with reality? Tell me, why I must live as a man who is proud of being an amazing human being and willing to face any danger this existence can conjure up, but unable to because too many of us are not willing to live as boldly as we could? I am stuck here in a societal existence that underplays our abilities while creating obstacles out of thin air as if they are of solid form. This current era of the human species will be marked in history not by courageous boldness but by a timidity that is more reminiscent of self loathing. We have not arrived folks! We are just at the beginning of a great quest before us. It has taken all of our previous history just to get to this magnificent point where we don't look back but instead look up and out. there is nothing stopping our will to innovate and create an Earthly force aimed at expanding our understanding and feeding our curiosity. Yet we cannot find that traction to move forward when we keep looking down and back to where we might have come from. This existence isn't about where we came from, on the contrary, it is about where we are going. It has always been so, whether we admit the truth of that or not. So instead of cowering behind some illusion no one can ever hope to prove, let's take our science and our logic, two superlative tools, and build our future around what is possible in reality, not what is impossible in the past. I know I have been waiting my whole life for a chance to find out just how incredible life can be when we decide that incredible is not the exception, but the rule.

To vote is to take a stand (#2469)

It seems that there are people out there who are more interested in intimidating other people not to vote. They use tactics that are fear based. Intimidation in order to keep the status quo from changing. Well I know how hard it is to make your desire known to vote when there is a consequence that is real and threatening. I can understand why some are not willing to exercise their right to vote because the cost is too fearful. I get that. But there will come a time when fear will have to take a back seat to courage and a come what may attitude. Eventually we all must face our fears and how we do that will define our lives and the lives of those who would emulate us. The right to vote is enshrined in our laws and no amount of direct or indirect intimidation should ever prevail over it. Much of our livelihoods depend on our associations and it is through these associations we are pushed and pulled to only advance by conforming. I get that also. In a real sense we may tell ourselves that our one vote is hardly worth the hardship it may bring upon us so we just don't vote. Here's the deal though, too many others are doing the same thing and whether it is difficult to vote or we are intimidated not to vote, the stench of it lives within us. Not doing our duty to fulfill what it is to be a citizen of our country because we are too busy or too afraid to vote is the downfall of our society, not some attack from without. Eventually we will hit the tipping point in our own lives where we finally win wrestling match with ourselves over whether fear or courage is our legacy. What good is our life if we are less than worthy? Are we okay with being ostrich like and burying our heads in the sand when danger approaches to save what little we have sold our souls for? Nothing replaces the fear in our lives like taking a stand and letting come what may!

Belief systems are rotting our democracy (#2468)

I personally have nothing against individual people reconciling their lives with a belief in a deity if that is how they are able to cope with their own frailties. But when belief systems cross over into the civil life of our society then I have to call a halt. Never, ever should some belief system, and I don't care which one anyone can imagine, be allowed to infiltrate the ideals of liberty, justice and opportunity for all. The first amendment to our constitution explicitly states: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,". It should be absolutely clear that no religion is deemed as the religion of America, while it should be absolutely clear that no denial of a religion is to be tolerated in America. Which puts belief systems squarely as an individual choice with no effect on how the civil life of our society is governed. If a belief system is needed by any individual to guide them in the pursuit of their own happiness then that is their absolute right as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others to either follow a different belief system or no belief system at all. What we have today are citizens who are disregarding the separation of belief systems and our civil government. they are attempting to force their religion upon the whole of us despite the law of our first amendment. They are also attempting to exclude all other belief systems that do not hold to the same orthodoxy and dogma. How this has come to pass is that an arrogance by some today is being allowed to run roughshod over our founding constitutional document. We have a supreme court that is supposed to be the protector of our precious document, not protecting it when its explicit nature is absolute. I will call out the wealthy theocratic conservatives and the Republican party on whole for this debacle. We know what we must do to save our constitution and our freedom given to us in the first amendment and that what we must do is to vote in every election for candidates that are neither conservative nor part of the Republican party.

Life is an adventure, not an accumulation (#2467)

Why do we forget this? Life is an adventure to be lived not some race to accumulate! What good does it do a person to shelter themselves in some safe harbor if all they are doing is hiding from life? Life is the reason we are here. We have all these individual abilities, everyone of us, that not experiencing them is against our very nature. I know we all get tired from the struggle and we want to prepare ourselves a comfortable respite. but that should not be our goal, it should just be a byproduct of how we live. A now deceased friend of mine used to say all the time that he could have lost everything and left with walking down the street in just his underwear and he would be fine. It is that type of mentality that I have adopted myself. The trappings of accumulation are not what defines me but rather the character and personality I have evolved. I could pick up today and leave for anywhere in the world and not have a care about it. I would have to take my two little animals with me but most everything I have is not enough of an anchor for me not to pick up and go. It is funny that what I would miss the most are the friendships I have worked to attain. But like all things friendships can also be made anywhere I go. I suppose I know this from all the moving we did during my formative years. Despite having to start over several times as a child I learned to do it quickly and effectively. Our society has become this great machine that we feel as if we are not able to break from but we can and should when the point of it doesn't help us along in our natures to enjoy and experience our lives. What this has reminded me of today is that I have stuff I never use and it is time to go down to the local food bank and donate clothes so that some in need person can have something decent to wear.

To solve a problem I have to face it (#2466)

Unlike an earlier version of me who would rather ignore a problem in hopes that it would go away, I am now in realization that most problems need to be faced. I cannot face them all since I am only one person living in a fixed time and space frame but those that I can face need my attention. What I find is that no matter what the problem, my mind has a way of adapting to it in ways that are mysterious to me. Once I learn of a problem or face an old one I had been ignoring I find that initially I have some real fears but as I continue toward thinking and acting upon the problem it becomes less ominous and more readily solved. The fear is replaced with a acknowledgement that there are solutions I just need to act upon and then move along to the next problem to solve. Always though is the first step toward making my world better and that is facing my problems. I can be a one man wrecking crew at times and in that wake I end up creating problems I hadn't intended. Such is the nature of this man who at times, less so now as I am getting more mature, doesn't weigh the cost/benefit of every action I take. It would behoove me to slow myself down long enough to realize that my actions and reactions need a better construct of application. A process by which I keep myself within parameters that exclude most if not all unintended consequences. That is more like an overall solution to life and that is being worked upon as I write this, however, the past has my mess in it and that is what this blog post is about. Facing old problems that don't go away, instead they just fester and irritate me when I think about them. I need to resolve some situations that are lingering, albeit, not horrific or detrimental, but nonetheless not acceptably honorable. Honor today is the code by which I base my decisions and those principles of honor are the ones reminding me that I am responsible for my life and taking ownership of it requires me to accept the truth of what I have thought and done.

Many minds aimed toward solutions (#2465)

This is the promise of our societies. If we all can have a say in how we move forward our chances are better that we will have examined all possible solutions. The more minds in the mix the better the possible outcome. None of us has a panoramic nor comprehensive mind capable of seeing or recognizing all permutations. Society is best equipped when it makes for all to be part of the process. We cannot nor should not exclude anyone. When all of our children and young adults have an opportunity to improve their minds through education and experiment then we all benefit by the increased awareness around us. The person with the next creative imagining to come along is not bound by any segregated paradigm. Who knows where and when the next great leap in innovation and technology will come from. To improve our chances of continuing enlightenment we must prepare our future generations now so that when their time comes to lead our great societies they will be better prepared to continue the evolution of the human species. There cannot be any who are left behind. It is abhorrent to think that we waste opportunities to help all in our society to achieve. There can be no greater purpose on Earth than to give back to our growth as an enlightened species. It is all of our destiny, not to fulfill our own ambitions but, to fulfill the promise of enlightenment. Knowledge is the key so therefore we need to make sure that none of our children and young adults are left without a chance to increase their knowledge. We must as a species prioritize our own character and behavior toward a reality based understanding of logic and science. It is what we have that is most efficient at this time to not only protect our species from the great unknowns in the vast Universe but also to master what this Universe is readily laying at our feet.

We are falsely conditioned to accept our unimportance (#2464)

You will never amount to anything. I have heard that one many times in my life. Because I failed to live up to someone else's expectation or roadmap for their idea of what success is supposed to be for me. It all starts even earlier than that in how we operate our society. We are turned into automatons at a very young age. We are told that getting a job to work at what pays well and interests us is the ideal for what we should devote our lives toward. Interesting that as humans, we all possess absolutely unique qualities yet we are influenced to strive at being reduced to mechanisms that perform mundane tasks. Our natures are more than an 8 to 4 or 9 to 5 type existence. Our lives are incredible in the grand scheme of our Universe yet we are treated as if we are only useful if we follow some regimen that only secures the ineffective status quo. I know we are evolving as a species yet our evolution is not compatible with our knowledge. We know so much and are learning at increasingly exponential rates yet our society is lagging back in an era where humans are just crude tools for others to fill their coffers for no worthy outcome beyond themselves. It helps that technology and innovation are being advanced but our overall society continues to suffer because the value of the human being is still shackled to the idea that human worth is based upon some calculation with a profit margin at the bottom. The longer we refuse to see ourselves as captives in a society that won't change the longer we will be suffering as fools of our own design. We all have an opportunity to make our society better and if and when that occurs that we all make the change, it will be the next evolutionary step that our species has been stalled for far too long to make.

An imperfect life (#2463)

That would be mine. I can only be sure of my life so that is the one I am examining. I have had the privilege to be able to look at myself without an blinders on and it hasn't been as easy. It seems that I can vividly remember my mistakes far more than I can remember my successes. It isn't because I have few successes it is because I am a humble person and success does humble me. On the other hand I have no worse critic of myself than me. I am a harsh taskmaster when it comes to my thoughts and actions. I have made enough mistakes to know this is very true. More often than not it is difficult not to feel hypocritical about what virtues I often espouse in my writings when I know that I have fallen short of my own words. I "feel" the hypocrisy in the form of shame when I shout to the world that we should be doing this when I am guilty of not doing that "this" myself. But the shame is always tempered with the intent of my shouting. I write this blog for me more than anyone else. It helps me clear my mind of clutter and focus at least on one particular thing for at least the waking day. So when I am shouting for us to be a more human and virtuous society I am pointing the finger directly back at myself. For the very reason I entitled this post, an imperfect life. As I am getting older and wiser I find that those past imperfections of mine need to be corrected in some way and I am not too proud to admit that. How that will come about is still unclear in my own mind but know this, if I could go back and make things better I would in a heart beat. My own hindsight into my own real past life is objective so I am not akin to making rash decisions going forward but in some way yet not known I have an intent to clear my past of the rubbish I allowed to pile up. We all have our own struggles with our pasts and this is just me declaring that mine is no different in many ways than the rest of you, an imperfect life.

Anti intellectualism, the Republican mission! (#2462)

I am so confounded that greed could have such an effect on the wealthy. But of course I am a good soul so it does surprise me that some souls would treat other souls as property or temporary resources to be discarded when sufficiently manipulated. We humans are not just a tool for others to wield at their discretion. We also have ambitions to succeed in life and our accounts must be considered as well. So for the wealthy, through their vessel the Republican party, to continue to demand that we non-wealthy supplicate ourselves to their demands without so much as a by your leave is not to be borne. This is why we Democrats fight so hard for those who are not wealthy. We know that given free reign the Republicans would make us ignorant and dependent upon the wealthy so much so that we would do their bidding regardless of the cost to our dignity or our nature. The less intelligent we are the better for those who would seek to control our options. I cannot fathom nor will I allow any group of people within our democracy to usurp our freedom to be individual souls who have the right and liberty to pursue our own happiness. The only way all of us in our society can understand our potential is to be educated and informed. This means that intellectualism is a priority to maintain and expand, not decrease or eliminate. The Democrat mission is for all to have an opportunity to prosper while allowing merit to be our self determination model. Enough of the advantage and privilege Republicans seek to install as a method for success. Our educational system here in America must be a high priority policy and never shall we allow the lack of an open and accessible educational system to be an obstacle to our growth, despite the Republican mission!

Fight or cower, the choice is yours (#2461)

You can tell what kind of character a person has just by what they stand for or hide from. We all go through stages in our lives where the lines get blurred and it isn't always easy to fight what is right and good. I get that and have my own experiences to show for it. Yet, when push comes to shove I fight. I don't cower from aggression or fear. I fight. For a good part of my life I wasn't in control of my faculties enough of the time to be able to distinguish what my true behavior should be. I have rectified that by being in control of my faculties at all times so that whatever comes my way I have the proper although often imperfect response available. I get that I am not some superhero but I am a superhero type. I hate brutish behavior, I hate oppression and I hate injustice, to name a few. So when confronted by these nefarious acts I rebel in the face of them. It is my honor to fight against what is worst about our natures. It is a privilege I get to be part of justifying proper and ethical behavior. I am not perfect but I damn well try to be at all times. This is what fighting is all about. That I have to fight is not my first choice but often I am not given a choice so the only choice I have is to fight or cower. I choose to fight since cowering is a deflating cowardly act. I have been a coward a time or two in my life and it is nothing I ever want to experience again. No matter how hard I might try to justify being a coward it isn't ever worthy of being human. So with mistakes like that behind me I find that fighting is the only last resort I have in a bag of responses I keep close. If I cannot use logic or common sense persuasion to stop bad behavior then I damn sure will fight to stop it. It is refreshing to know that fear isn't the factor that makes me decide, instead it is a process of doing wherever I can do to the best of who I am.

Progress is one step at a time (#2460)

Whether it be a big step or a small step, progress is only going in one direction. Shall we all be part of making progress regardless of whether it is a leap or a shuffle? I am at the age where I am not full of the hubris of youth anymore. I have some hubris but not like when I was younger. What that tells me is that I am more measured in my thoughts and actions. I do not go running toward any provocation or exhilaration. I am measured and even keel. So having this more comprehensive outlook I can see the panoramic picture of our lives and our society. This is why I push for progress at every juncture or crossroads. Because progress is where we all need to go toward. So if we can gain some progress over time I am all for that unless of course we can a lot of progress then I am even more for that. But do not be confused at all by what I am saying here. Whatever the forward movement of progress can be achieved is still my ambition. So when we as a party of Democrats are fighting over who we want to represent us in the next election, we may surely fight it out as to whom that will be based upon many factors. But at the end of our fighting to see who gets the nomination, we must all remember that progress is our goal. So if a small step or a large step of progress is available we must take it without doubt. So we Democrats need to be mindful that the nominating process is just the first step toward that progress and we must all keep in mind that our Democratic party is the party of progress and not being one hundred percent behind our party, is an obstacle to progress. This is all about the Bernie or HIllary contest now being waged. We can back one or the other but when the contest has been decided we must back the victor because no matter what else comes of it, our eventual candidate will be a candidate that moves us forward into progress, this I know as a fact.

The fallacy of white privilege is just part of the fallacy of American privilege (#2459)

Yes, an even greater illusion than white privilege is the idea that we Americans think the world owes us something more because of what our elders did before us. Like we are born with a privilege that is deserved. We Americans are in for a rude awakening, we did nothing to deserve any accolade. That was our ancestors who fought in the 2 world wars, they deserve accolades not their children. We have to earn our place in society just like every other industrious soul on this planet. What we do have here in America is a great start from the legacy of our forefathers/mothers left for us to start. That is all though so any thoughts about us being special are lost in the concept of logical reality. We have to show the same determined, informed grit our previous generations fought hard to achieve in order for us to earn any distinction among the world's populace. Honor and nobility are no longer things of heritage and inheritance. Each human is responsible to display their own honor and nobility to earn the names. There are no free passes for one society over another. We only have what advantages were left to us by those who came before us. Many nations on Earth already see us for being usurpers of honor and nobility that we have not earned. This is why we have so many souls outside our society who disdain our arrogance. We Americans are no more special than them yet we act like we are. It is insidious for heredity or inheritance to be a factor in determining someone's overall value. I have to earn the trust and respect of everyone around me every day. There is no time off for some imagined dispensation. I am accountable for all my actions/non-actions. If I want to feel like I am more special than anyone else I damn well better have the evidence of the proof readily available for anyone to see. There is no white privilege and there is no American privilege that is not rightfully earned.

Voting your interests (#2458)

I don't normally vote for my interests personally but it just happens that my interests are aligning with what I want for everyone. it isn't the other way around. I would be happy with a shirt on my back. But since Democrats are pushing to help the ones with barely that, I can agree with them and advocate for them. You see this is what is going on. the way our American economy is structured, it mainly benefits those who already have a leg up in society. While at the same time a faction, Republicans, are making it harder for all to get that leg up. So we have an economy that favors the already wealthy while a Republican political faction is making it harder for those who don't have privileges and advantages to participate in improving their lives through our economy. This is where the power of the vote makes a difference. By voting, we all get to choose whether we want the Republicans, who make life harder for us, to remain in power, or if we want the Democrats, who want to make life better for us, to control the power. It is all about the power in politics and the sooner we voting citizens realize this the quicker we can get to finding out if we Americans want a democracy that values and respects all lives; or if Americans want an oligarchy which Republicans are hell bent on making our nation become. We the people still have the power to make that decision but the window is closing. How is the window closing you might ask? It is closing because the longer we take to oust Republicans out of power the closer they get to disenfranchising voter rights. In their minds, Republicans would leave the voting only to the wealthy since Republicans think that the rest of us are unworthy of deciding our own future. So if you value democracy and it's core right of voting then you must by all means necessary cast  your next ballot for your own interests, not the interests of someone who would take your vote away.

If you enjoy being afraid then keep voting for Republicans (#2457)

I am at a loss to think of one policy the Republican party has for America that isn't infiltrated with fear. Everything they do or propose is based upon being afraid of someone or something. Instead of embracing tolerance and diversity they embrace selfishness and division. I don't say this lightly because after all Republicans are human and being human have every opportunity to change. Just because they are absolutely in the wrong now doesn't mean that they can't raise themselves up out of their fox holes. Yet, how long can I allow myself to wait for those who find fear a worthy paradigm to exist within? Not much longer is my answer. I cannot wait much longer for them to cross the bridge of courage when they have no intention of willingly leaving their misery. We Democrats have learned that although the world is complex and formidable, so are we. We do not shirk our courage because of fear, in fact fear fuels our desire to conquer it. So instead of cowering and double crossing everyone else to preserve some idea of living, we challenge our fears and meet them with our heads held high. I have learned over the years that no good deed goes without some form of obstruction. There are enough petty minds out there that see goodness and kindness as weaknesses to be exploited. These exploiters are the Republican base. They take from those who can least afford the loss and give to those who least need the gain. The reverse Robin Hood syndrome. In some ways it is a supplication to the wealthy that these fearful ones operate under. If they appease their "betters" their "betters" will be less violent toward them. A fearful existence considering we live in a democracy that gives all of us an equal shot at being happy if we keep our democracy strong by voting to improve our lives, not make our lives worse. All it takes is a little bit of courage and you can stand up to anyone. Someday soon I hope the Republican base figures it out and joins the rest of us willing to fight for ourselves and even them too!

What I fight for is a utopian society (#2456)

We live in an imperfect world and society. Just like in the title of this post, some will say an should precede utopian, but not so when it doesn't sound right. :) Anyway, I know an imperfect utopian society is the best I can hope for but it is what I strive to achieve with all my energy. I have little else worth doing with my time. Of course I am not burdened with my own desires so much. I need little to survive and that is fine. Hopefully someday before my demise I will get to have a personal relationship with some liked aged woman who shares my dream, however even that is less than likely but so be it. All I know for sure is that there is so much more we could be doing for and within our society that there is never enough time to address all that concerns me. That is why we all need to lend our votes and our voices to how and why we are alive. I have taken the time to articulate a definition of who we are as humans. It is the ground floor from which to debate our future and even more so our manifest destiny. I describe us as biological data processors. Not much different from probes evolved to gather and understand information. The nature of our species is to care and to wonder, compassion and curiosity if you will. all other natures we exhibit are either the fulfillment of those two behaviors or the denial of of them wholly or separately. Why did I take the time to form an idea about who we are? Because it better helps me to explain what we need to be doing to enact those natures to the best of our abilities. It also allows me to show a purpose in life for all of us. Many of us start out without any validation to our worthiness to the big picture and that is wrong for any of us not to know our own individual amazingness. The universe is our realm for exploration and our unique caring for one another and for other species is our legacy to bring with us.