Social Psych

Winning The Peace: The Lessons of Hamas and Hezbollah

2006-11-26T11:45:00.000-08:00

An often-voiced media and political mantra is that the real fight in the war on terrorism is for the minds and hearts of the people.

So how are we doing?

We have spent 300 billion dollars to turn a society upside down, kill thousands of insurgents and civilians alike, perform atrocities from rape to murder to torture, and have likely triggered the first of who knows how many civil wars in the region.

Our focus is on the terrorists, now characterized as "Islamic Fascists," a strange term for anarchists who abhor the power of any state. We forget that for every violence-prone fanatic in Teheran or Damascus or Kabul, there are thousands more who just want to survive, take care of their families, and lead productive lives. These are the souls who are the only candidates for building a democratic nucleus that could lead to eventual peace. Are they supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah? As each month passes, the support for both groups skyrockets. Why?

It is generally, but quietly, conceded that Hamas won the Palestinian elections because of their community involvement. It was Hamas, not the western-sanctioned PLO, who picked up the garbage, set up schools, and listened to the needs of their people.

In devastated southern Lebanon, it is Hezbollah who swiftly moved in to clear away the debris, find shelter for the homeless, create jobs for the displaced, and give money to the penniless to start rebuilding their lives.

Where is the United States, or Europe, or the United Nations? They are sitting in offices in New York, Washington, London, or Geneva. If the U.S. has become the face of the enemy, then Hamas and Hezbhollah have become the friend, even if their politics of hatred are not always welcome.

Imagine the profile of the western world in the Middle East if that 300 billion had been spent on an army of Peace Corps volunteers, working among the populace, building schools and roads and bridges, or providing food, housing, electrical powers and essential services - not as the backfill to invasion but as proactive colleagues helping out fellow human beings.

"A gift from the American people," like those tremendously appreciated World War II boxes, should be associated with objects that sustain and enhance life, not with weapons and tanks and martial law.

For more than 40 years, the Cold War experts called for battles in every country that threatened to fall into Communism in the dreaded and, reportedly, inevitable "domino effect." The reality, that home-grown communism in small third world countries was merely hunger becoming articulate, was ignored.

We have no learning curve. We are reliving history, repeating the same mistakes, and wondering why we are encountering the same failures.

We can stand back, wring our hands, and hide behind political rhetoric, or we can take the fight for hearts and minds to the streets where the succor provided by Hamas and Hezbollah are drawing thousands of peaceful and apolitical citizens further and further away from the western dream of democracy and stability.

Why Terrorists Are Not Typical Murderers

2006-09-01T06:02:00.000-07:00

We have had our fill of serial killers over the past 40 years. We have analyzed them, written books about them, made movies about them, glorified them, and vilified them. They are renegades from the human race, an aberration on the face of civilization, shunned by all of us with any modicum of intelligence and humanity.

They work secretly, often by night, and arrange their crimes to ensure that they are not captured for as long as possible.

Terrorists also kill people - many more than a lone killer ever could. But their goal is not to kill to satisfy some inner lust. They work in the brightness of daylight and the glare of media attention. The deaths are merely a sideline to their goal: to sow paralyzing fear into their targeted victims. While we shake in our shoes at the thought of someone we love falling victim to their vile plots, we must maintain our balance and objectivity in the face of naked hatred and unveiled violence.

The fact is that we are much more likely to get killed in a car accident on the way to the airport than to be blown out of the skies. Should we be cautious and aware? Of course we should. Should we be so afraid that we are willing to trade personal liberties and hard won civil rights to increase our sense of safety? In the 1930s, people were so tired of the uncertainties and confusion of democracy that they handed themselves over to fascists who brought order, calm, and made the trains run on time.

Terrorists don't win when they kill people - murders happen all the time. They win when we become so terrified that we are willing to trade anything for a sense of security.

We have spent 300 billion in Iraq towards, we are so often told, establishing a dream of democracy and freedom. Even supposing that it worked, what is it worth if we lose our freedoms at home?

Creating An Unsafe World

2006-08-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

President Wilson entered World War I to make the world "Safe for democracy." The rise of the Fascists and World War II shattered his dream and the hopes of civilization that cataclysmic upheavals could be forever avoided. The long Cold War created a perilous world where major powers jockeyed for control with the threat of weapons that could destroy every living thing on earth. The fear of communism exerting a domino effect on small poverty-stricken countries led to the quagmire of Vietnam and the embarrassment of the Contra affair.

With the demise of the Soviet Union, the world breathed easier, believing that, at last, human efforts could concentrate on growth, space exploration, and scientific advance, rather than pressuring its greatest minds into developing new means of destruction.

Throughout history, there have always been regional conflicts, ethnic discord, and religious clashes. The super powers of each era have eventually stepped in and calmed the storms through diplomacy, cultural pressure, or an armed presence.

Iraq was undoubtedly a crude, cruel, despotic regime under Saddam, killing its own citizens, brutalizing and maltreating its minorities, and rattling defiant sabers at a world that failed to grant it the dignity and respect it felt it deserved. Its value to the world defined primarily by the black gold pooled beneath its deserts, it was one more unsettled region like Rwanda, Liberia, or Somalia. It demanded the same kind of response: unwavering political efforts to assert human rights, economic pressure from the world community and condemnation from its neighbors.

Instead, the greatest superpower in the world shunned continued diplomacy and invaded. The same dream of creating peace and democracy was verbalized at every opportunity. The lessons of unrestrained aggression and ignoring ethnic/religious diversity, first learned centuries ago in ill-fated crusades, were ignored. When you know you're right, it's hard to concede that everyone else isn't wrong.

What have we created -- a more unstable, troubled, and violence-prone world; an earth that shudders at the armed convulsions racing across its brittle, fragile surface. As new fires flare across the entire Middle East, we hear rumors that an attack on Iran is in the planning stages. From the world's model of a democracy forged out of the wilderness and renowned for its desire for peace, prosperity, and humanity, we have become the hated face of the enemy, an imperialistic throwback to the 19th Century. We have become the all-powerful but hated Rome of the ancient world.

Despite its grandeur, Rome fell. Not to another superpower, but to the ceaseless raids of uncivilized savages who used their own brand of violence to defeat a culture that knew only violence to maintain itself and made no effort towards exploring peaceful options.

Are we doomed to repeat the past?

Private Problems

2006-08-14T05:58:00.000-07:00

The Middle East is in flames, another tsunami swamps Indonesia, Iran pursues its nuclear options, and Korea fires missiles that threaten the entire Pacific. The world is in shambles, an unstable and dangerous mess.

Yet somehow we have to get along with our lives. With one eye peeled to the dangers of international politics, we tend to the problems closest to home, the things that directly affect ourselves and our loved ones. It is in this private world that disasters really strike us down: divorce, financial stresses, children on drugs, the death of a loved one, or the loss of a worthwhile job.

It is hard to get excited about what is happening on the other side of the globe, unless we have family or friends in harm's way. It takes all our energy to sort out our own problems that are just as challenging for us as the stories that make it to the front page.

With the continued improvement in the employment outlook, we finally have the opportunity to solve one of our pressing problems. However, if unemployment has been prolonged, special barriers arise that we must navigate with care.

For more tips, visit:
http://www.UnemploymentBlues.com

Katrina: The Lessons Unlearned

2006-07-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

For the past year, the administration has been playing catch-up for the fallout of their infamously slow and undeniably inadequate response to the devastation and human suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina. Staff resigned, were transferred, or fired, and we were assured that now all emergency services were coordinated and response time in the future would be immediate for any perceived threat to American citizens.

Less than one year after the Gulf disaster, open warfare broke out in the Middle East. Americans in Lebanon, cowering under artillery shells, rocket attacks, and the loss of basic amenities including electricity, water, food, and medicine screamed for help to make their escape.

Again, the red tape, the lack of willingness to step forward, to take responsibility, to make decisions or to issue orders, prevailed. As Italy, France, and other nations quickly moved to get their people out, the most powerful and rich nation on earth dithered.

Embassy staff had no answers for the frantic incoming calls. Tourists, students, and employees were told "We're working on it." Seven days after hostilities began, a cruise ship started to evacuate, taking out 1400 of the more than 8000 people begging for a route out. Embarking passengers were required to sign an affidavit agreeing to reimburse the government for their travel - rescinded only after a public outcry.

The lessons of Katrina were clear and simple: any response must be expeditious or it is worthless. Despite the hundred of stump speeches and the endless public posturing, the government has again proved to be disorganized and helpless in the face of a humanitarian threat.

The lessons have been ignored. We forget that at our peril.

The Ascendancy of The Hogs

2006-06-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

They seem to be everywhere. The lone driver in the enormous SUV next to you at the gas station, pouring gallons of increasingly scarce gas into a seemingly limitless tank; vehicles the size of ancient sailing ships forcing themselves in compact parking spaces and reducing available spaces and garage capacity by 20 to 30%; the co-worker at the next cubicle who refuses to re-label folders and consumes an entire box every week; the buffet grazers who overload their plates, leave half the food, and then go back for more; the neighborhood eyesores of huge mansions erected to the lot lines of once simple working class homes; the folks who pump out children into the world, willy-nilly, consuming dwindling resources and overburdening limited social services; the CEOs who earn four hundred and fifty times their median workers, focusing their energy on their own retirement provisions; and the oil companies with their rapacious designs on any untapped, pristine lands to increase their already obscene profits.

We have created an atmosphere where the hogs can thrive -those who look at the world with an attitude of entitlement and privilege. We cruise unaware through a pathless universe on this oh-so-fragile spaceship earth only to watch it abused by those who believe they have a prerogative on finite resources and deserve it all.

We rightfully bemoan war, gas prices, political corruption and the state of world affairs. But as we gird up to fight the major evils we see on the horizon, maybe it is time to turn our eye inward and closer to home. One individual who takes responsibility for their part in preserving the only planet we've got has little meaning. Conservation and a mutually supportive outlook by 200 million individuals would change the future.

Roast pork anyone?

Is Pizza Spiraling Out Of Control?

2006-04-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

The campaigns are on: extra large pizza, a third bigger than the already obscene super jumbo pie; Kong pizza, the size of a fantastic great ape. Where are we going?

We already eat muffins, bagels, and croissants that are four times the size of those standard 30 years ago. We buy family packs to save money but only end up overflowing our plates. Our restaurant meals are super sized and bloated on enormous platters. Our expansive salad bowls have buried their greens under croutons, cheese, fruit, nuts, fried strips, and heavy cream dressings, and nouvelle cuisine has been laughed off the stage with hoots of derision at its paltry offerings.

The nutrition experts may debate about the best foods to eat, the balance we need in our daily intake, and the ratio of proteins to carbs to fats, but the growing paunch of America clearly reveals our real national problem.

It's not what we eat - it's HOW MUCH. If we ate exactly the same food we are scarfing now, but only a third as much, think of the thousands of pounds we would collectively lose!

If we can ignore the commercials and wrap our minds around the true concept of under eating, we'll be slimmer, healthier, and back in control.

Bye-bye Ethics

2006-04-07T06:24:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago, there was a great scurry in Congress to investigate ethical shortfalls and corruption. The powerful lobbyist Jack Abramoff had been indicted and there were persistent rumors that he would be naming names - rumors that put the fear of purgatory into legislators who had willingly accepted gifts and favors skimmed from the business of Native Americans.

Then the port security issue flashed into the headlines and ethical reform was pushed into a back seat. With the withdrawal of a Dubai company from its pending security contracts, the issue dissolved and passions calmed.

But what happened to the previously trumpeted interest in ethics and questionable political spending? What happened to "No stone left unturned?"

It became a non-issue. Why spend valuable time looking at our own errors, misjudgments, and crimes when it is so much more pleasant to direct the bright lights towards our enemies? Let's focus on the corruption of power in Iraq and how that somehow justified a pre-emptive invasion. Let's pay attention to gerrymandering the tax laws to make the rich richer and the little suckers broke.

Let ethical questions remain under the boulders we have piled up so diligently. After all, if we pick up a rock, who knows what will come crawling out?

OK, I'm Fat - So What?

2006-03-21T02:35:00.000-08:00

A recent survey revealed that Americans are less interested in weight loss than has been the case in the recent past. We are, it is reported, becoming more accepting of both our and other people's excess pounds.

Look for "Diet Program" information on the Web and the search engines will return over 7 million matches. Check how many surfers look for that information daily and fewer than 200,000 are shown. Doesn't that suggest that there are far more folks out there trying to tell us how to lose than there are those of us who are interested in giving weight loss one more try?

What does that say about the future? Will ever-heavier bodies lead to sluggish minds? Diet and exercise have been proven every bit as effective as medication on depression and similar mood disorders. Yet we prefer to skip the daily effort of healthy eating and physical exertion and pop a pill instead. No wonder health care costs continue to increase.

We have tamed the rivers, harnessed the wind, and hurled man into space only to witness our great civilization smother itself in self-generated blubber.

For a different (psychological) approach to the perils of food, please visit: http://www.dietwithanattitude.com/index2.html

The Award Shows Have Begun

2006-03-12T06:26:00.000-08:00

Just why are we so consumed with interest in our celebrities? Are our lives so dull and routine that we crave even a long distance boob-tube brush with glamour?

At the recent Oscars, more time was allotted to the red carpet arrival time which gets the highest ratings. We don't care that much who wins, we want to see the same beautiful people we have watched in darkened movie theaters in real life, although obviously primped and gussied by a positive army of personal appearance workers. We analyze what they wear with curiosity and surprise, feeling slightly superior in the knowledge that with their almost unlimited funds and perfect bodies we could do so much better ourselves.

Movie stars have always received immense public attention and adoration from the days of the silent screen where, without voices to provide personality, such figures as Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino, and Greta Garbo became our idols simply from their larger-than-life celluloid personas.

While those early icons were undoubtedly giants of the media, these days even the "B" actors are treated like royalty and being famous is an occupation in and of itself (think Paris Hilton).

When the happy winners stand on the podium and thank everyone who helped them reach the top, there is a noticeable oversight: their audience. The unknown masses who plunk down their hard-earned cash to buy an hour or two of fantasy and excitement are not merely the "little people" or "my fans." They are the sole force that allows even lesser talents to command millions in salaries and benefits.

Just imagine a year during which no one went to the movies or bought a DVD. Stars would actually have to start working for a living, just like the rest of us. And maybe then they wouldn't have time for the interminable pat-each-other-on-the-back award shows.

That would be refreshing!

Construction versus Destruction

2006-02-19T06:59:00.000-08:00

The world has been revolted over the past few weeks of rioting and destruction unleashed by the ill-timed, tasteless, and insensitive publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

While the western idea that freedom of expression is sacrosanct is not shared by most of the world, the violence, anger, and hostility of the most recent demonstrations have shocked even those who have a deeper understanding of Islamic culture. To depict the Prophet in any form, even that of reverence and respect, is blasphemous. To mock him raises the same red flags as if African-Americans were confronted by widely disseminated Ku Klux Klan images of the "Black Terror" or Jews exposed to publications poking fun at the holocaust.

It is wounding, disrespectful, and divisive. Yet a western response to such provocation would likely be limited to noisy verbal debates or court action.

From the barbed wire and fences that dot the international landscape, from the corruption and absolute power of tyrants the west has supported, to the humiliation of armed occupation, refugee camps, and cultural marginalization, we have reaped the whirlwind. We have allowed generations to grow up with little devotion to anything but destruction. We have allowed the anger and resentment of the have-nots to fester and ferment. We have stood by and ignored a widening climate where there is no order but DISorder.

In the chaos of the endless street fighting, children have learned from experience that the rigors and boredom of going to school, of building a future, of creating a life of accomplishment and honor, are worthless and trivial in terrain where only power counts.

It takes years of planning and hard work to build something significant that can be razed to the ground in a few short hours. It is like children who spend hours with building blocks only to find their real joy in mindlessly knocking down everything they have created.

No matter what efforts are made by great individuals with the highest moral intentions, peace will not come suddenly and swords will not easily be transformed into plowshares. The forces that have produced the ugly face of violence and hatred so prominently displayed through the cracks in our civilized façade, will not so quickly be redirected.

It will take an enormous effort - by the governments of peaceful lands, by the responsible citizens who abhor violence and bigotry, by the silent majority who tire of the death and destruction, and by leaders of all backgrounds and faiths, to start the long process of cooling down, healing, and rebuilding. It will take all of us working together with our eyes clearly set on the goal of peace and prosperity, without interference from our own political agendas and dogmatic creeds.

The future is counting on us to make such a joint effort, even as we continue to fight among ourselves over differences in words and ideas that are unimportant to the long view of history and the ultimate survival of the human race.

The Changing Face of American Work

2006-02-03T07:51:00.000-08:00

Corporate restructuring has been in the news recently, quietly sandwiched between stories on the war, the corruption in Washington, and the Enron trial.

Both Ford and General Motors plan to close down manufacturing plants and lay off 60,000 workers. The American auto industry is unusual in that every production position supports jobs in supply, components, and is the primary fuel for local economies. Experts estimate that as many as 460 secondary jobs are generated by every 100 auto industry positions (Source: Washington Post, 01/26/06). If that figure is correct, the changes at Ford and GM will result in the actual loss of 276,000 jobs!

The UAW is reeling. Decades of hard bargaining have fallen by the wayside as the competitive pay and benefits of the industry shrink to a level unthinkable 30 years ago. The new US plants opening up for Japanese manufacturers are non-union, all organization attempts stiffly resisted.

It is a much bigger picture than corporate change - it is societal restructuring. The power shift is away from the long-established middle-class backbone of our culture to the multinational conglomerates that can strengthen their bottom line by outsourcing to the lowest overseas bidder and to the bloated oil companies with their obscene record profits. More than that, it is an international restructuring where the wealth of the developed nations flows towards the emerging economies of the third world. It is a balancing act of a million different needs on a planet of finite resources.

Perhaps eventually we will see a more equitable world where capital and labor are evenly divided among all the earth's inhabitants. But the process is painful. Our goal of equality for all always envisioned our helping others to climb up, not preparing ourselves to slide down.

No Show Apology

2006-02-02T14:06:00.000-08:00

Sorry, everyone. I have not been to my blog in a month,
courtesy of the IRS who pulled a field audit on me and
caused me to lose all sense of focus for a while.

I'll be back shortly.

This Year, I'm Going To . . .

2006-01-02T08:59:00.000-08:00

The arrival of the New Year inspires us to fulfill our potential, change our habits, and remake ourselves closer to our heart's desire. If the world and time get a fresh start every 365 days, surely we deserve the same?

Every year, we make our resolutions with the very best of intentions and then watch them fall apart sometime before the advent of Spring.

The difficulty is that our dreams are so vast that it's too big a bite to swallow whole. The road to success is littered with boulders which we must navigate to reach our goal. Make your resolutions last by transforming those boulders into stepping stones, i.e., keep the changes minor and manageable.

Rather than "I'll quit" - smoking, or drinking, or eating too much - aim to cut back. If you smoke a pack a day, vow to maintain at 15 cigarettes a day for two months and then renegotiate downwards. If you down a six pack during the game, limit yourself to 4 bottles of suds until the baseball season starts. Rather than swearing to lose 20 pounds, plan on learning the habits that your eventual diet plan will need: record your weight and dimensions, start keeping a food diary, and ease into increased physical exercise.

The first faltering steps will be small but if you maintain them for 60 days, you will create an inner confidence that you can stay the course. When, and only when, you have small triumphs to celebrate, take larger strides that will help you develop and grow as the year wears on.

Does The Death Penalty Make Sense Anymore?

2005-12-17T08:38:00.000-08:00

This week, Tookie Williams was killed by lethal injection. Regardless of whether we, as individuals, are for or against the death penalty, we need to ask ourselves about our handling of those cases where a judge or jury have decided that someone no longer deserves to live.

If we had been standing, armed, outside the convenience store where a young father was shot in the back of the head, would any of us have hesitated in shooting at the perpetrator? Probably not. If we had walked into the motel office where an innocent immigrant, his wife, and his daughter had just been cold-bloodedly murdered, would we feel empathy for the killer or simply seek immediate retribution?

Even at trial a year later, we would still feel outrage at the heinous, and still fresh, acts of unjustifiable and senseless killing. At such a moment, many of us would be tempted to return a verdict of death.

Fast forward - no, slow forward - twenty six years, a lifetime for many (such as the convenience store victim). With the passage of years, the initial outrage has waned. The killer is no longer the same person who committed the crimes so long ago. In our cultural ambiguity about state sanctioned murder and the rights of the condemned, have we not delayed justice to the point where an execution has lost all meaning?

The decades of stays and appeals, while the condemned prisoner changes, matures, and even blooms, as a rehabilitated and ultimately valuable human being, make a mockery of any concept of "just desserts." As a society, we need to decide whether to dispense punishment swiftly and surely, or whether to grant the time for rehabilitation that makes the original sentence obsolete.

The next scheduled California execution is in January, 2006. This time it is not a widely recognized and highly respected author and preacher of peace. Who knows if this killer has undergone virtuous changes or self-growth?

We do know that he is 75 years old, riddled with medical problems, and partially blind and deaf. He lives in a wheelchair giving the term "dead man walking" a totally new twist. Will a formal execution make us any safer in our beds at night? Will the state-sponsored murder of a pathetic old man deter the gang-bangers from their violent sprees? Will society save money by spending thousands of dollars on last minute appeals rather than letting him live out his little remaining time in the hell-hole of a maximum security prison?

What is our goal here, folks?

The Psychology of Blogs I

2005-12-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

Those of us who blog merrily away every day or so - and there are millions of us worldwide who do - have to have a reason for devoting so much of our limited time to writing for cyberspace.

What are we looking for?

Some of us just communicate more easily in writing than face to face. In the past we kept diaries or journals where we recorded the events of our lives and our feelings about those events, trying to make sense of an illogical world. But diaries and journals are private and hidden, unavailable for the prying eyes of total strangers. Yet now we enter the same information in our blogs and, if they want to, the entire world can read our thoughts. That totally changes the concept from a means of personal self-exploration into a public disrobing.

Could it be that we are so starved for human contact and personal relationships, no matter how readily available are our cell phones and laptops and blackberries, that we reach out into the cyber world in an effort to make connections? We have deserted our villages and small towns but in so doing, we have lost our basic sense of community.

Is that what we are seeking here?

We'll talk again.

Maybe We Need An Occasional Disaster!

2005-12-01T06:06:00.000-08:00

The suffering and trauma left in the wake of last year's tsunami in Southeast Asia, our own hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, the earthquake in Kashmir, and the mud slides of Central America, cannot be ignored. But none of these were man-made acts that we can attempt to eradicate, like terrorism or the brutality of tyrants.

These were natural events -- cataclysmic to be sure, but an expected by-product of life on an ever-changing and unstable planet. We can certainly improve on our ability to prepare for them, and the speed and intensity of our response to the victims, but for all our brainpower and technological sophistication, we cannot prevent their occurrence.

To emotionally cope with their aftermath, we can reframe the tragedy of events by a focus on how disasters often bring out the best in our often flawed human race.

We can look to conservative, white-only Texas towns that opened their arms, and their hearts, to poverty-stricken African Americans fleeing the floods of New Orleans.

We can stand astonished but proud at the gifts of food and shelter and support that the semi-hippies of the Rainbow Coalition brought to stricken right-wing citizens in small Mississippi towns.

We can look around a football stadium where donors stand in line to give whatever they can.

We can bow our heads in awe before the families who opened up their homes to those who had nothing left.

We can salute the volunteers who took food, water, blankets and generators to devastated areas, moving faster and with more commitment than the reluctant minions of the Federal Government.

We all lead lives rife with potentialities. It takes certain conditions, combined with inner decisions, to convert them into realities. The best of us, staring destruction, anguish, and utter desolation in the face, rise to the occasion. From banal, self-centered, unremarkable lives, we seize the chance to become more than we have been, to harness our own promise, to dare the heroic.

Disasters provide us with unique opportunities. It is not that we wish anyone pain but suffering is part of life. When it happens, it brings darkness to its victims but also the chance for fellow men to kindle a new and brighter light that enriches our species, our spirits, and our future.

Remembering Jack

2005-11-23T05:25:00.000-08:00

42 years ago, we sat in front of our television sets in complete shock. When the usually totally objective Walter Cronkite momentarily lost it on a live broadcast, he represented faces all over America, frozen in grief and disbelief.

It was an innocent time. Young, vigorous, charismatic, and eloquent, Jack Kennedy represented the dreams of the young. Into a political world filled with tired old detached men, he and his passionate New England intelligentsia swept like a fresh wind that promised a new world order and unlimited potential for all of us. We loved his accent, his hair, his humor, and his energy. We couldn't wait to join the Peace Corps and remake the world.

For years, we quietly asked each other: Where were you when Kennedy was shot? We all knew exactly where we were and what we were doing when the news came. It was a moment frozen in time, a great divide between the promise that had shined so brightly and the unknown darkness that lay ahead after the light had been so prematurely extinguished.

Later, the cynicism of an ugly war, a string of assassinations, riots in the streets, and the paranoia of a secretive administration, would take their toll on our dreams, our desire to participate and to serve, and our belief in our leaders.

We put away our optimism, our social dedication, and our carefree belief in our ability to make a permanent difference. We moved into business, raised families, made money, and withdrew from the streets. We stopped marching, stopped voting, stopped caring. We lost our sense of trust and the heart in our fight for equality and peace slowly shriveled.

When I ask at work: Where were you when Kennedy was shot, I am greeted by blank stares from staff who weren't even conceived in 1963. Despite the pain of that time, I feel deep sorrow for those who never had the opportunity to experience the excitement and euphoria of Camelot.

As the old saw states, "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." We lost a great and important part of ourselves on that grassy knoll in Dallas. But we are better people for the elation he gave us, the dreams he inspired, and the deep commitment to our fellow man that he generated within us.

Those who missed that rare shining moment are, all unaware, diminished in their souls. And those of us who were lucky enough to have that spirit enter our lives, however briefly, must each mourn his death alone.

Happy trails, Jack.

We Are The Problem.

2005-11-16T06:40:00.000-08:00

You know, we all talk a good game about keeping job positions in America and stemming the tide of illegal immigrants who pour through our borders at an alarming rate. But are we really willing to change our lifestyle, to put our money where our mouth is?

We love bargains so we buy the lowest priced goods from clothes, to electronics, to household furnishings. We have tags on everything we own: "Made in China," or "Assembled in Mexico." We could insist on only purchasing items manufactured in the United States but then we would have to pay more, a lot more.

For Americans to be willing to take the jobs that go to illegal immigrants, pay rates would need to be substantially increased. If a living, above-the-poverty-line, wage was paid for such work as restaurant helper, motel maid, farmhand, day laborer, swamper, furniture assembler, airplane ramp crew, custodian, and fast food worker, all of our goods and services would cost more, meaning that we'd have to give up many of the things we take for granted.

Companies have to maintain a robust bottom line to stay in business. They adjust their prices according to the cost of the goods produced. It may not be very philanthropic or humane, but it is plain, basic economics.

When decent jobs are hard to come by, it is very tempting to blame employers for sending their jobs overseas. It is much more difficult to look at ourselves and admit that our own consumption habits and needs are the driving force.

Unheard and Unseen: The Plight of America's Homeless Poor

2005-11-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

With the rare exception of a special report produced by educational television channels and shown sandwiched between reruns late at night, we seldom see the faces of America's enormous homeless population. They live their street lives in decaying downtowns and slum districts, hidden from our daily commute between work and the suburbs.

I live in the Los Angeles County section of Southern California. Within my one county are more than 90,000 people who have nowhere to call home. Like most of my neighbors, I never use public transportation or visit the poorer areas. Unless I make a special effort, I never see the thousands on the sidewalks.

It is only when disaster strikes a poor area that the country sees the face of poverty. After Andrew in southern Florida and Katrina on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, the omnipresent television cameras caught a glimpse of what it is like to be poor in America. We saw the faces of the forgotten lined up in the Superdome and had to admit that the national dream of success and a comfortable lifestyle does not extend to everyone.

There are those who believe that the poor bring on their own misery. That anyone with any motivation would be able to work themselves out of the mess. Certainly there are thousands of homeless who have drifted away from the larger society because of drugs or mental illness, the have-nots who fail to qualify for the treatment and rehabilitation programs established for the more fortunate.

Many thousand more are simply victims of domestic violence, illness, structural unemployment, or a series of events that devastated their former working or middle class lives. Many thousands are simply the working poor. Lacking skills and contacts, they trudge daily to minimum wage, low level positions: motel maid, security guard, custodian, waitress, or day labor. The minimum wage is a social farce for a single individual, never mind someone with children to support.

Can Congress or the Administration explain how someone clearing less than $200 per week can feed and clothes themselves and their family and yet set aside enough money for even the cheapest apartment? Can the finest financial minds in the country calculate how to pay first and last month rent and a security deposit when there are only pennies left at the end of the week?

Yet President Bush moved to suspend the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act for the rebuilding of New Orleans. Is it his theory that the poor don't deserve the protection of prevailing wages so he can use that money to protect them from terrorism?

The poor and the homeless don't even think about a bomber at an airport or what's happening in the Middle East. They have more pressing concerns such as where is their next meal coming from, how can they educate their children, and where would be the safest place to spend the night.

And the oil companies, with their already obscene profits, get a tax break.

Where are we heading, folks?

Diamonds In The Spam.

2005-10-30T07:24:00.000-08:00

There are those who turn apoplectic at the receipt of unsolicited commercial email, commonly dubbed spam. These are the same people who receive hundreds of bulk letters addressed to "Occupant" without batting an eye.

Getting rid of unwanted mail means sorting through the stack to pull out the important pieces and then dumping the remainder in the trash bin. The garbage piles up in landfills and ocean dumping grounds while the trees continue to fall to produce more and more paper.

Electronic mail can be quickly scanned and then deleted, disappearing forever into cyberspace, causing no pollution or build-up, and requiring no consumption of non-renewable resources.

My inbox is my conduit to the world, scanned daily with eager eyes for those unexpected morsels that appear out of nowhere. I have found delightful offers, developed new areas of interest, and have followed seductive links to websites that have become perennial favorites - all because of unsolicited messages.

My response is that, barring blatantly pornographic material, I like spam, and I hope it keeps coming. Unfortunately, those who feel the purity of the Internet has somehow been violated, have led to a cyber world where everything requires confirmation, double or triple opt-in lists, bouncing of incoming messages by non-intelligent filters, and evokes multiple complaints to ISPs who are forced to investigate and respond.

The Internet is so wonderful because it is highly resistant to the urge for co-option by the government, large corporations, and the rich and powerful. It is the great leveler where even the most humble can connect to the world.

Let's fight to keep it that way, even if it means 30 minutes of our precious daily time is spent deleting unwanted messages.

Emotional Overload.

2005-10-24T06:28:00.000-07:00

It started in December of last year when we all watched the horror of the killer Tsunami in Southeast Asia. We emptied our pockets to help the victims and our hearts ached for the survivors who lived on after everything and everyone they had was washed away.

Then the rains came to sunny Southern California and the hillsides moved. We watched the onslaught of mud and debris, closer to home this time, and again our hearts ached for the victims.

Only a few months later, Katrina and then Rita killed hundreds of our fellow citizens, left hundreds of thousands homeless, and devastated a beautiful and unique city. Once more, we reached deeper into our pockets and our hearts, finding more money and more love to reach out to those who had lost what little they had.

Still reeling from the financial and emotional fatigue of the killer hurricanes, we watched with numb eyes and senses as an earthquake destroyed much of the idyllic Kashmiri landscape and mud buried whole villages in Central America.

Are we in danger of emotional overload? How much more horror, how many more tragedies, can we handle? We need to step back and allow our feelings to regroup and renew themselves.

Ask any mother with a large family if she loves her new baby less than the ones who went before. Despite the worries of siblings that their importance will fade with the advent of more children, any mother will quickly explain that her love extends to all her children, her capacity for love simply expanding and deepening with each new birth.

That is the glory of the human race. Our empathetic concern for our fellow men may undergo a temporary paralysis but quickly bounces back, our capacity to care and help deepened by our experiences. For all our wars and killings, for all the torturing and maiming of our brothers, we are, at our best, a species who yearns for peace and a loving relationship with the fellow travelers on our unstable and ravaged spaceship earth.

If we can only find a way to divert our resources from armaments and petty political battles toward nourishing and empowering the citizens of the world, then we will finally live up to the evolutionary expectations demanded of a species not only blessed with the greatest minds nature has ever developed, but with the hearts to match.

Is The End Near?

2005-10-14T09:26:00.000-07:00

During the past year, hundreds of thousands have perished at the hands of a mother nature run amok. Tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, and torrential rains have served us notice that for all our brilliant achievements, we are not masters of the earth.

Those who adhere to the prophecies of the past suggest that the cataclysm of world destruction is coming, that the rapture is at hand, the end is near.

Certainly, the recent natural disasters have been extreme, eclipsing anything in living memory, but do they signify a terrible end?

The human race is now enormous, exceeding by a thousand percent the world inhabitants of the not-too-distant past. Communication is instantaneous: a boulder falls on a house and a picture is flashed around the world before the dust settles.

Consider the news in historical context, a far vaster landscape than human memory. And consider that until 100 years ago, news of events traveled slowly, if at all.

The earthquake in Kashmir claimed perhaps 40,000 valuable lives out of a planetary population of 6.4 billion souls. An earthquake in Shaanxi, China in 1556 claimed over 800,000 lives out of a contemporary population of only a few million, most of them totally unaware of the disaster.

The horrors of AIDS and the looming threat of 'flu pandemics may kill a few million of us. In 1347-1350, the Black Death wiped out over a third of Europe's population and it took 400 years to grow back to its former level. There were no news flashes or video coverage, just the word of straggling strangers of the terrors they had seen.

Think of the Ice Ages that have periodically crept across the earth's surface, wiping out hundred of species each time and forever leaving the mark of their ravages on the continents. Envision an enormous meteor crashing into our planet, leaving a killing residue of dust that blotted out the sun's rays for decades, destroying the dinosaurs that had dominated the landscape for 100,000 years of endless summer.

Our spaceship earth is a living, breathing and highly unstable vessel. It explodes, erupts, and trembles on its own timetable, far removed from the brief memories of mankind.

The forces of nature are doing what they have always done. There are just so many more of us to get in the way and so many more to bear witness to the calamities.

Katrina: Victims For Life?

2005-10-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

There can be no debate about the horror of the World Trade Center attack. No conceivable rational excuse for the criminal destruction of spectacular buildings and thousands of innocent lives can be advanced. It was monstrous; it was deadly; it was immoral.

Four years later, the survivors still mourn their loved ones and the world looks to ground zero as the crucial moment when American innocence died. Somehow, the families of those who perished moved on. Several thousand Federal dollars in compensation did not take away the pain but did enable dreams of a life still worth living.

Only after the settlements were made were the cries of the families in Oklahoma heard, Those families, too, suffered a terrible loss but received only speeches and sympathy.

And now there are the victims of Katrina. Not only were hundreds of family members lost but, in addition, entire businesses, lifestyles, community bonds, and the independence conferred by gainful employment were entirely obliterated. We must ask ourselves: do we deal with victims in an evenhanded manner?

The financial safety nets of insurance, high pre-trauma earnings, and safety member retirement systems, were already in place in New York. The financial largesse of the government provided an even larger buffer against the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune.

Most of Katrina's victims lived their lives without a single tattered safety net in place, Poor, unskilled, and underemployed, many of these Gulf Coast residents barely stayed afloat even before the flood waters raged in. Now what little they had is gone. They cannot bury their dead and get on with life as the 911 families managed to do - because there is no life left.

The political think tanks that worry if a nominee is conservative enough, the lobbyists busily grabbing the largest slice of pork for their clients, the Haliburtons, the Fluors, and the oil magnates have no emotional conception of the reality of poverty. While difficulty in paying the bills is common at all economic levels, contrast that with someone who has no bills because they have nothing: no debts, no creditors - but also no money, no food, no home, no resources.

For those still living in shelters or staying at a hotel until the vouchers run out this month - where are the federal dollars to help them move on? The government can't even figure out how to get generators to hospitals nor trailer homes to available land.

After the photo-ops, the dramatic flyovers, and the congressional appropriation bills, our leaders will go home to their comfortable beds with easy consciences, confident that they have done what was needed. Years from now, the victims will still be suffering as are those who were displaced long ago by Hurricane Andrew.

Unless they are lucky enough to become the swing vote in a tight election, they will recede from the front pages and slowly submerge beneath the slime of poverty, a more permanent threat than any temporary storm.

Give Again

2005-10-04T06:34:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone -- I have been so busy pursuing other directions that I have been neglecting my blogs -- next week I'll be back on track.

In the meantime, let's all give more to the victims of Katrina and Rita who may be off page one but whose lives are going to be disrupted for a very long time.

Here's the link if you need it.

https://donate.msn.com/pages/landing.html

What Al Qaeda Will Never Understand About The Katrina Disaster

2005-09-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

There are rumors that Bin Laden and his minions are sitting around laughing at the spectacle of the mighty United States bungling the relief efforts for the Gulf Coast. It is certainly ironic, and would be laughable if not for the tragedy it caused, that for disasters anywhere in the world, cargo planes laden with relief supplies are in the air in a matter of hours and ships change course instantaneously to bring aid and comfort, yet it takes us more than a week to reach our own victims.

The terrorists will never see, nor ever comprehend, the real story. They have no interest in individual heroic efforts in the face of total chaos. They pay no attention to the thousands of families who are opening their homes, and their hearts, to the dazed, the poor, the dispossessed.

They chortle at destruction, whether caused by nature or their own design. But they cannot fathom the people who dig themselves out and get on with their lives: the flood victims who find a dry haven and go out to find a job; the subway riders who return to work the following day on a different train; the financial workers who move into new quarters and return to their duties; the families who grow in strength because of the horror they have endured.

The terrorists believe that America is powerful because of its military, its technology, and its wealth. They will never understand that the West's power is in its people. They see a politically divided nation but are blind to its unity and cohesiveness as a community. They fail to appreciate that in the face of catastrophe, all Britons are Londoners, and all Americans call New Orleans home.

The anarchists' subjugation of individual importance to their overriding cause, and their misinterpretation of religious fervor, has forever blurred their vision, concealing the rugged, optimistic, and unfailingly generous, individualism that created and maintains the America we know.

And because they don't understand us, they'll keep on heaping terror on us, never realizing that they cannot, ever, win.

Katrina Brings Out Our Dark Side

2005-09-17T08:33:00.000-07:00

Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims of Katrina. We reach deep into our pockets to find any small contribution we can make. We shiver at the thought of our own homes, and the invaluable scraps of our life they contain, being swamped or washed away. We fondly remember the charm of the French Quarter and the excitement of Mardi Gras.

The Big Easy will be rebuilt, in time, because we refuse to let anything permanently destroy our creations and our dreams - not floods, nor fire, nor tornados, nor earthquakes. Not even airplanes flying into skyscrapers, nor suicide bombs on subways and buses. Survivors by nature, we pick ourselves up and start over.

But behind the inspiring face of the heroes: the rescuers, the healthcare workers, the everyday folk who watch and wait with patience and fortitude, is a darker picture - the looters.

In the breakdown of the usual structure of a city, character may also fracture. One observer (MSN.com) described the scene as "My God, it looks just like Baghdad." It is the same forces at work. Tear the fabric of a society and the reality of who we are emerges, the noble and the profane. We make an individual choice to take the high or low road and must eventually accept responsibility for such personal decisions.

Extenuating circumstances are proposed: the looters are merely hungry.

Ralph Flores and Helen Kleben survived an arctic plane crash, living for seven weeks on little more than melted snow. Thousands flock to spas and health resorts where they pay good money to fast for thirty days or more. Spiritual leaders avoid food for long periods to seek guidance from their souls or their god.

Yet two of the fattest states in an overweight nation (based on the percentage of obese in the population), Louisiana and Mississippi, turn into an out-of-control mob in 24 hours.

As a society, maybe we need to look at ourselves a little more critically. The justly renowned culture and beauty of New Orleans now bears some mighty ugly scars.

ADHD: Pay Attention, Now

2005-09-04T06:38:00.000-07:00

Over the past quarter century, the numbers of those diagnosed with ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) has increased dramatically. More sophisticated diagnostic tools and social acceptance of the malady may be a partial explanation. However, a consideration of social changes may be a worthwhile exercise in trying to define reasons for the widespread growth of this condition.

In ancient times, say the 1960s, life at home and work bore little resemblance to our current climate. There had been many early electronic advances and zeal for modernization permeated the workplace where slow computers required hundreds of square feet of office space. The invention of correcting-type tape (we thought we'd died and gone to heaven with that one) and the adoption of electric typewriters was a revolution to the hordes of clerks and secretaries who inhabited thousands of offices, taking dictation by hand and struggling with the vagaries of purple ink ditto and ugly yellow heat-responsive thermograph machines. At home, color spread through the vast wasteland of television and 45 rpm records were replaced by long playing albums and 8 track tapes. We gloated over AM-FM stereo radios in our cars, the music drowning out the clicks of vacuum-powered windshield wipers.

We had absolutely no conception of what was to come.

The advent of cassette tapes put the entire educational industry of shorthand trainers out of business and a coveted skill became virtually worthless. The copy machine reduced the need for grunt office clerks, and receptionists no longer plugged in a web of cables to connect callers. Word processing systems and then personal computers forever changed the routine of typing.

At home, we moved from records to cassettes to CDs to ipods. Television wasn't just in color, it was cable or dish with 100 more channels to share its wasteland. The pong and pac-man games of bars and arcades moved into our living rooms in ever more advanced and sophisticated forms. We dipped our toes into the Internet and overnight learned to surf like a pro. Not only did the telephone lose its dial, it became a copier, then became totally portable and acquired the ability to take instant pictures, receive text messages, and provide games and instant worldwide access.

In the midst of this revolution in electronics, processes, equipment, and communication, was one entity that didn't change: the human mind. The flexibility and untapped potential of our brains allowed us to invent and implement creations that placed demands on us for which we were ill-equipped.

Our brains' hardwiring is virtually unchanged from prehistoric times. Over the centuries, we have learned to cram in more and more information without crashing from the overload. We handle the threat of over-stimulation by filtering the constant sensory bombardment. We acquire habits and routines that allow us to carry out many of our daily activities without having to think about what we're doing. When conscious thought is required, we are most efficient when we attend to one or two things at a time. We concentrate on one area in order to handle the action required competently and immediately. We ignore irrelevant materials floating around us because they are not our current focus.

Traditionally, we have sought out quiet places for our deep thinking. Spiritual leaders have performed their meditations in silence, in caves, cloisters, deserts, and retreats. Libraries, the place for readers and scholars to think, have always born a funereal hush. Churches and mosques are silent caverns, allowing individual visitors to concentrate on their prayers. High pressure examinations are conducted in total silence. Mental work, such as reading, writing, homework, and studying is performed in a quiet corner or separate room.

Most of those traditions have long gone. At the dawn of the Twenty-first Century, we find ourselves living in an atmosphere of constant noise and imperative, will-not-be-ignored, stimuli. Our children do their homework - trying to absorb more information than prior generations could even imagine - with the television on, the ipod or CD blaring, the cell phone ringing, and the Internet chat room demanding attention.

When they are done with their homework, they play endless video games. From the simple skateboard racing of entranced pre-schoolers to the dark violence of adolescent contests, they spend much of their time immersed in an interactive virtual world that is light years away from the flickering images of the Saturday afternoon westerns we watched with awe, or the few hours of cartoons and sit coms that early television provided.

Motor vehicles are no longer just another means of transportation. They have become electronics on wheels with boom boxes, CD players, subscriber radio networks, and built-in television monitors and DVDs.

Then we wonder at the explosion in ADHD which results in medications for the condition being among the most popular prescriptions issued.

We are surrounded by adults and children who lack the capacity to concentrate on what they read, what they see, and what they hear. When the brain fails to fully attend to new information, it lacks the ability to lay down memory traces and the information quickly fades away. The result is a loss of millions for corporations who have to keep retraining, keep reminding, keep lecturing their employees on data that is required for their job. Customers and contracts are lost because forgotten information leads to poor customer service, death to any business.

Personal lives are diminished for those who can't concentrate long enough to finish tasks they started with such good intentions. Interpersonal relationships suffer due to poor communication skills and the lack of that personal empathy which requires one to intensively focus on another human being to really understand their feelings.

While we continue to dispense the medications that act to filter the stimuli overload, and use psychological modification techniques to mold acceptable social behavior, we also need to look inside our own homes and practice preventive care. Let's limit our children's overexposure to the electronic world they love. Let's model, and reinforce, the human need for quiet time and introspection. Let's encourage reading, thinking, and family discussions instead of using electronic babysitters to allow us the time to get all that unimportant "stuff" done at the expense of our children's future.

Our brains will thank us for it and our children will have received a gift they will treasure throughout their lives.

Overconsumption: America's Guiding Principle

2005-08-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

America is a nation based on the principle of over-consumption. We entered a pristine new world bursting with natural resources, long-drained from the old countries we had left. We plundered the hidden wealth of gold, and silver, and oil. We hunted the great herds of bison close to extinction. We dammed the great rivers, bridged the bays, polluted the seacoasts, and instantly felled tress that had taken centuries to mature.

And when we had done, we looked around the world with our voracious appetite, to see what else we could get our hands on. We consume the rest of the world's natural wealth with a terrifying, rapacious attitude: oil, natural gas, timber, steel, rubber, production goods, textiles, automobiles. A major portion of the earth's resources flow into the ever-open maw of the United States.

Can we ever change direction and find a balance between development and conservation?

Diminishing our consumption is going to be painful. It means giving up our spacious SUVs for hybrids. It means adjusting our thermostats to save energy when we would rather be comfortable. It means giving up our luscious steaks and burgers for beans, and rice, and vegetables.

We don't deal well with pain (just check out the analgesic aisle at your local drugstore). We don't deal well with discomfort (that's why we love our central heating and air conditioning). We don't deal well with deprivation (that's why we carry trillions of dollars in consumer debt). We don't deal well with moderation (that's why we're obese).

Can any culture, entrenched in its traditions and beliefs, make a concerted decision to change directions?

It can. Look at the changes wrought by the Reformation, the Renaissance, the age of exploration, the industrial revolution. African culture was forever changed by colonization, India transformed under the Raj, and the great civilizations of South America absorbed and redirected by Spain and Portugal.

America has a choice: it can transform itself through its own deliberate efforts or wait for outside forces (the depletion of oil, the greenhouse effect, the rise of anarchy in starving countries, the development and transmission of ever more virulent diseases) to mandate such a change.

To manage, control, and contain such change, we need to take, individually and collectively, critical actions now.

1. Conservation.

The government is charged with managing our natural resources and enormous tracts of rich land and forests. We may pressure our representatives to protect our environment but we abdicate our personal responsibility when we rely solely on government action.

As individuals, we can take steps, usually uncomfortable and often painful, to clean up our private environment. We can trade in our gas guzzlers for small, efficient, compacts. We can recycle our containers and packages and refuse to buy anything that contains Styrofoam or other non-biodegradable materials. We can pick up the litter that clogs our highways and rivers and beaches. We can adjust the temperature in our homes and offices. We can cut our food consumption in half to allow more food for the rest of the world. We can limit ourselves to two children per couple to reduce the population explosion that threatens not only the environment but our future lifestyle. We can direct our money and our business into companies that focus on green power, efficiency, and "smaller is better" planning. We can learn to live in less space and reward contractors who build smaller, earth-friendly homes instead of wasteful mansions. WE can learn to live in harmony with our neighbors by turning off our boomboxes and incessant cellular telephones to create quiet pools of serenity.

2. Reduced Demand.

The world of commerce exists to meet the demands of consumers, that is how companies make money. To keep making more and more money, new demands must be created. That demand is cleverly generated by the advertising gurus and marketers who have created a throw-away society where everything must be constantly replaced and products just a year or two old are considered outdated and useless.

As individuals, we can fight this money-producing yet ultimately destructive current. We can keep our cars until they wear out. We can update our electronic dfevices instead of replacing them. We can go back to actually repairing things - shoes, appliances, clothes, jewelry, buildings -instead of merely throwing them away into the ever-growing refiuse dumps and oceans and replacing them. WE can develop an attitude that gives social status and personal reinforcement to those who elect NOT to keep up with the Joneses. We can impart social stigmatism to those who exhibit conspicuous consumption and disregard for the environmental rights of all. And we can set self-imposed limits on ourselves by electing not to grab everything we want and learn to focus on what we need.

3. Balance.

We are all familiar with the concept of pork barrel politics. It is an extension of our personal beliefs that we're entitled to something, even at the expense of others who want the same thing. We would all love regulations that control the actions of others that annoy us: "They should outlaw that . . . There oughta be a law . . . Why doesn't somebody stop them? . . ." However, when a law is proposed against something we enjoy, we fight tooth and nail to retain our rights and privileges.

For example, a non-golfer can make a very convincing argument that courses and country clubs are an unconscionable waste of valuable land, used only by the few who can afford to belong, which could be must more efficiently utilized for affordable housing or public parks. An avid golfer would be aghast at the thought of no more rolling greens peppered with little cups.

It's the old "not in MY backyard" way of thinking. Let's build more prisons, but not here. Let's create safe houses for the homeless and mentally ill, just not on my block. Let's build more airports to ease the congestion, but don't take off over my house. Let's build a super dump for our contaminated garbage, but not in my state.

We are willing to go along with almost anything as long as it doesn't infringe on our personal territory. We can develop a more balanced view when we realize that everything is everyone's territory. We share the same planet, the same finite resources, the same wants and needs.

When we move into such a collective mode, we can abandon our long-held territoriality and start to make collective decisions about what is most effective and logical for the most people.

The demand to share the pie equally usually comes from those who have no pie. If the person who already has the largest piece on their plate decides to put it back and share evenly with all, the meal, and the world, can be transformed.

The Potential Perils of Democracy

2005-08-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

The new Iraqi Constitution will be revealed within the next 36 hours. We do not yet know its language nor its specific provisions although several recent compromises have been publicly discussed.

One of the key points to be settled involves the role of Islamic Law within the new government. The debate rages between those who want religious fundamentalism embedded within the very fabric of the state and those who reject the strict religious control that colored the political structure of the Taliban, Ayatollah Khomeini, and Nigeria.

The American push for democratization of the Middle East means that whatever the citizens will, the world must accept. Any other response renders "democracy" warped, as a weapon of outside forces, and the basic concept of self-determination nullified. There is always the risk, when allowing anyone or any nation, to determine their own definition of acceptable behavior, that the result will not be what was expected.

The United States must decide whether they can live with an ally who denigrates women to second class status. Can we accept the responsibility for having birthed a government where thieves have their hands amputated, where female adulterers are stoned, and where criminals are summarily executed?

Did the more than 18,000 male and female American lives lost have the aim of creating a country where women are not allowed to walk alone, expose their faces, obtain an education, or drive a car?

This administration has committed to expanding freedom throughout the world. Saturated with the narrow and naïve view of their own conservative values, they could not conceive a scenario where different values would predominate. But choice is always a two-edged sword.

If Iraq becomes a fundamentalist Islamic society, the U.S. must decide whether the concept of democracy, no matter how distasteful the result, is the supreme goal.

If not, what is the answer? Keep invading until we get it "right"?

Stand By Your Man - No Matter What?

2005-08-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

We all heard the report of a prisoner escaping after his wife shot and killed the correctional officer transferring him to another jail.

What would motivate a woman to kill someone and let her actions render her vulnerable to the death penalty - for a few hours with "her man?" Was he so incredibly special that death was preferable to living without him for a few years?

If the positions were reversed, would he have risked the ultimate penalty to aid in her escape? Or would he have shrugged and moved on to a new partner?

We are all aware of glaring differences in the psychological makeup of men and women (aside from the often enormous individual differences within any one gender). But where do these differences come from?

Men go to jail and women wait patiently, often for years, until they return home. Women regularly visit their boyfriends and husbands, traveling for hours, undergoing the humiliation of personal searches and pat downs, and wait with inexhaustible patience for a few minutes on a telephone in a cramped prison visiting room. For women prisoners, the only visitors after the first few weeks are family and that is infrequent. The men, who are often the cause of their incarceration, are long gone.

For several months, I worked in a State office building across from the County Jail. There would occasionally be some men seen entering on women's visiting days. But on the evening set aside for visiting male prisoners, hundreds of women formed a line encircling the block and spilling onto the side streets.

Why are we women so loyal? So faithful? So patient? So forgiving? So needy?

Biologically, we are wired for monogamy, stability, and singular devotion as a means to protect the young and allow the species to survive. Through centuries of cultural evolution, we have gradually empowered ourselves so that we no longer serve as the slave of our lovers and husbands and no longer have to settle for second-sex status.

Yet within our liberated midst are thousands who never took that step to independence. The victims of domestic violence who refuse to leave a toxic relationship. The Mormon brides who cheerfully share their husband with his other wives. The women who fight over scrawny, ill-kempt, and semi-retarded boyfriends on Jerry Springer. The bright students who give up their own career dreams to pour their energy into getting their husbands through Law or Medical school (and get dumped later when no longer needed).

For centuries, men left home to go to war, to explore the world, to find fortune, to pursue adventure. And the women waited.

Now, at the dawn of the Twenty-First Century, despite the continued expansion of opportunities and rights for women, we are still waiting.

Can Space Ever Be Safe?

2005-08-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

Exploration has never been an undemanding endeavor.

Look at the pioneers of the New World: Magellan killed in the Pacific, daGama dying on the way to India, and Cook bludgeoned to death in Hawaii. Africa was opened to Western Civilization by men who unhesitatingly walked into dark jungles and never returned. Thousands of ordinary people headed westward in wagon trains, hundreds of them never seeing the California of their dreams.

We continue to put pressure on NASA to make the space program safe. It is never going to be a safe venture, no matter how careful the calculations and how obsessive the system checks. Space is a dangerous place because we don't naturally belong there. Just as venturing into the oceans requires equipment to allow us to survive, so the vacuum outside the earth's atmosphere will destroy our little carbon cycle bodies without extensive and sophisticated life support systems.

What drives the few who dare its challenges? They seem to bear little resemblance to the loners, oddballs, and starry-eyed visionaries who dared sail west with little more than a hunger for glory, and more than a little greed in their hearts. The new frontiersmen (and women) are engineers, pilots, scientists, slow and steady in their ways, sober and responsible citizens, working within a team, painstakingly trained for every probable scenario.

Somewhere in their inner mind, they hear the same call as their forerunners down the centuries who struck out into the unknown, fearless in the face of certain risk and unpredictable dangers. Their need is to know, to understand, to expand the human experience. They have considered the possibility that they may not return but have chosen to step forward anyway, a part of a long human chain constantly reaching for its own potential.

For years, NASA and the world were extraordinarily lucky in the avoidance of fatal accidents. Two shuttle disasters reinforced the odds of failure that we thought we had somehow beaten. Now there are seven human souls dependent on a 30 year old vehicle which may, or may not, be significantly damaged, to bring them safely home.

The world will hold its breath when they flare back into the atmosphere, ever fearful of another fireball exploding across the sky.

The most serene and confident watchers will be the seven on board. Unlike those of us forever shackled to the earth and mundane lives, they know they are a vital link in mankind's climb to the stars. The loss of any one link is a genuine tragedy but is also only a regrettable misstep on the continuing collective journey to invent our own future.

Recycling The Mentally Ill

2005-07-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

30 years ago, California, later followed by other states, decided to virtually close down the State Mental Hospitals.

There had been multiple exposures of abuse throughout the Nation's systems such as over-medicated individuals kept on back wards for years without clinical justification. However, the primary force leading to the widespread closures was economic. Providing free room, board, medication and psychiatric care to the chronic and seriously impaired mental health population was expensive and failed to result in any positive financial or political benefits.

Theoretically, these marginally functional individuals would now be cared for by a network of community service agencies that would spring up on a local basis. Unfortunately, such a network never existed and failed to develop for the same economic challenges the State Institutions had faced. Counties continued to provide outpatient services, with occasional brief local hospitalizations for those who became unstable, and nonprofit organizations were founded, and often financially foundered, to provide services.

With few resources and the cognitive and emotional inability to connect with the few programs available, the mentally ill started to drift into the streets where they often self-medicated with illegal drugs. Within 10 years, police and social service agencies estimated that possibly one third of the growing homeless population had mental disabilities.

An increase in street crime, the resentment of business owners who lost customers who would not cross the crowds of homeless on the sidewalks, and the disgust of working citizens who resented the litter and potential dangers of large numbers of people living on the streets, led to a political decision to crackdown on the homeless. Sweeps of targeted areas moved the homeless away - to other areas where the resentment was just as great. Petty street crimes to enable the penniless to live, and drug use, provided the excuse for more draconian measures. The homeless started moving again, this time into the prisons.

It is now estimated that the penal system is the largest provider of mental health services in the nation. Apart from those Institutions designed for those who have been legally determined to be "criminally insane," the system houses mentally ill individuals who may make up a third or more of the total prison population.

Building more prisons and hiring more guards is politically positive: voters want to keep their communities clean and safe and willingly pay for the fight against crime. While the murderers and rapists are held up as examples of those who need to be contained at all costs, the fact remains that a majority of the enormous and growing prison population are serving their time for drug-related activities or victimless crimes.

The mentally ill have finally been fully recycled. They are still invisible but instead of vegetating in State Mental Wards, they are caught within a system which robs them of their dignity, provides less than optimal treatment, and costs far more to the taxpayers than would well-organized and efficiently run hospitals and clinics.

This is progress?

Life Beyond The Internet.

2005-07-18T11:05:00.000-07:00

Am I letting the Internet take over my life?

I sit here on my one day off this week and think about how I have spent the last three or four months of my life.

Except for the time I put into my regular job, all of my attention has been focused on my computer. I even eat at my desk while continuing to work. In February, I learned how to create a mini-site and had one up by March. I tried all kinds of advertising, paid and unpaid, ordered every report that promised the skills, equipment, and "secrets" to put me over the top. I joined every group, newsletter, list builder, traffic exchange and affiliate program that I could find. I kept writing articles and completed an e-book. Then I put up a second mini-site and went through the whole process again.

Today I came up for air to assess how I was doing. I made a couple of sales here and there but only drummed up a dribble of interest. I am so impatient - I want results immediately, sales right now. I read this morning in one of my hundreds of e-mails, that even the big earners on the net had to develop their income streams over two or three years. That makes a lot of sense if you don't get distracted (as I was) by the claims to "Put $200 in your pocket in the next two hours," or "Make $58,168 your first month."

How gullible we all are when we set out with starry eyes, intending to make a major splash in the electronic firmament. So I'm going to gear back. The processes I have put in place will keep on churning without my constant watch.

I need to get away from the shrill voices and e-mails of the Internet gurus who promise that if I buy just one more report, one more software system, join one more venture, I'll have it made for life. I am sick of the deception, the manipulation, and the downright lies of the professional marketers. I am equally revolted by the overly slick come-ons and the amateurish, unending e-mails from folks who can barely string a decent sentence together trying to convince me that they are making a fortune by sending out their monstrosities of sales letters.

I am white with fatigue at the letters from relatives and bank officials in remote African nations offering me millions and the phony notices of holographic lottery winnings for which I have been randomly selected.

I need to regain my perspective and my balance. I want to spend some quiet time a long way away from any kind of computer. I am going to reconnect with nature, enjoy the sun, walk along the ocean, and run my bare feet through the long grass.

We have reduced this wonderful, awe-inspiring planet of ours to the gaudy screen of a computer and the flicker of a television set. We are like Plato's cave dwellers, watching the dancing shadows and believing that we are actually seeing life.

The Black Flag of Anarchy.

2005-07-15T07:03:00.000-07:00

Rational, sober, logical citizens wonder what exactly the terrorists want. What purpose does it serve to fly planes into buildings, kill and maim police recruits by the hundreds, or blow up innocent commuters on mass transit?

Such a question carries the assumption that there is a goal hidden beneath the madness. Historically, terrorism has often been used to bring about a desired conclusion. The Irgun in Palestine pursued terrorist acts to achieve the state of Israel. The activists of the IRA sought a free Ireland without British garrisons or influence. The Russian Bolsheviks fought for food, money, and some semblance of personal power. In isolated pockets all over the globe, terrorist acts are being committed right now to give birth to political change, define a new national state, relieve the oppression of tyranny, or to economically and spiritually transform a society.

The current terrorists, the loosely organized confederation of Al Qaeda and its multiple offshoots, seem to have a different agenda. Their guiding philosophy appears to be anarchy: the absence of any structure or order at all. If they are merely anti-western, why blow up so many of their own people? If they want a fundamental Islamic society, why boycott the voting booth? If they want the United States out of Iraq, why attack the very security forces which are the only forces that can trigger an early withdrawal?

When we wonder what side they are on, we are led to the inevitable conclusion that they don't have a side. They are fanatics without a cause, soldiers without a country, commandos without a mission. They have no underlying goals except disruption. They are ideological nihilists: nothing is worthwhile, nothing has any value, nothing counts.

Spawned out of a deep hatred fostered by utter powerlessness, lack of direction, and a total loss of belief in themselves or anyone else, they live only to act out their hatred in actions designed to convince themselves that they somehow count for something.

With no goals but widespread destruction, how can they win? They can wound the world to assuage their own pain but it can't get them anywhere because they have nowhere to go. At the end of a war, soldiers return home with more, or less, successful adjustment to real life. The terrorists have nowhere to go. Their battle will never be over because fighting is all they have.

We use the phrase "The war on terror." To call it a war suggests that there are opposing views in conflict and that one view will eventually prevail. Since the terrorists have no view, they can never win unless the entire world is destroyed. Failing their ability to get their hands on immense stocks of nuclear or biological weapons, that is unlikely.

So what is the world to do? Stand idly by while the laughter of innocents continues and disrupted economies lead to mass desperation? No, we continue to use soldiers, weapons, and military tactics to thwart their efforts and wipe out their toxic existence. And we get back on the buses and subways, just as the great folks of London and Madrid are, and reclaim lives and lifestyles that do have meaning, that stand for something, that represent a goal and a future.

The soldiers can continue their mop-up sweeps but it is the commuter who returns to work, the police recruit who continues to train, the farmer who continues to plant, the production worker who continues to assemble, and the doctor who continues to heal, who are the real victors. Standing for something, anything, will, by default, always triumph over the empty darkness that the black flag of anarchy represents.

Take-Over Tension

2005-07-07T17:40:00.000-07:00

More than 110,000 layoffs are expected in the next few months. The June layoff rate increased 35% over that of May and was 75% higher than June, 2004. And you thought it was finally getting better?

On a personal note, the large company for which I work was bought yesterday by a much larger competitor. There had been no leaks, no rumors, just a sudden, totally unexpected announcement. Unsure of what changes will come, the office had a funereal hush all afternoon as everyone digested the news and tried to conceal their anxiety.

There are those who embrace the excitement of change, welcoming a shake-up of their humdrum world. Others fear anything new and start to panic at the thought of the potential loss of routine. Most of us just keep plugging away at our everyday tasks, trying to do a good job, while listening warily for any inside gossip that can indicate future directions. And we all look at each other with masked eyes, wondering where and when the axe will fall.

At some not too distant point, reorganization plans will break the almost unbearable tension. Then some of us will breathe a sigh of relief and return to our duties. And some of us will slide into the murky swamps and self-esteem-crushing horrors of unemployment.

The jobs picture is a national problem. The pink slip is a personal wound we each face alone.

Our 24/7 World.

2005-07-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

We truly live in a world that never sleeps. The Internet, television, radio, and customer service telephone lines are continuously available, all day, all night, 365 days of the year. It's like a "we never close" Las Vegas, everywhere. We are so used to doing whatever we need to do, at any time that's convenient to us, that we could easily eliminate sleep ffrom our lives altogether if our physiology would only cooperate.

Are you old enough to remember when banks closed at 3 in the afternoon? When 24 hour time displays were restricted to hospitals and the military? When television studios went off the air around 11 at night to the strains of the Star Spangled Banner? When graveyard shifts were limited to emergency services, manufacturing plants and Ma Bell?

Research has clearly demonstrated that after 7 to 10 days of no sleep, individuals become so confused and disoriented that they can no longer be held legally liable for their actions. As a nation, we are chronically sleep-deprived. Not to the extent of being awake continuously for days at a time, but we never quite get enough. We have no idea, yet, what effect our busy, overactive minds will have on us over the long term.

Will we adapt to sleeping less as human beings have always adapted to changes in their environment? Or will we start to suffer new maladies and distressful physical conditions because our bodies can't keep up the pace?

We have 21st Century brains exploding in our Paleolithic bodies. Whether they can eventually accommodate each other is the big question.

Bush's Chance To Rise Above His Own Reality

2005-07-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

Sandra Day O'Connor is retiring! Now we get to see what Bush is really made of. Will he kowtow to his right wing zealots and try to get an impossibly conservative nominee approved or, now that there are no more elections for him to worry about, will he rise to the occasion and pick a balanced candidate seeking to unite rather than divide?

We can only hope that his eye has turned to the broader stage of history, away from the narrow vision of electoral politics. It would be so much easier to trust his vision if he didn't permanently wear that arrogant smirk.

I fear the direction he will pursue but continue to hope that he'll prove my fears unjustified.

Social Security Stays Stymied

2005-06-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

The debate over Social Security continues with polls showing approval of the President’s proposals falling to a new low of 25%. Does that indicate that 75% of the population believes there is a better route to pursue?

Congressional suggestions range from pushing back the age of eligibility, to reducing benefits, to tying the level of benefits to outside income. Conflicting views arise from conflicting perspectives on what the system is really supposed to be for.

Is it insurance? Workers pay their “premium” throughout their working years with a guarantee that they will receive a pay back at a certain age.

Is it social support? Workers contribute, knowing that they will receive benefits only if they are in absolute need.

Is it taxation? Workers pay the government to help subsidize health and welfare benefits for those who have nowhere else to turn.

Is it mandatory savings? Workers pay a percentage of their paychecks to a government agency knowing that they are entitled to receive their savings back, with interest, at a certain age – no less, but no more, than they “saved” through the years.

Once we have decided what it is, the changes needed become entirely logical. The problem lies in defining its purpose. Controversy arises because all segments of our society have their own axe to grind. Younger workers don’t want to spend months of their yearly toil to support non-working grandparents. Seniors want current benefits untouched and yearly raises. Middle-aged workers want the old military/union sequence of 30 years and out with a guaranteed lifetime income.

The reluctance to compromise leads to the occasional temporary band aid on the biggest leaks, good enough until the dam bursts.

Luckily, we have a few years to put off the inevitable. Let’s keep talking and not doing, it’s the politically expedient way.

The Schiavo Autopsy Report

2005-06-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

After the outpouring of emotions and personal soul searching that Teri Schiavo's predicament evoked in us all had finally started to calm down, the results of her autopsy were released by the medical examiner this week.

We shall probably never know the cause of her unfortunate cerebral accident although domestic violence and an eating disorder seem to have been ruled out. The important information was the confirmation of her physiologic condition: her brain was atrophied to half normal size. While platitudes like "humans only use 10% of their brains' potential" abound, it is a documented fact that half a brain just doesn't function like a complete brain. In Ms. Schiavo's case, it did not seem to function above the most primitive level: she was blind, oblivious to her surroundings, unable to eat, and unable to make purposive movements beyond reflexes.

Consider the debates that have raged over her. If you accept the medical evidence that her persistent vegetative state was permanent, then pulling the feeding tube is the logical response. On the other hand, if you identify with her parent's view: that she could appropriately respond to the sound of loved voices and wanted to stay alive, then you must perforce assume that she still possessed some modicum of an unconscious self.

Is it believable that any human being given the choice of a living hell -- can't speak, can't move, can't eat, can't see -- or the peace of simply going to sleep, would choose . . . hell?

To argue that she should have been allowed to live until natural death occurred is moot: she naturally died 15 years ago and only unnatural means maintained her body in a semi-living state.

However, even if she was virtually unresponsive, those who loved her had something to touch beyond a grave and a memory and they desperately wanted to hold on to that for as long as they could.

With all the scientific data in the world, and the interference of courts, religious leaders, and politicians, the moral dilemmas get no easier and, quietly and alone, we all have to make our own decisions about life.

Blog Language

2005-06-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

I read over a lot of blogs each week, casually surfing one or two of the blog exchanges I belong.

I realized yesterday that I seldom read the whole entry unless it's very short. Many are quite uncomfortable, some downright excruciating, in terms of their grammatical skills, spelling, and style. Because it is such an immediate and off-the-cuff personal expression, do the standard language rules apply?

The conversational nature of a blog leads naturally to an informal, casual approach that can be refreshing and innovative, indirectly echoing some of the great writers of the past who used dialect and local expressions to vitalize their work.

It is unfortunate that so many who write don't understand basic language rules so cannot effectively break them. When it takes major time and effort to understand what on earth the writer is trying to say, rather than being able to appreciate the content and point of view being expressed, it becomes merely an exercise in frustration.

The beauty, and ultimate value of blogging, is that communication is direct, individual, and uncensored. No editor with an eye on public opinion or potential legal consequences is cutting out whole paragraphs in fear they will offend. There is no filter applied by conservative management or the need for committee consensus prior to publication.

However, those of us who publish our thoughts and opinions to the world do have one big responsibility: to our readers. We can, happily, say anything we want but need to clearly communicate our point of view.

Anything less demeans the value of this wonderful new medium and leads to millions of electronic pages that fail to unite us in community, as is our goal, but merely consumes virtual space like the incoherent ramblings of a lonely psychotic.

Guantanamo -- Take 2

2005-06-05T06:11:00.000-07:00

Slowly the investigations proceed and slowly the truth emerges. There were, indeed, instances at Guantanamo of Koran mistreatment. Was there somewhere a thought that if Newsweek was bullied into retracting its allegations that the whole mess would go away?

As all despots and public misinformers eventually learn, to their dismay, the truth will out even if cleverly concealed for years.

Should we expect exemplary behavior from our soldiers and civilian interrogators? Given the circumstances that would be, at best, naive. We have untrained troops, mainly unskilled guards of average or below average intelligence, taking care of thousands of internees from totally different cultures.

Are the prisoners terrorists? Some are. None were involved in 9/11 but probably participated in smaller yet equally heinous acts. There are others guilty only of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Since none of them have any civil rights, advocates, or any semblance of power, it is impossible to tell which prisoners are dangerous and which are merely mistakes. A big enough net cast into an ocean will ensnare dolphins and porpoises as well as the target tuna.

We shouldn't worry too much -- those who committed the foulest acts were fired, we're told. It is even more re-assuring to realize that recruitment quotas are so underfilled that soldiers considered inappropriate military material will no longer be disciplined or discharged because manpower is needed, no matter how incompetent or psychologically unfit.

Let's send all the inadequate screw-ups to Guantanamo where they can continue the appalling treatment this administration feels is appropriate for anyone disagreeing with their moral world conquest agenda.

The mask of the unwitting Ugly American slips -- to reveal the disfigured phantom of Pennsylvania Avenue.

A Blonde, A Burger, And A Bentley

2005-06-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

At first glance, Paris Hilton's commercial for the Carl's Jr. fast food chain could be advertising any item, like those rap-strewn bluejean montages none of us over 21 understand. Finally, you notice the huge sloppy burger she's downing between the gyrations, the water hose, and the suds.

Brilliant marketing or ho-hum soft porn?

If the object of the spot is to attract attention, surely the goal of all commercials, it is a resounding success. If it seeks to engage the product's primary audience, young males 16 to 24 years of age, it is phenomenally on target.

How many television commercials ever get mainline media coverage? Very few. But this one has been featured on the news, the morning shows, even the sports outlets. It almost hit a grand slam when rumors of a pending lawsuit (since denied) by a conservative watchdog group surfaced.

As a middle-aged, professional, modern woman who fought hard in the 1960s and 1970s to gain a foothold in a man's world, should I be outraged that an empty-headed, talent-free, unaccomplished bimbo should garner such attention? Should we seek to curtail this glorification of tabloid mentality?

Actually, no. The concept of feminism embraces the right of women to access the same opportunities enjoyed by men. The goals chosen by individual women are personal and unique. Ms. Hilton is merely the female equivalent of the gigolo, the professional resort beach boy, the young lover of an old, rich widow. Her aspirations appear to be limited to celebrity and notoriety, not the most stable of environments.

I would suggest that there is room in our society for all tastes, even if impoverished or overtly vulgar. Besides, the more flighty, celluloid-bound competitors there are, the easier it is for the rest of us to get ahead in the real world. Do your thing, Paris!

Hype!!!!!!!!!!!!! Has The Internet Gone Too Far?

2005-05-29T05:30:00.000-07:00

I remember back in the 1980s (history for many of you reading this), I had a friend working at the University of California who had access to the Internet through the University system. It was new, it was esoteric, it was for academicians, nerds, and professional scientists.

Another friend, a salesman, pondered the commercial possibilities. "Sales and marketing," my University friend intoned, is "strongly frowned upon" by the Internet community.

Fast forward 20 to 25 years. What happened?

A system designed for researchers and academic communities to discuss ideas has become one of the primary means of communication for individuals throughout the world. It is the great leveler: a Bosnian peasant, a Kenyan tribesman, an urban ghetto adolescent, with access to a computer, is on a level with global corporations and top decision makers. The world wide web has created an unprecedented opportunity for verbal intercourse, far beyond anything that has historically been available, for anyone, even the rich and powerful. Blogs, personalized and updated, perhaps several times a day, allow the most humble their day in the sun.

What have we done with this new weapon with its potential to unite the world and give every individual, no matter how powerless and lonely, the chance to interact on the world stage?

We have commercialized it beyond any reasonable "make a sale" level. We have created the ultimate international snake oil salesperson. We have taken the "great communicator" and transformed him into the "great con."

How did this happen? The desire to sell something -anything - morphed into simply the desire to sell. Join any traffic site, SEO group, PR Newsletter, or Internet Forum and you will be immediately inundated with messages about selling.

Is there anything wrong with trying to sell a product? Of course not, that is what makes the wheels of commerce go round. I have no objection whatsoever to someone trying to sell me something - that is their job and I respect their right to pursue it.

What totally sickens me (how about you?) are the people who are not trying to sell me a product but are selling "how to sell."

I belong to several traffic exchange sites (I willingly admit that I'm trying to sell a book) that require me to spend 20 to 30 seconds on other exchange program websites. I have no problem with, and actually admire, someone trying to sell me something, whether I want it or not. I even find myself sighing with relief when I reach a site selling an actual product, whether a bottle of pills, a newsletter, a gift, or an e-book.

What frustrates, exasperates, and eventually disgusts me, is the webmaster out there who is not really selling anything tangible, merely selling the reader on selling. How many ads have you encountered that want you to sign-up for "The List," "Marketing Secrets Revealed," or "Make $___ within 48 hours without lifting a finger." How many times have you clicked on a link only to find the same theme: how you can make money off everyone else?

If everyone on the net is there to make money, from whom are they making their living? Is there really a vast population of the unwashed, sitting quietly reading their emails and surfing unending Websites, who exist just to buy stuff from these overzealous marketing gurus? Or does the money simply rotate as marketers buy from marketers toward the supreme goal of becoming a better marketer?

We live in the information age where knowledge is power, the details of both history and today's world are only a mouse click away, and the ease of access to almost everything approaches the speed of interplanetary travel. What productive use have we identified for all of this data?

Future archeologists, digging through our abandoned middens and long forgotten dumpsites, may finally stumble across our great weakness: that making money is the be-all and end-all of life.

Shaking their heads in regret, they will publish their findings, reporting on a great civilization that eventually collapsed under the weight of its own hype.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

2005-05-22T05:57:00.000-07:00

The picture emblazoned across The Sun, a London tabloid, was quickly picked up by the international media. Saddam in his underwear. (At least Adolf Hitler had the guts and good sense to shoot himself before being publicly viewed washing his laundry). Rumors surfaced that the pictures had been leaked by U. S. Military Officials in an attempt to destroy the larger-than-life myth that loyalists to the former dictator wished to spread. The reported goal was to break up the long-running Iraqi insurrection. Could anyone in the U. S. military really be that naïve, that stupid, that obtuse?

The outrage of such public humiliation, following on the heels of the Guantanamo Bay Koran affair (retracted by Newsweek but long published elsewhere), has completely blackened the American image in the Middle East, already dangerously tarnished by those fun guys and gals who brought you Abu Ghraib.

The final blow was delivered by the Deus ex Machina himself. In his usual deft fashion, President Bush alienated the six remaining pro-western Arab Muslims by referring to the insurgents as "motivated by a vision of the world that is backward and barbaric." His selection of words resonated as a personal opinion on the whole of Islam.

Open mouth, insert foot, take action, and only then demand a complete investigation. The pattern is repeating itself.

The Blessings, and Curse, of Interpreting the Constitution

2005-05-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

The Senate is in an uproar about the issue of approving the nomination of certain judges. There are vocal supporters for and against traditional techniques of the filibuster. There are others working hard to identify options and compromises to avoid a head-to-head battle that will leave one side staggering.

The rest of the country looks on: in confusion, in awe, in indifference, in disgust. We never really trust politicians anyway so why should their internal disagreements mean a hill of beans to the working stiff on the street?

The critical importance to every citizen, no matter the social level or way of life, is that the system has to work or we have no rules, no structure, no boundaries to mark our place. We all have differing opinions about how to rule the world. Senators and Judges have varying ideas also. The truth is that when Senators and Judges, individually and then collectively, make decisions about issues, we all have to live with the results.

One of the great strengths of the Constitution is that it provides a framework for our society but is also extremely flexible. That flexibility is constantly pulled and stretched by the myriad of meanings that can be read into its written form. Over the centuries, its principles have been interpreted, and reinterpreted, the meanings changed as our society changed.

We hope, as no doubt the founding fathers hoped, that in the long term opposing forces should balance each other out and a centrist consensus should emerge that keeps us moving in a generally positive direction. For more than two hundred years, that has successfully transpired. While we applaud the robustness of a document that has weathered the slings and arrows of time so deftly, we must also look as events in the short term and the trauma they may impose.

Long before the abolition of slavery, there was the degradation of thousands of human lives, treated, auctioned, bullwhipped, and ravaged like livestock, all under the auspices of the Constitution.

Before Brown vs. Board of Education, there was Plessy vs. Ferguson and thousands of black children were restricted to separate educational facilities, patently unequal in every resource: money, personnel, books, supplies, and expectations. Recourse was banned because the Constitution countenanced such a lie.

Decades before Roe vs. Wade, doctors were fully competent to perform clinically safe abortions. Yet thousands of women died in backrooms, in Mexican hotel rooms, and in the parlors of unlicensed midwives.

Each time a decision is made about what the Constitution "really" means, someone gets hurt.

Abolition saved the slaves but economically destroyed the Old South. Desegregation of schools helped black children embrace the hope of a better life but bankrupted marginal communities who already had severely limited resources. Legal abortion saved the lives, and lifestyles, of thousands of women but destroyed the possibilities inherent in those fetuses we threw so casually away.

It is in their recognition of the power inherent in any one person's, or group's, ability to interpret the Constitution for us all, that the feuding Senators deserve our respect. On each side, they seek to protect their chosen electorate from the "excesses" of the other side. They feel responsible for averting the emotional carnage that extreme views, of any persuasion, impose on the general populace.

It would be easy to simply look at the long haul and calculate that "everything will work out" in the end. Unfortunately, the long haul may mean many lifetimes and we have only one to live - the "short term" incarnate.

It would behoove all of us, no matter our views, no matter our political position, to seek out and identify those our ideas would hurt and think, before we speak or act, how such harm might be minimalized.

The Lure Of Gambling Is Unstoppable

2005-05-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

I just spent three days in the land of milk and money - Las Vegas. There is something refreshingly honest about the place: it's all about money and it knows it. It doesn't pretend to be anything else.

No doubt some of the architects think that their work has some importance of its own: the recreations of Venice, Camelot, Paris, Egypt, and New York. Battling pirate ships and erupting volcanoes aside, once you enter the themed palaces, they are all the same: crap tables, blackjack tables, roulette wheels, and thousands upon thousands of slot machines - all promising to give you a fun time while you lose your money in the pursuit of a possible fortune.

The lure of gambling has existed throughout recorded history but has never gripped the millions who now participate. We play state-sponsored lotteries, visit tribal and other legal casinos, create special accounts for Internet gaming, bet the horses, bet the dogs, bet on sports, fights, anything where we can catch the excitement of beating the odds.

Moralists worry that a large percentage of those who risk their money, are those who cannot afford to risk anything: the poor, the unemployed, the minimum wage fringe who, at the best of times, barely hang on to the basement rung of the economic ladder. They argue that gambling should be a pleasant pursuit for those who can afford to lose a reasonable amount, using the money they have earned for purchasing excitement, entertainment, and momentary escape.

Who's kidding who?

For the middle class gamblers who bet on the super bowl, the derby, the occasional lottery ticket, or visit the casinos once or twice a year, gambling is a diversion, a fun time, a little bit of excitement sandwiched between the realities of career advancement, building a nest egg, raising children, and doing their civic duties. The thrill of a potential win is the lure of proving their ability to compete, to come out on top, to better their opponents, the pros, the odds, the morning line. It is a personal challenge that can boost their self-confidence when they win but has few negative effects when they lose because their real self-image relates to the important aspects of their lives, separate from their gaming ventures.

It is those who cannot afford to lose who become addicted to the lure of chance. Stuck in minimum wage employment, without the education, the skills, or the entrepreneurial savvy to work their way up the social and economic pyramid, they see gambling as the promise of a permanent way out, a tsunami that can sweep them instantaneously to the top, an overnight millionaire. A lottery ticket, a slot machine, a pick 6 wager, plays no favorites. The poor, the homeless, the forgotten, the have-nots, all compete with the rich and famous on an equal footing. They become hooked on continued gaming because it is the only chance of reaching the lifestyle they want to achieve.

A successful businessman wins a quarter of a million dollars and it is nice: a bonus, a chance to splurge on new toys, the opportunity to retire outstanding debts, or expand their company with a welcome infusion of capital.

A working-class-stiff wins a quarter of a million dollars and it is truly life-changing. A janitor, a gardener, a fast food worker, a guard - with a windfall like that, they can turn their back on the roach-infested slum apartment and move to a better neighborhood or buy a small house and a new car. They can quit their hated job, help their families, participate in the good life they have only previously experienced as outsiders, looking in.

The problem is that it is non-sustainable. Winning what seems like an enormous amount of money seldom leads to rational investment: education, skill upgrades, saving for future college costs or business opportunities. Moving from nothing to something, in an instant, is not an event likely to produce rational planning. For those whose monetary and emotional needs have never been truly met, immediate gratification is the direction of choice. A lifetime of denial demands a certain degree of self-indulgence when the means for it become miraculously available.

Is it any wonder that a large percentage of lottery winners file bankruptcy within five years of their win? The moves, the changes, the life enhancements that substantial wins provide are ephemeral. In the short run, they provide an exciting exit from a black tunnel. In the long run, such a win turns negative - because the dream has become a reality, even if only for a brief moment, returning to prior levels of existence becomes an even more painful form of imprisonment. The need to recapture that dream, and perhaps maintain it this time if a mega-million prize can be snatched, keeps the gambling industry thriving and the promises of dream fulfillment entice us all, most especially the poor, into one more venture, one more ticket, one more chance.

Poor Little Rabbit: The Runaway Bride

2005-05-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

The airwaves crackle with speculation about the Georgia woman who just couldn't face her long-planned wedding. Law enforcement is deciding if they should prosecute or try to recoup the almost 100,000 dollars spent when it was believed that she had been abducted.

What's the problem? Her fiance states that he still loves her and wants to marry her. The vendors for the 600-guest wedding will get paid anyway, without any of the work. The families' pride will eventually be restored and their embarrassment erased.

What does the hoopla say about the state of our society? In other eras, without the mass communication apparatus available today, people could just disappear, and often did. When someone drops out now, we assume foul play because we are so inured to its occurrence. Is it her fault that a manhunt was launched? Her initial claim that she had been abducted was patently false; her real act of running away was an emotional jolt to her family but surely not against the law, nor was it for the California housewife who chucked everything and went to Las Vegas.

Or is there an obscure statute somewhere that prohibits us from shipping out with no notice and no apology? If we are not avoiding debts or crimes, why can't we go wherever we want?

Our society is so organized and our identities so rigidly bound with numbers and personal history that we can no longer escape ourselves. Wherever we go, we can be traced: social security numbers, names, dates of birth, bank account numbers, fingerprint archives, Internet droppings, medical and dental records. Where does it stop?

Communication and intelligence-sharing is needed for security purposes but just how deep into our private lives should Big Brother intrude? Personal freedom means the freedom to be ourselves, to go wherever, and do whatever, we want as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of others. Do others have, in fact, the right to know who and where we are?

Look at the almost-bride's eyes in every photograph. She looks like a terrified rabbit seeking a way to bolt - and finally she did. Poor little rabbit, you didn't get very far, did you?

The occasional urge to flee, to run off to join the circus, to tie up our goods in a scarf on a stick and set off to see the world, tempts all of us at times.

Forget it. You'll be found, brought back, publicly humiliated, and presented with a bill for the money it cost to search for you.

No wonder we read books, watch movies, and play games rooted in fantasy. Was it a coincidence that both the George bride and the California housewife both headed for Las Vegas, the ultimate fantasy? We are no longer allowed a life of adventure or exploration, spending our days, as Thoreau envisioned, leading lives of "quiet desperation."

Let's Call A Spade A Spade

2005-04-29T06:04:00.000-07:00

Much of our personal and cultural perspective on the world is colored by the language in which our concepts and ideas are couched. Changing that language can therefore alter our attitudes about what we hear and see.

"Responsibility," for example, is a word with positive reverberations. It reeks of reliability, accountability, and self-control. It carries connotations of honesty, dependability, and courage.

So why have the media adopted the buzz phrase "claims responsibility" for the violent outrages committed by terrorists who cover their faces in cowardly anonymity, hide themselves behind innocent civilian populations, plot behind closed doors, and, in general, act totally irresponsibly?

If the media changes their terminology to "admits guilt" the concept itself changes dramatically. "Guilt" is a suitably pejorative notion to apply to murder. An admission of guilt clearly conveys the message that the perpetrators know wrong from right and have willingly made their hideous choice.

Regardless of the politics, culture, or religion involved in any dispute, no matter how complicated or divisive, there is the rational approach to resolution and there is the emotionally selfish, vicious, and vindictive response.

Terrorist groups of all persuasions have defined themselves as criminal by their heinous indifference to that most fragile quality: human life. Let's expose them for what they are and call a spade a spade.

Eye For Sale, By Owner

2005-04-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

A wire service report this week showed a single mother in Bangladesh who had advertised to sell one of her eyes to buy food for her starving daughter. Try to think about that without your blood running cold: human beings selling parts of themselves as a final act of desperation. And that woman is only one of the hundreds of thousands who are slowly starving to death each day. What happened to the concert fundraisers for Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Sub-Saharan Africa? Have we exhausted our capacity to care and to give? Have we become numb to the plight of millions because the problems are so overwhelming that we don't know where to start?

We burn down the rainforests, clear the jungles, despoil the environment so that we can create new soil-poor farms to feed more mouths. There are just too, too many of us but our leaders ignore the problem at the root of the world's burgeoning troubles: overpopulation.

And in Rome, the new Pope will continue the traditional church doctrine against contraception. How ironic that the four horseman: death, disease, famine, and pestilence, should be loosed on the world by the City of Faith.

The 7 Deadly Sins are now American Icons

2005-04-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

With the focus of the world on the change of power in Rome, now seems like an appropriate time to look at some tenets of that ancient faith as developed through the centuries.

We all break one of the 10 commandments occasionally, and feel terribly guilty afterwards. The 7 deadly sins are something else: not only do we too frequently display them, but our culture seems bent on idolizing them! Consider:

Pride

The arrogance of believing that our way is the only way and asserting our certainty about how the world should work is exemplified by President Bush and his right-wing minions. The fact that he won re-election confirms that our citizens have no aversion to excessive pride, no matter what their particular religious doctrine prescribes.

Envy

"Keeping up with the Joneses" is a cultural pursuit touching all levels - we want what others have, we want it now, and we will build up our personal debt (just like the National Debt) to get it. Not only do we crave the expensive toys that confer rarefied social status, we rejoice in the fall of our competition and take secret delight in the firing of a coworker who beat us out of a promotion or the fall of a public personality who unfairly seemed to have it all.

Anger

Road rage entered the common vernacular when it became a common occurrence. We no longer publicly counsel patience and personal restraint, we laud the value of being upfront and aggressive. Business executives strive to be straight shooters and drivers, seeing self-contained, mild workers as passive and non-managerial material. "I'm mad as hell and I'm not taking it any more" is a rallying cry for any cause we promote.

Sloth

While we continue to extol the virtues of hard work and personal effort, we quietly buy our lottery tickets, while away our time at the alluring casinos now dotting the national landscape, and enter every contest where we might get something for nothing. Surf the Internet and try to count the ubiquitous and seductive ads promising monstrous income levels without work, without effort, without thought, without meaning.

Greed

We are constantly hearing of scams that have left hundreds of people penniless, homeless, or otherwise terribly hurt. Why are so many victimized? Trace the swindle to its core and there sits greed - the promise of a better investment return, more income, making a small fortune. While most of us are well aware that something that sounds too good to be true probably isn't, we still fall for it if the reward sounds good enough. Do you think the spammers would keep sending out those emails "I am the widow of the late Nkrumo Obol who amassed 25 million dollars . . . " if they never received one response?

Gluttony

Ah! Super-sized America. Two thirds of us are overweight, four in ten clinically obese. Do we have a national metabolic problem? No, we are a nation of guzzlers: we eat too, too much food, consume voluminous cheap foreign goods to the tune of billions of dollars per year, and siphon the majority of the earth's oil into our gluttonous SUVs. We have lost all sense of moderation and balance. We live to consume and then poison our environment with the garbage such overconsumption produces.

Lust

Forty percent of marriages involve at least one affair. Our religious leaders, sports stars, celebrities and even a former President, indulge their libidos when opportunity combines with personal power. Sex has become the vehicle for selling anything and everything, its economic value proved over and over. Desperate housewives and Internet pornography are not mere "lusting in my heart" but reveal the lurid landscape we have developed that creates superstars out of those who exude sex and virility as if it were a talent or a sign of character. We have birthed industries and empires based solely on gossip, rumor, and the promise of sexually-oriented details. Plastic surgeons become millionaires over the bodies they rework for the goal of increasing desirability and eliciting greater lust in the eyes of the beholder.

Are these sins really deadly? Regardless of the "moral value" vote trumpeted after the 2004 elections, few of us regard all manifestations of these sins as totally unacceptable. We may be tempted, we may fall short of our aspirations. But when we elevate such personal and characterological weaknesses to the level of cultural goals, we pay the price: a violent, dangerous, and self-destructive society that demands ever more aggressive security, protection, and policing, and produces a burgeoning prison population.

Whose Moral Values Are They Anyway?

2005-04-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

The great American values debate continues, from the election results last year to the death of Mrs. Schiavo. Public outcry notwithstanding, we must consider how we respond to public displays with sexual connotations and whether our values are as pure as we like to present.

First there was the sight of Janet Jackson's pastie-adorned breast at the Superbowl, then Nicollet Sheridan's towel-dropping scene on Monday Night Football. A public outcry followed, deploring the obsessively sexual orientation of advertising, entertainment, and the media as a whole.

As the debates rage, a core question must arise: if sex is known to sell anything, who is doing the buying?

Public Relations and marketing gurus give the public what they crave. If they don't, they are out of a job. How many new viewers will Desperate Housewives gain because of the uproar over their ad? Thousands? A million or two? And who enjoyed the gratuitous nudity? Those who "missed it" on Monday Night Football were able to indulge their curiosity as the tape was replayed and replayed ad nauseum. Who in America has not seen it by now? Surely only the sightless and the occasional hermit could have missed it.

So what does that say about the current state of U.S. morality? We are not all depraved, immoral, addicted to pornography, nor necessarily in favor of public sexual displays. We are simply curious people who are still in a reaction phase to a long history of sexual repression.

After the strait jacket of the puritan period and the social constraints of the following 300 years, the pendulum is swinging as it always has. It makes a wide arc until slowly returning to the center.

Those who openly seek to legislate morality would do well to recall the disastrous social experiment of prohibition, imposed by a righteous and vocal minority, and its permanent legacy of crime, murder, and corruption.

The Cult of Celebrity

2005-04-16T02:25:00.000-07:00

Every day, we are privy to new and ever more lurid details of Michael Jackson's strange lifestyle. We always knew he lived in a fairy tale world where he honestly believed that he was white and mainstream and emotionally healthy. Whether his peccadillos were as innocent as he maintains is for the jury to decide but regardless of whether he is guilty as accused, his behavior certainly never even remotely exhibited any level of maturity or the ability to make rational decisions beyond the "I want it now" level of a young child. And yet, daily, his "fans" turn out to support him, even fainting in the courtroom, overwhelmed by the stress of their idol under siege.

What is it about fame and celebrity that so grips us? Do we have no real life of our own? We live vicariously through our heroes' existence and eradicate our own individuality to become simply a follower.

Would the trial of a no-name alleged child molester pack a courtroom? Of course not. The Jackson trial is important, and constantly reported, because of a famous name. Too many of us confuse the fame that outwardly attaches to rock stars, movie stars, royalty stars, sport stars, and political stars, with the inner character of the individual who bears the name. We see the façade painstakingly erected by legions of public relations specialists and image consultants and think that we are seeing something real. We cannot believe that the dark underside really exists because we "know Michael" (or Kobe, or O.J.) and "he wouldn't do anything like that."

Scott Peterson was recently convicted of double murder. Whether he really committed the crimes is beside the point -- in his trial he was indisputably revealed as a self-centered, immature philanderer with the morals of a sewer rat. Yet his first week on death row generated 85 letters per day, mainly from women, several offering proposals of marriage!

Because he's "cute"? The prisoner who received even more such mail was Charles Manson and even his mother couldn't call Charlie "cute."

We respond to celebrities, and try to somehow enter their lives, because there is an inner vacuum we desperately need to fill. Imagine if all that core emptiness was to focus on concerns other than the famous: on volunteering to help the homeless and the poor, on reaching out towards world peace and human dignity, on adopting lost children and giving them a future, or on visiting the sick and the dying.

The problem is that there is no glitter in rubbing elbows with needy no-names. It takes too much time and energy to get involved in charity works when we can simply show up at a celebrity circus and make believe that we are actually part of the scene.

The tabloids are not interested in publicizing programs and people out of the spotlight because they know it won't sell. So we continue to devour every rumor, every snippet of gossip, every carefully placed picture and article about our stars, and assiduously avoid the self-examination that would reveal the hollow values and personal desperation that lurks inside.

Life After John Paul

2005-04-12T07:51:00.000-07:00

Everywhere we turn, it's the Pope.

John Paul II meant so much to so many of us: inherently genuine, caring, and virtuous. We can scarcely remember when he wasn't Pope.

But through our sadness and grief at the loss of a great and inspiring human being, let's look closer at the legacy of the man often described as "The perfect grandfather."

John Paul II was extremely conservative and doctrinaire:

1. He opposed the idea of ordination of women in a priesthood sorely pressed for new recruits.
2. He opposed the increased visibility of women within the traditional hierarchy of power both in the Vatican and throughout the global Holy See.
3. He opposed birth control of any type in a world where overpopulation is at the heart of our humanitarian problems: famine, disease, poverty, and genocide.
4. He failed to grasp the enormity of the priest sex scandals in the U.S. and appointed the disgraced Bernard Law to a prestigious Vatican position.
5. He asserted the power of the papacy over local needs by centralizing and intensifying the rule of Rome.

John Paul II was a great man in his love for people, his rejection of tyranny by both Nazi Germany and Communist Poland, and his reaching out to Judaism and other faiths in an innovative cross-cultural détente.

But while we celebrate his life and accomplishments, let's move forward towards a more progressive Church that allows its members to adapt doctrine to the realities of their lives and let personal dialogs concerning ethics and appropriate behavior replace blind obedience.

It's All In The Attitude

2005-04-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, I admit it.

I have an attitude.

Have you ever wondered where the negative connotations of that phrase came from? In itself, it's not inherently positive or negative, reflecting only a response to the world around us. It can be optimistic or pessimistic, trusting or suspicious, caring or malicious, empathetic or indifferent - any given individuals may be polar opposites in the manner in which they relate to their environment.

Have you thought about your own attitudes, about everyone and everything? Sometimes we just need to take a little time to sit down and become aware of ourselves and how we deal with life.

I tend to be pretty optimistic about life generally and too trusting of people (it scares my cynical husband to death). Yes, it's disappointing when people let me down but what is the other option - expect little from others and never have the satisfaction of inspiring them to do their best?

Yes, there are con artists and manipulative, destructive individuals out there but what happens to me if I let that warp my entire global view and turn my world into the treacherous swamp in which those people choose to live? It becomes a private "Patriot Act" that allows fear and vulnerability to intrude into the personal decency of the vast majority of people.

No, thanks. I'll keep my optimism and faith in people intact. If that causes emotional pain, victimization, or even death, at least I have lived in a world colored with sunlight, generosity, and vibrant hope. That, for me, beats a long barren existence on an ice-cold planet of ominous darkness.

Revitalizing The Power of the Baby Boomers

2005-04-04T20:02:00.000-07:00

As baby boomers, we have been spoiled all of our lives. When we were teenagers, the world took note because there were so many of us. Our music, our beliefs, our fashions, our styles dominated the culture of the age. When we took to the streets to protest the war in Vietnam and to support the Civil Rights Movement, we found a ready audience. Television came into its own and we splattered ourselves and our causes across the living rooms of America.

For some of us, that was the best of times. We were young, idealistic, and naïve. We truly believed that we were making a difference. We were creating a future of hope, justice, fairness, and peace.

As we move towards retirement age, we look around us with diminished hope, broken promises, reddened eyes, and cynicism. Where is the new world order we so desperately sought? In the violence-filled streets of Baghdad? In the ruins of the World Trade Center? In the hills of Afghanistan? In the political condemnation of gay rights, resistance to a woman's right to control her own body, the death of Affirmative Action?

We look back in longing to the days before political assassinations turned the world upside down. Life was, indeed, so much simpler then. Involvement in revolution is for the young and naïve who, no matter the century, no matter the nation, no matter the cause, see only the possibilities and none of the difficulties that maintenance of profound social change demands.

Can we keep our ideals alive in the muck and mire of reality?

If our ideals are still there, perhaps hidden beneath the layers that decades of responsibility, work, fatigue, and the need to take care of personal matters have deposited, we can resurrect them. We can revitalize their tenets with the bolder judgment and broader understanding wrought by experience and maturity. We can still return to the fight we abdicated with the demise of the Great Society.

1. Political action.

We now know that marching in the streets has less of a lasting effect than the power of the voting booth and the closed door deals of professional politicians. Although many have fallen along the way, including some of the best and brightest, the boomers still have tremendous numbers and therefore significant potential political power. As our involvement in work and careers starts to taper off, we can use our newly found time to participate in the political process: listening, organizing, contributing, and supporting those who represent that new society we still so desperately seek. For us, the infringement of civil liberties generated by the Patriot Act and the horrors of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay demand that questions be asked, motives revealed, and expected outcomes honestly assessed. We can still throw off the conservative shackles of age we have unwittingly donned and re-enter the fray: as candidates, as volunteers, as individuals who demand accountability and justice from those in power.

2. Community action.

Supporting and fighting for civil rights no longer requires travel to the Deep South nor marching through the streets. The struggle now permeates all levels of our society: the workplace, the schools, the churches, the home. Community involvement may range from active support, to speaking out, to neighborhood organizing, all in the knowledge that our better world starts right outside our front door. Racial profiling, bias against those of Middle Eastern descent, and widely administered wiretaps confront us in our own corner of the world. An African-American child in a schoolroom without enough books, without internet access, without afterschool programs, without personal safety and a quiet academic atmosphere, is as cheated of his natural human heritage as his forefather in the back of the bus. A gay couple denied the social and financial benefits of married straights are as much the victims of prejudice as their forbears in their proverbial closets. A poor urban neighborhood without basic resources: libraries, museums, music, culture, is as disadvantaged in the modern age as in the shameful shanty towns of old. We may feel a lack of power to sufficiently effect a national change of direction but in our local communities the power is there for the taking if we choose to assert our energies and our concerns.

3. Personal witness.

We need to practice constant vigilance to bear witness to our beliefs. We must repeatedly re-assess ourselves to ensure that we have not inadvertently bought into the bias and prejudice that colors so much human thought. We cannot stand silent while others talk or joke about ethnicity, or religion, or sexual preferences. The need to get ahead does not require the sacrifice of all that we hold dear -- the winner of the rat race is, after all, a rat. We must consider our families and ensure that our children are fully exposed to the potential and worth of every individual, no matter how different from us they may appear. Our expectations and demands of coworkers and subordinates needs to be fair and consistent, regardless or race, gender, or cultural differences. We can stand up and speak out, letting all know that nothing less than equal opportunity and fair evaluation will be tolerated in our personal sphere. We will continue to look for quality of character, knowing that little else matters.

As each generation ages, the qualities it represented in youth tend to dissipate. With the addition of multiple personal and occupational responsibilities and the acquisition of assets and at least a degree of wealth, the earthquake of social revolution is no longer a promise but a threat. We jealously guard what we have worked so hard to obtain. We become a force for conservancy rather than a force for change.

The baby boom generation has the potential to shatter that familiar pattern. Born on the cusp of the most horrifying war the world has ever seen, we continue to represent an opportunity for the world to evolve, for mankind to rise above the baseness of his bestial nature and to internalize the human capacity for true civilization. As we enter the autumn of our lives, we are presented with the opportunity to finally, and lastingly, make a difference. It is up to us to stand together now, as many years ago we stood in the streets of Chicago, Washington, and Birmingham, for the rights and liberties of all.

The Ugly American Returns!

2005-04-02T18:26:00.000-08:00

Originally published in 1958, "The Ugly American" (Lederer & Burdick) documented American blunders abroad and our failure to identify that what we termed communism in undeveloped countries was merely the screams of hunger and hopelessness becoming manifest. 15 years later, we extricated ourselves from Vietnam and licked our wounds for 30 years, finally coming to some sort of accommodation with free fire zones, Agent Orange, and My Lai. Never again, we swore. We would protect our nation's security but only move into war zones when gross injustice or humanitarian concerns demanded a response -- Somalia, Bosnia, the first Gulf War.
We felt relief: a line in the sand had been drawn that we would not cross. The new American protocol called for self-protection but also restraint, a hint of nobility, and the belief that, above all, we were the primary bastion of freedom, diversity, and the rule of law.
September 11 shook that hard-fought-for ideal. No longer must we simply protect our borders but now we had to look around us wherever we were - at the stranger waiting for a train, the sweating, swarthy fellow traveler at the airport, the foreigners in the upstairs apartment.
We felt betrayed. The quid pro quo of "You leave us alone and we'll leave you alone" went awry. Those who hate us were intruding into our private space. We felt violated. In a predictable reaction, we struck out, seeking the enemy in the hills and caves of Afghanistan where our agony had been meticulously planned with premeditation and cold indifference to our pain.
For two years, we slowly revised our goals, our ideals, our national commitments. Our outraged sense of self, revulsion, and anger gradually overcame our democratic belief in the rights of all to national self-determination. To fight the enemy, we became him. We adopted his mindset of the ends justifies the means. Angry and frustrated at his ability to strike at our very heart and make our world fearful and dangerous, we morphed into him, using offense as a means of defense against the terrifying vulnerability we feared to face.
In 2003, the decision was made to openly attack a sovereign nation state which, although famous for verbal saber rattling, posed no direct threat to us nor had it committed an illegal invasion or recent attack on anyone else since the last Gulf War.
With guns blazing, we marched into the OK Corral. Despite the absolute predictability of enemy combatants fading into the general population rather than standing their ground and being annihilated, we were "surprised" as the ease of entering Baghdad. We had forgotten the lessons of our own Revolutionary War when it became clear that standing face-to-face with well-supplied redcoat squares was a recipe for total destruction.
"Mission Accomplished" trumpeted the President, the Administration, the temporarily impotent and sleeping media. The worst was over. There was now simply "mopping up" operations left in a country which should be overwhelmingly grateful for what we had achieved. Instead, of course, more U.S. troops would die after our mission was "accomplished" than in the hot war itself.
Why the surprise? Once again, as in the days of Vietnam, the Tet Offensive, the bombing of Cambodia, once again the face of the Ugly American was exposed to the world.
Why are we hated? We are the superpower, the bully in the school yard. Difficult as it is to forge an uneasy truce with us when we act with restraint and decorum, it becomes impossible when we throw our weight around and beat our collective chest with pride, hubris, and the will to move alone without trying to rally allies or international support. The Ugly American is loose in the streets of the Middle East, a target for all, a friend of none: arrogant, defiant, outcast, and alone.
Never again, we said. Oops - the isolation and the hate is back. We can now have the satisfaction of knowing we generated it all by ourselves. Who needs an enemy when we have us?

The Quality of Life

2005-03-29T04:34:00.000-08:00

As Terri Schiavo gradually weakens in her Florida hospice, her plight is debated by every political, religious and civil rights group in the country. Beneath the protests from both so-called Right and Left wing groups, the really important issue is that it allows us all to grapple with our definition of life and the basic qualities required to be recognized as human.

Carrie Gordon Earll, a senior policy analyst for Focus on the Family, stated: “Terri is a silent spokesperson for the value of life and she doesn’t even know it . . ." http://msm.com/id/7314040/

The question must arise that if Terri is entirely oblivious to the world around her, does her mere physical body constitute a living human being? This is not someone in a coma which might turn out to be temporary -- this a poor woman whose brain is so damaged that she will never recover to the point where she can live, not merely exist. The debate should not be about life but about existence and whether that alone can qualify as life.

Microorganisms exist. Cells in a petrie dish exist. Removed cancerous tumors exist. But do they have any quality of life at all? Supporters of the disabled see this case as a cultural rejection of their right to live as less than fully functional individuals. Paraplegics, Tetraplegics, even those with less than catastrophic brain injury have qualities of life which are no longer available to Ms. Schiavo. Life for them may be difficult but they are still people, aware of the world, aware of themselves, able to interact with other people and their environment.

Despite her parents' wishful belief that Terri reacts to them, it is clear that she is no more reactive than a beautiful moss clinging to a hillside. Terri is totally oblivious to the furor surrounding her and so the debate that rages reflects not her or her needs but the needs of those around her, the needs of all of us, and that is where we need to concentrate our efforts at understanding how we all feel about life and being human.

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The Prisoner Scandal Continues

2005-03-28T05:13:00.000-08:00

Now we are hearing of outrageous prisoner treatment at jails other than Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Investigations and trials continue but one must wonder if the maltreatment has ceased or merely moved more undergound (no more smiling videos of leashed captives.) I wrote this article last year; unfortunately, I think it's still valid.

Abu Ghraib: Our Surprise is the only Surprise

As pictures and videos surface showing young American soldiers humiliating and dehumanizing Iraqi prisoners, we, as a society, recoil in disgust and disbelief. Friends and family of those charged with such crimes, shake their heads in bewilderment and assure the world that the perpetrators are normal, caring, loving individuals without any prior sadistic or bullying traits.

As the picture of prisoner degradation develops, the only surprise is that we are surprised.

Where have the American people, the Military, the Security Agencies, the Administration, and the Media been hiding for the past 30 years?

Research in Social Psychology is rampant with experiments clearly demonstrating the impact of situational influence on behavior. From Zimbardo’s famous prison experiments at Stanford University (1971) and Milgram’s extensive body of work on obedience (the administration of electrical shock torture by non-pathological students (1974 and following), the dangers of placing untrained, well-meaning but naïve individuals into a system where the cues of social acceptability have been perverted, has been shown to lead to exactly that behavior which the world has been watching over the past few months.

The killer children of Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the torturers of the Inquisition, the Jew killers of Reserve Battalion 101 (Browning, 1993), are not inherently evil people, somehow different from you and I. They ARE us – placed into an intolerable, stress-laden pressure cooker where daily norms no longer apply. Systematically, they are praised and rewarded for aberrant behaviors, pushed on the road to doom with a small first step, taught to dehumanize their victims in an atmosphere where responsibility is diffused, anonymity guaranteed, and the absolute need for obedience to gain the goal (information, safety of other soldiers, National Security) is demanded.

Under such extreme conditions, the behaviors exhibited by the Abu Ghraib MPs should have been completely expected. The Military and Governmental agencies involved have behavioral experts and 30 years of research at their fingertips. To anticipate what might occur, and to plan accordingly – ensuring that supervision was relentless, prohibitions against improper behaviors were clear and unambiguous, training provided, and readily-accessed mechanisms provided for reports of questionable activity – was the job of the Army, the Government, and the Administration, listening to their own psychological experts.

Courts-Martial of individual guards for their unacceptable and abhorrent behaviors are warranted to the extent that the individual always bears ultimate responsibility for their personal actions. However, the primary responsibility must fall on those who directed and developed a system almost guaranteed to produce those actions which have recently appalled all Americans and degraded our National image.

Not knowing the research, not reading long reports, not having the time to focus on a small area of an enormous task, does not excuse nor absolve of guilt. The top commanders are where the buck stops and where accountability truly lies.

Happy Easter

2005-03-27T07:19:00.000-08:00

Easter is always a time of hope and new beginnings even if you are not religious or even Christian. It is inevitably connected with Spring which universally signifies rebirth, revitalization, and positive expectations about the future. This year, the Pope is ailing, perhaps terminally, a woman's body is dying in a Florida hospital where her real personhood died 15 years ago, and the killing continues in Iraq. The national debt continues to rise, unemployment remains a national disgrace and Social Security reform is dividing the country. Where is our hope going to come from?

Well, there are baby steps toward peace in the Middle East, the rains have stopped in the Southern California hillsides, and the Tsunami victims are receiving unprecedented aid. Even in a world scarred with death and destruction, there are hints of greener fields to come. Let's spend our energy in nurturing that growth, not focusing on the dark side of our humanity which, unfortunately, often seems our predominant quality.

2005-03-27T07:18:00.000-08:00

Dr. Virginia Bola, Social Psychologist