Pittsburgh

To end the violence, love each other.  Do not judge, for once you judge, you lock the door to friendship and understanding.

Lay down your guns and extend the hand of acknowledgment to a stranger.  If you are afraid of another, pause to see the fear in his or her eyes.

Throughout history we have employed two tools to confront fear:

Weapons

and

Love

Weapons in the hands of the powerful are quick and deadly.  They create terror among those upon whom they are unleashed.  Weapons perpetuate violence.  They do not heal; they divide.

Love needs no arsenal.  It is readily available to all.  It comes from the quiet place we call "heart".  It is sometimes shy, uncertain.  Sometimes bold and invigorating.  It builds bridges.  It walks in another's footsteps so that it can share another's pain, abandonment and humanity.  It realizes that we are more alike than different.  That we each desire life, hope, home, food and safety.

Love is everywhere, but we find little mention of it in public discourse and media.

When has casting stones back and forth ever created unity and cooperation?

In the end, it is up to us, you and I.  It always was and it always will be.  Most of us may not be in any Who's Who, but we are no less remarkable human beings.  And we are powerful!

Love today--right where you stand. Share a smile.  A compliment.  Buy coffee or breakfast for a stranger. Stop to let a car in front of you. "Walk ten steps" in a friend's, colleague's, spouse's, child's shoes before you speak in rebuke. Learn to think love.  Touch your breastbone and say "heart" each time you are challenged by people and events.

Send out good thoughts and support, even when it's an effort, until it becomes your first and only response.

"#Heart."  "#Heart."  "#Heart."

2017 New Year, New Day

In 2016 we elected Donald Trump President of the United States.  Those who voted for him expect him to make their lives better.  Every President has, more or less, been elected under the same mandate.

History, however, tells a different story.  The world in which we live was built  by us, you and I, the common people.  And only you and I can make it better.  If you want a better life and a safer, kinder world, then start by changing the environment in which you live.  Begin with kindness, compassion, trust and forgiveness.  Elect leaders who exhibit these in abundance.  Without this foundation, nothing can change.

In turn, our leaders are human beings like ourselves.  They will never meet all our expectations because such a feat is impossible for any single person.

And finally, remember, a CEO of a corporation has employees who answer to him.  The President answers to Us.

Our World, not his.  Our life, not his.  Our future, not his.

If you really want a better world, only you have the power to make it so!

"Dear President Trump,"

. . . Are you ready to act with restraint, instead of anger?  Are you ready to forego the pithy one-liners and take the time to frame your comments so as to calm and unite?  Now secure in the White House, can you set aside your personal beliefs to attend to another's unlike beliefs in a gesture of compromise?

It is said that you do not fail, ever...I say, President Trump, that you are already set to fail unless you create a diverse cabinet and set of advisers--made up of "yay-sayers" and "nay-sayers" of every ethnic, religious and gender background.

If your are sincere in your desire to unite America, you must stand outside Democratic and Republican boundaries and embrace the Whole nation.  Every citizen young and old.  You must take the time to explain to Americans that no single person or group can have it their way all the time; that you will identify and address the country's greatest needs first and foremost, thereby creating a bridge between opposing parties and ideologies.

If those trampled down are not lifted up, you have failed.  If the rich get richer and poor, poorer, you have failed.  If people cannot afford education, healthcare and the basics of daily living and sustenance, you have failed.   If under your guidance the world becomes more volatile, you have failed.  If the misplaced and displaced continue to go homeless and abandoned, you have failed.

To unite, you must invest in the tools of kindness, compassion and forgiveness.  Weapons of mass destruction and precision have no place here. . . .

WHAT ARE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS?

Perhaps now is the time in our history to ask the question: what is a belief and should that belief be legalized by law?

I submit that beliefs are personal.  Therefore, I do not agree that these beliefs should be legalized as correct, irrefutable, or the only way to see a person, place or thing.

In our country right now, religious beliefs are being placed ahead of all other beliefs, and in turn, are being given legal status over and above the fundamental premise of our country, which promises to afford equal access to all without discrimination.

A religious belief is a personal conviction that has evolved over time after having been sorted through by various human beings from many alternate possibilities.  These same beliefs are regularly open to reinterpretation as times and people change. In most instances, certain religious beliefs are a requirement of membership in various churches and congregations.  And it is fair to say that no two churches believe the exact same dogma, although many claim a common history.

America's "freedom of speech" allows one to speak his beliefs through words and through protest (actions), but when it comes to legally denying another citizen that which is accessible to everyone not of the particular group in question, a dangerous line is crossed, and one group is denied equal access over another.

We must not legalize a belief in a free land.  Hitler legalized beliefs.  Mussolini legalized beliefs. Apartheid legalized beliefs.  Slavery was a legalized belief.

Each of the above denied another person or group that which the denier enjoyed to the fullest.

We cannot, we must not, take this route.

Compassion, tolerance, openness, and knowledge.  These first.

And always: Do no harm, do not judge (the most oft forgot religious belief).

The 2016 Elections

Much is being said about the 2016 elections.  Very little of it is positive.  After years of congressional stalemate, rising social despair as a result of an inept process and the stonewalling of one party against another, one would think we lived in a "cold war" state with one "monarchy forever challenging the other for absolute political power.  Even the Supreme Court has become a bastion of partisan politics.

Only in a deeply dissatisfied nation could the likes of a Donald Trump find audience for his oft offensive and divisive language.  To be clear, we are a deeply divided, scared and worn out body politic.

For decades Americans have been subjected to the same'ole-same''ole come election time.  With politicians rarely answering questions put to them, employing mud-slinging in lieu of debate, and making promises, promises, promises with no obvious plan in hand.

American Democracy has transformed into Hypocrisy--one party against another, with neither willing to give a centimeter of ground.  Whoever is elected to the White House the target of relentless opposition and threats from day one.

Executive and legislative cooperation happens only under threat of political annihilation at the polls.

We blame the Middle East for its strong religious undercurrent, where the Ayatollah is the supreme leader in many countries.  But how are we different, when the word "Evangelical Christian" determines what one party will or will not do.

Religious freedom is one of  many freedoms we enjoy as Americans, but somehow we have raised religious freedom above all the rest.  We have made it a litmus test for making it to the white house.  We have lost out way...we are no longer a government of the People, by the People and for the People.

We have become a government of the few, for the few and by the few.  The Conservative stands on one side, the Liberal on the other.   There appears to be no in-between.  These categories have been tightly defined over time and now they threaten to destroy us.

Rational individuals with a wider world view realize that the U.S. is awash with millions of ideas and beliefs. We are neither a conservative nor a liberal nation.  Nor are we a christian or non-christian nation.  We are an amalgamation of peoples, all of whom came from somewhere else.

America began as a beacon of hope for a new way.  And how we got here is an interesting story, but right now it would be best to focus on where we are and how we move out of this hole we've dug ourselves into.

Donald Trump's popularity is not because he will make a great president.  Donald Trump's popularity owes its appeal to the inability of those running for office to speak from the heart and not from the prompter.  To speak the truth, even if the truth is hard to speak

First, we must accept the fact that no president ever solved all of our problems.  Our form of government does not give him/her that much power.

Second, not every member of congress is a political insider whose only goal is reelection and power.

Third, we have lost the ability to compromise with those who disagree with us.

Fourth, millions do not vote, and yet voting is the best way to express your support for, or you dissatisfaction with, the current state of affairs.

The Government works for Us.  The People.  We do not work for it.  That being said, we as individuals cannot have everything we want.  Only the castaway on a deserted island has that option, and even s/he is subject to the will of mother nature.

In the end, laws, systems, and organizations do not make a better world, people do.  If our government is failing us, then people are at fault.  If your idea of a good president is one who will give You what you want because you believe your way is the best way, then you are part of the problem.  All of us fall into the category at one time or the other.

Donald Trump is a wake-up call for America.  He speaks to our darker side.  He draws it out.  He thrives upon it.

I will tell you now that America's greatness is not lost, we are just looking in the wrong place.  America's greatness is in her actions, not in her words.  Her compassion.  Her stand for human rights.  Her humanitarian generosity.  Her undying, though sometimes faltering, ideal of a better, more tolerant world.

This is, and has always been, our greatness and no one can take it from us unless we give it away!

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

The Greatest Crimes against Humanity are . . .

Poverty
Starvation
Isolation
Displacement by wars perpetrated by the few
Ethnic erasure...the bullying and murder of those not like us

What will it take to change this eon's long pattern?

A Question of Guns in a land of Murder

San Bernardino California.  Fourteen killed.  Assault rifles.  Two dead suspects.  Public pain. Private mourning.  Youth and wisdom gone Forever. 

Appeals for stiffer gun laws countered by "people kill people", guns are only ancillary.  The President appearing before us numb and dejected.  Nobody knows what to do or how to stop the kind of violence that erupts suddenly and without mercy.

In sum, our collective response has become "speechlessness".  We are not one iota closer to resolution than we were hundreds of years ago when terror struck.  And terror has been around since humans have been around.

Instead, we spend endless hours debating whether San Bernardino was an "act of terrorism" or not?  What the shooters motives really were?  But they are dead.  And terror struck--need it have another name?

In today's world there is no safe haven.  Armed militia roam our streets and schools. They lend an aura of safety, but do they keep us safe?

So then, you say, what should we do?  If we cannot stop the violence, should we prepare to die on an undisclosed day at an unknown location?  Should we get our affairs in order?  Live our lives to the fullest? Give ourselves over to the unstoppable?  Or should we pray for new weapons of defense, better technology, and smarter leaders?

I say no to all of the above.  For the above is what we have always done.  And nothing has changed.  In fact, one might argue, it has only gotten worse.

Sow trust, compassion, forgiveness, a smile, and a helping hand wherever you are and as often as you can. These actions do not involve money, power, guns, fear, doubt or revenge. They are positive tokens one gives freely to another.  Tokens that can then be passed on even if the giver is unaware that they have done so.

Such acts are already occurring throughout our globe, but infrequently do we hear or read of them.  We sorely need more stories in the media about the Good News.  Positive actions that brings warmth and light back into our damaged world.

People who kill people through acts of terror have lost their way.  Every ethnicity and religion has fallen victim to their acts.  Anger, hate and fear are deadly weapons.  Our job is to replace them with their opposites.  Not for one day or one year, but as a way of life going forward every moment of every day!