Thoughts Page

Thoughts

Humanity is in the midst of an Existential Crisis.
While there are many things we can point to to place the blame, the reality is that the change needs to start with each of us.
As Mahatma Gandhi was quoted, we need to "be the change you wish to see in the world".

Some feel the 10 commandments are a guide to follow, while I feel they were written by lawyers. What is more relevant, and a part of every religion that ever existed, is the concept of the Golden Rule. Think of your actions' impact on others -- is this something you would like done or said to you?

When all of your activities are collected and sold under (predatory) capitalism, you can preserve some sense of self (and community) by:
1) Supporting your local newspaper,
2) Using the postal service, and
3) Using cash.
Think about what society would be without any one of these (and who would be impacted most).
And we certainly cannot preserve our sense of self, nor our part in society if we do not vote!

And while you are at it, think about buying and engaging locally. The most effective place where we can bring about change is within our own community.
Volunteering with a local organization is far more satisfying than being 'liked' on some corporate-run social platform with people you've never met judging who you are. Social media is fosterinng a whole new layer of boundaries and prejudices in our society when what we need is understanding and compassion.

At the City and State level, support municipal and state banks. Such banks are setup to support the communities they are in, not corporate shareholders Currently, wqhen you pay your taxes, the monies are held (and profitted on) by large corporate banks. Wouldn't it be better if the interest earned actually helped the taxpayers? A good example of this is North Dakota. At the very least, consider moving your money from a conventional bank to a credit union. Credit unions reinvest locally.

Policing of communities has become a flash point, especially when race or cultural issues are involved. We need to pull back the militarization of the police, providing only basic weapons like a service revolver, stick and spray, and recognizable uniforms (no camo). Only 'specialists' should carry high power (militarized) weapons, called in as needed. Military vehicles (like SWAT) should not be commonly run through our communities. Continuing to do increases fear and distrust and 'enables' citizens in their own militarization.

It is not wrong to like and/or own guns, but it comes with responsibility. Gun owners should be required:
1) Take a gun safety course and show competance with the handling, firing and safety of such a weapon.
2) Hold a license issued by the local or state authority attesting to the same.
3) Carry gun insurance and liabiltiy for the use of that weapon.
This is not unreasonable, it is the same we do with vehicle ownership.

And while we are at it, let's make sure social services, including mental health are funded properly. And that these agencies, whether it be for general information or emergency alerts, use easily-accessed taxpayer-funded websites rather than embedding critical information on commercially run social media pages that require membership and logins (and tend to drop services when a spat with authorities arises!).

On a national level (worldwide), we have become very divided in terms of race and culture. Some suggestions include:
1) Mandatory 2 years of community or military service, and
2) The first 2 years of college free (whether it be technical or academic) and attendence strongly promoted.
When we are exposed to other cultures and ideas, we tend to be a little more empathetic when issues are discussed. We also learn the benefits of cooperation and the interconnectiveness of ideas and principles.

And while we are at it, let's come up with a better way to measure the health of our nation. The stock market indexes are unrealistic and misleading. We need an index that includes "human capital". This should include earnings, skills, health (we do preventive maintenance on factory machines, why don't we offer universal healthcare?), emotional/social satisfaction and resource sustainability to name a few considerations.

Our Tax system needs to be fair, not regressive but progressive. The more you earn, the higher your taxes should be (in the 1950s, the highest bracket was over 90%!). As importantly, and for the solvency of our Social Security net, there should be no limitation on income when social security and medicare deductions are applied!. Remember that a strong middle class is necessary for a healthy society. The new 'billionaire' class is seriously impacting the lower and middle class as there is only a finite supply of money; and if it all is flowing upwards, guess where it is coming from?!

The problem with capitalism is that eventually you run out of other people's money (UN Report, 2/20)

It seems these days that everyone running for office is doing so to pass 'pet' laws. Often these do not reflect a concern over improving our society, conflicting with the oath of office to 'serve the people'. I suggest these considerations:
1) Every law (legislation) should have itemized in the preamble the reason this law needed to be created. and
2) Each law should include a sunset date in which the law is examined for its effectiveness and removed (or rewritten) if it has not achieved the desired result.
And remember, these people we elect, or who are employed with taxpayer funds, are Public Servants and must be held accountable to their office and their oath.

While we all can find things we disagree with, too often issues become partisan (i.e. "the other party caused this mess"). It would be so much better if we could think about the problem and potential solutions before we speak. We are all in this together!

Climate Change is very real and an existential threat to our -- and the natural world's -- very existence. The fastest thing we can do is to quit using fossil carbon fuels (oil, natural gas and coal). We have developed the capability to extract CO2 from the atmosphere, and to synthesize hydrocarbons (the carbon fuels) via the use of CO2 and hydrogen derived from electrolysis of water (aka SynFuels). All fossil carbon fuels should be taxed at a progressively-higher rate, while SynFuels should be lightly taxed to encourage shifting oil company investments into carbon capture and SynFuel production. Although this is a net-zero effect (pulling CO2 from the atmosphere to burn again), the investment in SynFuels will also require large investment in carbon extraction which is necessary on a large scale for us to survive. Note that SynFuel production (the synthesis of hydrocarbons normally derived from fossil oil, gas or coal) includes a huge variety of chemical products from fuels, to plastics, to pharmaceuticals, and so on. Beyond that, we must continue to accelerate our transition to renewable energy and the electrification of transportation.

Waste oh my, when will we learn that we have buried mountains of resources within our landfills that are far easier to extract than mining natural resources? For example, a gold mining operation looks at 1 gram / ton extracted is high grade. We can do that easily with landfills; and extract rare-earths and other minerals, plastics, wood and paper fiber for pulp, etc. There just has to be a profit-to-be-made (and tax incentives) to get us to change. While we are at it, let's tax the production of new plastics to shift the focus to reusing the millions of tons of plastic that are dumped into our environment every year (and fast, before we drown in it!).

And as we contemplate high speed rail or even new large capacity power lines, let's be sensible and not chose random (and expensive) routes, but us existing, publicly-owned right-of-ways -- that being our interstate highways (i.e. down the middle grassy strip)!

Lastly, the next time you think about 'canceling' someone for some past event(s) in their life, realize that human nature is to learn and grow, that people do change (an acorn sprout "matures" into a tree). Without communication and conversation, we can have no community...

And three words for our vocabulary:
1) Integrity (your words/actions),
2) Impecability (the job you do), and
3) Compassion (for others)

Where does this come from -- what is my background?