2025

The sentencing of Donald Trump

After years of skating through numerous accusations, after avoiding accountability on multiple occasions, after lying and cheating his way through countless transactions, Donald Trump was decisively sentenced today, Thursday, January 9, 2025.

It did not happen in a courtroom but in the chamber of the National Cathedral where because of his reelection Donald Trump was caused to attend the funeral of James Earl Carter Jr. In this solemn setting Donald Trump was required to endure the heartfelt and noteworthy tributes that were offered in deep gratitude to the former president and worldwide respected and applauded humanitarian.

Words of acknowledgement that described a man of character, of integrity, of faith, of honesty, and unwavering service to his fellow world citizens, these declarations composed the sentence announced upon Donald Trump today.

Only Donald Trump will know how painful and consequential was this sentence. Only Donald Trump will feel the weight of the agony of having to spend the rest of his life knowing how distant are his ambitions and accomplishments from those of Jimmy Carter. For a man consumed by his own importance and demands for attention this sentence will forever be a mirror to reflect his own miserable existence in the earth.

Rest in peace Jimmy Carter, and bear in pain the knowledge of your impoverished existence Donald Trump.

On the white propensity for dominance (A question of being religious or being moral)

The present ruling political class, supported by a majority of persons who bothered to have their election voices heard, intend not only to minimize or completely eliminate the undesirable subcultures of persons identified to be inferior to their self acclaimed superiority–persons of sexual preferences that offend them, persons who speak a language other than English, persons who have dark skin and dress in an unfamiliar way, persons who practice a religion other than a narrowly scripted form of christianity, persons who love someone who is not approved, persons who pursue to promote equality and dignity for everyone–these are the people they oppose but also to prevent white women from managing their own personhood. And they have publicly vowed to accomplish this so called purification of the United States of America, to make it great again.

Their objective is not different than their quest to dominate the new land upon whose grounds native persons once inhabited unrestricted for thousands of years before the arrival of these white skinned people intent on establishing domination. The history reveals brutal, unconscionable behaviors designed to prevail. No treatment too harsh, no punishment too inhuman. Everything within their power was employed to accomplish this conquest. Whatever could be done by their power was deemed to be an acceptable ethical practice. And they have learned nothing that has a prospect of detouring any future repetition of this savage onslaught.

This action to dominate may have been judged to be ethical yet it is not moral. And there is a difference, a vast difference in designating some activity an ethical action and recognizing what is moral. Ethical considerations are determined by a society, a group, a community. Moral actions are absolute. They apply in any context, in any place, in any time. Moral actions are actions that conform to the content of conscience, the wisdom inside the human spirit. Moral actions are easily judged because they follow a simple internal law—treat others like you want them to treat you.

Religious persons may not be concerned when ethical behaviors contradict moral mandates. Religious persons can easily dismiss the guilt that ensues when a personal action deviates from what they know in principle in their spirit to be right and good. Religious persons can rationalize about why their action is justified even obligated because it promotes an objective that has been judged by their community to be worthy, one that ensures that their preferences will be accomplished. These religious-minded persons follow the assessment that W. Somerset Maugham observed, The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

Spiritual persons do not make this same judgement. Spiritual persons measure their actions by the internal golden rule. Spiritual persons hold precious the dignity of every other human being. Spiritual persons honor the content of their conscience that knows right from wrong, good from evil, and they are committed to act on this knowledge. And when they realize from either history or contemplation that an action before thought to be respectful has been determined to be immoral they repent and confess their mistake and ask for forgiveness so that they can be reconciled in relationship with their neighbors and with their creator.

Everyone has an opportunity to choose who they will be. You can be a religious person or you can be a spiritual person. No one knows what the difference will be in the future. No one knows whether or not spiritual persons will be judged more favorably than persons who followed the ethical standards of their community when these actions contradicted the content of their individual conscience. Yet the difference in the present has significant and observable import. You can either promote inclusive community or you can work to maintain an advantage, to assume superiority, to stand apart from others who differ in some measure from you.

Who you choose to be makes a difference now.

Having been proud before to be an American

Not what I am, but who I am;
Not where I live, but why I live;
Not what I have, but what I give.
I was proud before to be an American.

To live my vision while respecting yours;
To press beyond the bounds of “good enough;”
To strain for truth perfected in my deeds.
I was proud before to be an American.

To toil with others for my daily care;
To share the grief for efforts which have failed;
To rise above the pain of yesterday.
I was proud before to be an American.

To count my means and hold in prudent need;
To give so lack will vanish and decay;
To pay the wage that’s just, the price that’s fair.
I was proud before to be an American.

To learn the fate of worlds beyond my gaze;
To hear the sighs of neighbors far away;
To spend myself so they will have a dream.
I was proud before to be an American.

To stand or turn as faith and knowledge call;
To trust my God to order and provide;
To know myself and serve the life of all.
I was proud before to be an American.

Not what I was, but who I was;
Not where I lived, but why I lived;
Not what I had, but what I gave.
I was proud before to be an American.

Now. Now the country is a confederacy of values sectarian;

The consequence of a task beyond the reach of lesser men.

Why do some persons believe they are more important than other people?

People come into the world alike, in the same way. Their previous existence is unknown. The manner of how they acquired their capacities is unknown. The method determining where they would be born is unknown. The means of providing the differing advantages in the way they are positioned in the earth is unknown. These varying circumstances raises many questions of which we cannot know the answer. Although we can guess, speculate about the reasons for these inconsistencies in the life circumstances of persons in the earth we cannot know for certain why these differences exist.

This mystery invalidates any claim that can be advanced by anyone regarding why some people believe they are more important than any other person who lives with them in the earth. Yet this differentiation exists. The only explanation for this discrepancy seems to be in the manner in which the people evaluate the capacities of individuals who are present among them, how the people perceive the different ways that persons are able to express themselves and to function in relation to the others around them.

Herein lies the basis for the way in which the importance of persons is evaluated: those individuals who are capable of providing a service or a function that is deemed more essential, more necessary for survival or comfort, these individuals are seen to be more important than the others who provide a service or a function that is believed to be of lesser value. It makes no difference that the individual believed to be more important had no part in choosing the capacities they were given. And of more significance it makes no difference how these varying capacities of persons work together to provide for and sustain the presence of the community or society in which they are immersed.

Since the pattern of determining what persons within the community are more important than the others depends upon a perception of the value of the service or the function that the community believes to be more important, then this differentiation exists because the community is incapable of recognizing the intrinsic value of every contribution that is made by every other person who shares life in the earth with them. And perhaps it is because the others in the community do not have the capacity to recognize or to understand how the formation and health of the community is revealed and maintained because of the presence of every contribution that is made by every individual present.

The only reasonable conclusion to formulate then is to observe that the multitude of capacities present among the whole of humanity is to acknowledge that these have been fashioned and distributed to provide for the wellbeing of the entire human family and are not intended to be the sole possession and exclusive benefit of the individual.

To trust the manner in which the community is defined by the contributions of everyone present therefore becomes the supreme challenge and the ultimate reflection of what it means to be human—to let the community become the product of the consequence of incorporating all the varying capacities of everyone who is a part of it. To do this is to become church.

Are you willing to work for this kind of living? Are you wanting to experience eternal life—a kind of life of which time is not a measure?

Either mean or stupid

The truth be known—a majority of the voting public of the United States is either mean or they are stupid.

For the recent past we have heard politicians during election cycles declare that persons composing the voting public are thoughtful, considerate, caring, ready summarily to dismiss candidates whose pronouncements clearly threaten the democratic order that has characterized the American experiment for more than 200 years. I too was hoping that it was true. However the elevation of Donald Trump to the presidency has unmistakably revealed this analysis to be a complete fantasy, merely wishful thinking.

The executive antics of Donald Trump directly assault the constitutional order upon which democracy in the United States depends. And this truth is no surprise. The behaviors of Trump are consistent with the character of the man whose historic public presence has been clearly exhibited. No one can say Trump deceived them; no one can claim that the man who they voted for is any different from the man who first entered into the arena of politics. Trump has routinely shown himself to be a lawless, shameless, childish, selfish, arrogant, egotistical, lying, cheating, stealing, bullying, conniving, cruel racist, convicted conman.

All the orders published by Trump are compatible with the temperament he has demonstrated in the past. By his own admission Trump has shown himself to be mean, even evil. Trump cares for no one but himself and those who can advance his conceived self-centered agenda. Thus it is no surprise then that what he has done and is doing as president is not only incompatible with a democratic spirit but also creating unsympathetic ridicule, hardship, and disruption for so many others.

If you are male and white; if you are female opting to please someone; if you are a person of color or an immigrant; if you are Christian or consider yourself to be religious; if you refused to support a woman president—and you voted for Donald Trump you are either mean or you are stupid. If you are mean then you are made happy by the actions of Trump. If you are merely stupid then you may still have the capacity to look beyond your narrow world and see the harm that is happening to others, those closest to you. Maybe then you will gain some understanding, regret your prior opinion, and begin to do something to make amends. 

The fear that motivates the elite

Sending innocent men to a notorious terrorist prison in El Salvador; promoting a plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza; aiding in the annexation of the West Bank; starting conflicts for the purpose of establishing dominance; removing and denying access to life-affirming resources for those without the capacity to support themselves because of their geographic positioning or social standing or economic disinheritance that causes them to have no opportunity to learn a sustainable trade by which to escape the enslavement of the elite who make the rules and thereby have power over them. 

All of these unconscionable actions are not new appalling proceedings. Rather they are a continuation of the blatant disregard for the life of so many persons who were in the past seen as expendable, unimportant, readily available tenure to employ for the purpose of accomplishing an objective deemed to be worthy to the elite who were in charge, those who had the power and the advantage and who had no moral determination to resist from using any means necessary in order to accomplish their objectives conceived in the vacuum of their wistful conniving. 

These so-called elite either fail or refuse to see the foundational, the elementary structure that is instantly apparent to anyone who has the slightest interest in seeking to understand the crucial formula upon which the habitation of the earth depends.  It is in the inclusion of everyone wherein the preservation of the universe rests. Whether or not anyone is seen as having value; whether or not anyone is believed to be making a beneficial contribution; whether or not anyone is viewed to be providing a worthy service—these measurements do not matter whatsoever. Only the fact that they exist, this is the crucial criterion. Their presence in the earth determines their right to and the necessity that they be provided an equal place and given equal support in the community.

Yet the elite are afraid. They are cowards. They cannot even begin to see themselves as equals, to consider living as a person without having an advantage. This scares them to the point that they will do anything in their acquired power to remain superior, to be removed from the consequence of being judged by the others. They will use every means available to them to be spared the experience of having to be in community rather than being positioned to rule over it. They live out their days frightened by the reality that one day they will die. Then all of their previously successful attempts to remain aloof will be void. Dying they will be an individual, alone. And so while they live any distraction however modest or elaborate will be the immediate solution to the problem of having to reflect upon the eventual unavoidable fate of having to endure the miserable condition of being ordinary.

On the decaying human connection

Vulnerable people suffering and dying across the earth because of policies of our government torments me. So I recently spent more than two months in Washington, D.C., on a crusade to raise awareness and plead for a united front to do what is required to stop this pain.  I slept on sidewalks and in parks.  I carried signs everywhere I went, mostly focusing on the desperate plight of residents in Gaza and urging people to get their news from Al Jazeera and The Guardian–along sidewalks, at intersections, in front of religious centers on days of worship, along Embassy Row, at State Department office buildings, at the FBI and DOJ and GSA, at the White House, at the office buildings of members of Congress, and inside the office of every senator. One side of my sign read:  CONDEMN the anti-Semitic assault on Palestinians; on the other side:  USA guilty of aiding GENOCIDE. No one threatened me; no one hassled me; no one assaulted me. They mostly ignored me. 

A few people were grateful for my presence. Some had conversation with me; others took photos. Yet the vast majority of people seemed not to be bothered. There were families with young children among them, parents who did not need to worry about their children being buried beneath the rubble of their bombed house or starving from lack of food or being shot while trying to get some.  They all may confess to the sentiment expressed by one young man as he passed by me:  Genocide, I’m ok with that.  They may, but I do not believe so. 

There is compassion and empathy in Washington, but it is not in the White House or in Congress. It is on the street. I was offered money by persons who seemed to have very little. I was given food by persons who thought I was hungry. I was given a space underneath an awning by a generous building manager to sleep when it rained. I was asked if I needed anything–medical support, clothes by groups attentive to persons living on the street. Even police personnel were concerned about my welfare. Yet no one with enough influence on government policy cared to give their voice to stop the suffering and death of persons from lack of nutrition and medical treatment and the bombs and bullets that Israel aims at them. 

He is no leader who has not empathy and compassion. The head of our government is an incomplete man. Donald Trump has a deformed spirit. He is consumed by his sense of being inadequate—he knows he cannot accomplish anything without lying and cheating. He caves to anything that feeds his vain ego, shrinks before dictators and bullies weaker opponents into submission. He is a confederate of values sectarian working to compose a community that makes him look strong, one that does not challenge his weakness. And those who support him have succumbed either to the fear that motivates him or to fears that his structured community seems to appease. 

If members of congress reflected the sentiment of persons on the street the situation would be different. Yet too many of them are spineless cowards who choose to do as they are told. They do not have the courage to think critically and follow their own sense of wisdom to serve the common good.   Rather than concern for the community they choose to let it be controlled by the elite, those who have power and advantage and have no moral determination to resist performing any action and using any means necessary to accomplish their objectives conceived in the vacuum of their wistful conniving with no regard for the pain that it will cause.

The travesty playing out in Graz is an unfolding example of the need to control expressed by the elite who use their power to fashion the structure and composition of community. Eliminating persons declared to be out of place; injuring nations because they want to be an equal; deporting respectful members of families and communities; arresting persons because of their appearance; dismissing agency staffing so that services are deficient or eliminated completely; stripping funding for programs that provided medical support and nutrition to struggling persons across the earth–making it more difficult for persons at the edge of existence, “undesirable persons,” to survive–doing all of these kinds of things in order to maintain advantage, to fabricate community, to create a community devised by fear and arrogance, because of a feeling of superiority, because it can be done. 

These so-called elite either fail or refuse to recognize the foundational, the elementary structure that is instantly apparent to anyone who has the slightest interest in seeking to understand the critical formula upon which the habitation of the earth depends:  it is in the inclusion of everyone wherein the preservation of the planet resides. Whether or not anyone is seen as having value; whether or not anyone is believed to be making a beneficial contribution;  whether or not anyone is viewed to be providing a useful service—these measurements do not matter whatsoever. Only the fact that they exist, this is the crucial criterion. Their presence in the earth determines their right to and the necessity that they be provided an equal place and be given equal support in the community.

It’s not about me. It’s about the depravity in the soul of a society that keeps it aloof, self-isolated, consumed in its own arrogance. Where is the distress? Where is the remorse? Where is the human connection to the suffering of other human beings, a suffering which can be prevented?  We are not talking about an infinite domain wherein these persons exist. We are talking about the earth, a limited space, our planet.  Maybe we are hearing the’ death rattle’ of democracy as John surmised when we visited outside a house of worship.  Maybe it is the inevitable exposing of the fatal flaw in capitalism:  there is no imposed restraint on greed. 

Can we be no better than this, that the quest to be enriched betrays the human capacity to nurture and care for the suffering?

What happened to me while I was in DC

I went to Washington, DC, to promote a cause for bringing relief to the persons in Gaza who are suffering and dying under the genocide caused by Israel. I did not know what to expect. I was told various things about protesting policies of the US government. I decided to feel my way around, to discover on my own what would happen when I slept on sidewalks and in parks and wore my Palestinian kufiya and carried my signs everywhere condemning assaults on Palestinians and naming the USA as an active participant in the genocide. Now I look back and know that in reality it was not what I did that seems to be the most important. It is what others did for me.

When I slept in the parks I was not alone. There is a substantial homeless community in DC. Yet I was more prepared than nearly all of the others. I had a sleeping bag and a duffle bag full of provisions; they had cardboard and newspapers and small plastic bags with probably all of their belongings. I was a white man surrounded by black and hispanic men and a few women. I was a newcomer, an outsider, and yet they welcomed me. They took care of me by ensuring that I knew when the food and personal hygiene items and clothes were coming and which line for me to be in to get the things I needed. And because I waited until everyone else had lined up, when I did get in line the others made certain that I went ahead of those who were in line for seconds. They told me where the rats were. Because I always set up my signs around my sleeping bag they knew and appreciated what I was doing there. On the night I set up my signs which read “Choose Respect and Compassion” and “Choose Mercy BE the Neighbor,” they told me the next morning they felt like they had been to church.

I was moved deeply when I saw groups of persons come to the parks and serve the homeless. I would sit quietly and just watch this display of beauty and compassion. There were many and I tried to make a list of all of them so to later write and thank them for giving me a drink when I was thirsty; for giving me food when I was hungry. The most tender experience I had was when I saw on the tee shirts of one group the letters YDIFM. I was intrigued so I asked about the name. A black man in the serving line dishing out to me baked chicken and turnip greens and potato salad explained that the letters stood for the phrase, “You Did It For Me”–words of Jesus to those who served the poor and indigent. Tears well up in my eyes still when I think of the grace and caring I felt as these men shared with me the things they had taken time to prepare and bring to us. 

When the weather was rainy I was under the Hotel Harrington awning at the entrance of what before had been Harriet’s Restaurant. And always I set up my sign there behind me against the double glass doors, day and night: USA guilty of aiding GENOCIDE. The building caretaker introduced himself and told me I was welcome to stay there. He gave me a card on which he wrote that I had permission to be there in case someone questioned my presence. Again I was not the only one there. Underneath the awning at the entrance to what had been Carl’s Bar a man lived who had been in DC for maybe ten years. Everyone seemed to know him; no one knew me. And yet he would share my presence with others who brought him food and drinks. The workers at the adjacent car parking garage shared snacks with me. The staff at the coffee shop across the street welcomed me to use their restroom. And at least once a week someone would bring me their leftovers from a restaurant where they had dined nearby. 

I was often surprised by the people who would stop to encourage me and wish me well. On one occasion three black teenage boys passed by. Then they stopped, turned around and came back to where I was. One of them gave me a soft drink; another gave me a bag of popcorn; the other one gave me a dollar. They wanted to share in my campaign. On another night about 3 in the morning I heard a loud chorus of what sounded like teenage boys and girls walking and calling out through the downtown streets. They came closer and closer until they were walking down the sidewalk where I was trying to sleep. They saw me, stopped and visited with me for awhile. Then they gave me money because they wanted to support me and be a part of my project.

I never once felt I was in danger. All sorts of people passed by me, saw me. A few made crude remarks about how my time was being wasted, and what I could do with myself, and that nothing was ever going to change to end the violence in the Middle East. On the 4^th of July weekend while near the White House carrying my sign that read “a CONVICT for President—BAD IDEA,” a man with a smirky smile said to me, “Jesus was a convicted felon, and I follow him too.” A tall slender black man from South Africa became ecstatic when he saw this sign and told me he had come all the way from his home just to see this sign and take a picture of it. It would be his favorite souvenir from the USA. A few people told me I had a lot to learn, and one person just could not understand how Palestinians could be a semitic culture and not be Jewish. And a young girl about seven years old looked intently at me and asked, “Are you the president?”

You just never know about people you see, that you pass by each day, what they are like, the things that concern them. Be careful not to judge them by what they say, by how they appear, by what they wear. You can only judge them accurately by what they do. 

The mockery of Israeli pride

With even a modest familiarity with the god presented in the Old Testament and the god as presented by the prophet Jesus one quickly sees an indisputable discrepancy. With the exception of the prophets the Old Testament describes a god of vengeance, of wrath, of anger and punishment while the god presented by Jesus is a god who longs for the companionship of humankind and welcomes them into the divine presence. So the question seeks an answer—Why does this inconsistency occur? What is the purpose for it?

A closer examination strongly suggests that the scribes who fashioned the overarching Old Testament narrative did so in order to provide a reason, a justification to claim the elevated standing of the Hebrew/Jewish community. Maintaining that this community was chosen by the divine creator and providing evidences of this special association with the divine has given cause for exercising excessive appreciation and sympathy for the Hebrew/Jewish culture that exceeds any attention given to any other culture.

A few examples taken from this narrative serves to back up this assertion. First consider the story of the exposure of the nakedness of Noah to his son. After docking and exiting the ark Noah becomes drunk and lies naked in his tent. His son Ham finds him there and informs his brothers who then walk backward into the tent to cover their father to avoid the abomination of seeing the nakedness of Noah. When Noah awakens and discovers this disgrace he curses not his son who observed him naked but Canaan the son of Ham. This seemingly minor confusing event becomes a major consequence when the Hebrew clans eventually cross over the Jordan river with the intent of possessing their inheritance promised conveniently before to the looming figure Abraham. The Hebrews feel justified to slaughter the persons already living in this promised land because they are the descendants of Canaan, the one designated by Noah to serve his relatives.

Another example to be considered is the encounter of Jacob and his brother Esau. After cheating Esau of his inheritance Jacob flees the country. After many years Jacob is conveniently called to return home. Yet in order to do so he must confront his brother who was before enraged when he learned that Jacob had deceived his father Isaac and stolen the birthright that belonged to Esau. Jacob dreads this encounter and is presented as having a wrestling contest with god the night before meeting Esau. Jacob is described as prevailing against god and therefore being given the exalted position of in the future prevailing over his contemporaries. When they finally meet Esau forgives his brother and welcomes Jacob home. In this encounter it is Esau who chooses to display the consoling character of relationship defined by Jesus. Although Jacob is presented as the hero it is Esau who embodies the truth by choosing reconciliation for the sake of peace. Yet how can there be peace between these brothers and their descendants if Jacob has been blessed to rule over the others?

Another and the most revealing example of all comes in a second consideration of the Hebrew conquest of Canaan. Following an incident in the wilderness while fleeing Egypt Moses gives to the undisciplined people the Ten Commandments intended to regulate their behavior. Thereafter when these bands cross the Jordan river they immediately set out to slaughter the inhabitants and steal their homeland. It does not matter that two of the provisions of the commandments prohibit killing and coveting. That the Hebrew clans disregard these warnings indicates that they understood these mandates to apply only to persons in their community and not to those outside their group. This episode is the most convincing indication of the intentional fashioning of the Old Testament record to set the Hebrew/Jewish culture apart from others.

By portraying god as vengeful, wrathful, angered and vindictive the Old Testament narrative fashions the ultimate appeal to dissuade anyone from challenging the represented elevated position of Israel because to do so would subject the dissent to divine retribution. This is bullying in its truest form.

These episodes indicate that the Old Testament narratives are manipulated to provide a reason to justify the claim made by Jewish culture through the ages that they are a chosen people, set apart and thus deserving of special treatment and above reproach for any action they may take to enhance their standing among the nations. This fabrication has endured mostly unchallenged throughout history because of the sacred nature of these ancient writings. However judged by the innate attributes of human nature including reason and conscience, this narrative can be appropriately criticized and recognized as the manipulative content that it is. The claim of being a chosen people is a misrepresentation of the place of Israel in the world among other equally important nations and cultures. Everyone is an equal participant in the created order. Denying that is pure boastful pride. 

Maybe if we live to be 200

If a generation lives to be 200 maybe they will grow up.

Then they will be able to trust the things they claim to believe in rather than just repeat religious words and rituals that comfort their agitated soul.

Then they will have the courage to act on what they know is good and right and refuse to do what they know to be bad and wrong.

Then they will have compassion to use their advantage to serve not only their own family but also the needs of others who are less acquainted and equipped.

Then they will recognize in the presence of others a person of equal value and worthy of respect because of the uniqueness of their individual capacity.

Then they will have the wisdom to judge the character of another not by the things they say and the car that drives them but by what they do and how they behave.

Then they will ensure that the laws made to regulate behaviors among persons in the community apply equally to everyone whether they work out of a broom closet or a white house.

Then they will understand that violence never resolves conflict and commit to find solutions that are equitable and affirm the dignity of everyone.

Then they will reject the quest for some achievement however lofty just because it can be accomplished but rather measure its presence by how it will affect others.

Then they will calculate the wealth in their possession by the contentment and calmness in their spirit rather than by the size of their house and bank account.

Then they will know that the choices others make about how they manage their personal expression is a liberty to be defended and protected.

Then they will have the capacity to preserve the rights and privileges of those who speak a different language and wear different clothes and worship in different ways.

Then they will provide for the contribution of everyone and appreciate their labor in ways that reward them according to their specific circumstance.

Then they will share resources across obstacles that before isolated persons who are sick and hungry and nurture those who are suffering and oppressed.

Then they will use the capacity of science and technology to eliminate poverty so that all persons everywhere may live in a safe homeland.

Then they will be brave enough to talk more about peace than they talk about freedom and strong enough to sacrifice an individual liberty for the wellbeing of the community.

Then they will respect the natural world and determine to live in harmony with it in order to ensure a safe and healthy environment for themselves and the children.

Then they will be able to see the earth as a home to be shared rather than a field to be controlled and exploited for the benefit of the strongest.

Then they will be able to move beyond boundaries and see the world as a global community wherein everyone benefits from the provisions of human ingenuity.

Maybe, just maybe all this will be possible when we live to be 200 because we do not learn to do it when we are young. The complications that disrupt relationship in our world result from lying and cheating and stealing and bullying, all selfish behaviors that hurt others by children who are not old enough to know any better.