Pathwalking 2

Who am I? I have been asking myself this question since I was fairly young. And the answer has constantly changed. In elementary school, I was the teacher’s pet. I was more-or-less a straight ‘A’ student (except my elementary school didn’t use this grading scale) and did extra projects, worked for extra credit and LOVED school. I was an outsider, though. This was never more evident than amongst the other kids at Hebrew school, and in the local Jewish community

Pathwalking 1

How can I make a difference? This question comes up for me fairly often. I want to help other people see the world in the way that I see it. NOT in a ‘my way is the one true way’ idea at all. On the contrary – I want people to disagree with me. I want them to consider these words, and reject them if they disagree. I want them to think, to consider, to ponder their own view on

A New Year’s Idea – Action instead of Resolution

People often make resolutions for the new year.  I’m going to quit smoking.  I am going to the gym three days a week.  I will read a book a month.  I will make more time for mediation.  I am going to eat better.  And more often than not – the resolution seldom gets past a month before it becomes forgotten, neglected, or otherwise lost in the shuffle of day-to-day life. Paying a visit to Dictionary.com, we see the meaning of

What can I do?

What can I do? This is the question a lot of us, I believe, are asking.  In the face of global warming/climate change, the NDAA, SOPA, atrocities committed in the name of God or money or government – what can I do? With open discrimination and hostility against women, homosexuals, Muslims, and stories of intolerance and acts of utter selfishness against people different from one another – what can I do? In the face of so much death, war, famine,

Wake Up!

The Occupy Wall Street movement may not make sense to everyone.  But I think the one, simple point they are making needs to be spread far and wide. Wake up! That is, I believe, their primary message. Are We, the people, actually in control of this nation? The answer is simple.  No. And that is the point of this movement.  Wake up and see who is in charge!  It’s not the government, it is not the people – it is

Fowards is NOT backwards!

To go forwards, you cannot go backwards. There is a push by reactionary conservatives to take us back to a simpler, more naïve time (that never ACTUALLY existed) – and they are pushing through laws and ideas that are, simply, backwards. The ‘personhood’ issue in Mississippi.  The repeal of the criminalization of domestic violence to save money in Kansas.  Dismissing unions and their place in organized labor all across the country.  Suggesting the uninsured should be allowed to die.  These

Working together for the Greater Good

There is some scary stuff being talked about these days.  Class warfare.  Letting the uninsured get sick and die.  Cutting funds for education.  Cutting funding for disaster victims.  More and more it is obvious that the effort to separate people and put them at odds with one another is of greater import than bringing people together for the greater good. Everywhere we turn we see division.  Red state vs. Blue state.  Democrat vs. Republican.  Muslim vs. Christian.  Rich vs. Poor. 

Banish the fear

What are your hopes? What are your dreams? Who are you? What do you want from life? What are you afraid of? These are big questions we all ask of our friends, our families, and ourselves. I have been feeling rather introspective the past few days.  Part of this is related to what I am reading – Paulo Coelho’s The Valkyries.  This is causing me to question a great deal about the above questions.  The question, though, causing me the

An open letter to the President of the United States

Dear Mister President, The odds of you actually reading this letter yourself are slim, I’m sure.  But I still feel this urge to write to you, and hope that maybe, just maybe, you will see this. When you ran for office just a few short years ago, your message was hope.  It was a message of change.  A message that if we elected you, you would change the course of our nation, get us out of this downward spiral, bring

Mainstream Media = Propaganda Machines

Once upon a time, “the news” reported precisely that – the news.  There were reports on local events, international happenings, financial markets, and then something light and fluffy and human-interest related.  No bias, no agenda, just “the news”. And then large corporations acquired the mainstream media.  Newspapers, radio and television stations suddenly fell under large corporate entities, far more interested in making money than actually reporting on “the news”. Over the next two or three decades (I am estimating when