War - An Outdated Modality

Ahhhhh. All is good in the world. After 5 long years things are finally back to normal. It has been such a long time since I woke up and all the top headlines were about Israel and the Palestinians. Back then, typically it was a daily body count – how many Israelis or Palestinians died in fighting the day before. I stopped keeping score after a while. I got so sick and tired of it, I actually went on a news blackout. Let’s face it, it wasn’t news. It was a running total. Kinda like watching those billboards keeping track of the national deficit getting higher and higher by the nanosecond.

A few years back, things got a bit more interesting, but at its core, the news headlines were pretty much the same, only the nationalities shifted. Now we were tracking how many Americans and Iraqis were dying each day.

So, it is with much anticipation and joy that I see the world returning to normal and once again I can go to bed at night with the security of knowing all is good in the world.

Check out these headlines from Reuters today:

* G8 Prepares to tackle MidEast Crisis
* Hizbollah rockets his Haifa
* N. Korea rejects U.N. sanctions vote
* U.N. nuclear “referral” not constructive
* India puts off peace talks with Pakistan

Splendid! Just splendid.

God, it simply amazes me how stupid we can be as a species sometimes. We think we can, and do, control the world. How pathetic. We are merely specs of dust on the nearly infinite continuum of life on this planet. We’ve been here barely the blink of an eye, and yet that blink has stretched tens of thousands of years. You’d think in all that time, we might have learned something about how to solve our conflicts between each other. Unless, of course, we finally want to accept the assumption, perhaps fact, that the human species is a warring, angry, hostile life form here on this planet, destined to kill each other, and everything around us, until the end of our time here.

I’m no historian, but from my small, little, teeny, tiny, insignificant view of the world, it kinda feels like war is an outdated modality as a way to solve disputes and conflict. I mean, come on! How long does it take us to figure this out? And we claim to have the biggest brain on the planet. Pitiful. Simply pitiful.

I don’t know about you, but I am willing to consider, and concede, the fact that blasting the hell out of each other no longer works as a way to solve our disagreements and problems. Come on, people, wake up! It might be time for all of us, and our “brilliant” leaders to consider other ways to work through our issues. I don’t need to live for millennia to figure this one out. 30 or 40 years is enough of a sample size for me. And good lord, do we have enough examples yet? Pick just about any part of the world and you will find some conflict raging where the way to a solution is violence and killing.

Let’s be realistic about this. This modality known as war is not a cause . . . or a deterrent . . or a strategy. Once we initiate killing as a solution to a disagreement, the true underlying belief/hope/motivation in our heart and minds is that we will exterminate those that think differently than us. Bomb them into seeing things our way!

Wow. Tens of thousands of years on this planet and that is the extent of our evolution.

Brilliant! It makes me so proud to be a Homosapien.

Do I have some thoughts on the matter? Perhaps how to evolve past this pre-historic way of being? Sure! But there is no sense in putting those ideas forth until our species is aware and conscious and willing to admit who they are currently being, and then are wanting of a different way to live here on this planet.

Until that time though, well hey . . . war is a great method for population control, and maybe that is the bigger picture of how it fits into our existence here. And oh, the irony! In order to survive here on this planet, we need to kill each other!

Now THAT is truly brilliant!

Copyright 2006, RL, All rights reserved

Leadership 101 - It's Quotable

Ten Quotes and Questions to ask of yourself and your leaders.

1. Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. – Japanese Proverb

Do you/your leaders have a clear vision and intention?

2. Men will lie on their backs, talking about the fall of man, and never make an effort to get up. – Henry David Thoreau

Are you/your leaders merely complaining and giving opinions . . . or enthusiastically looking to make a difference?

3. If you go on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll go on getting what you’ve always got. – Dr. Lair Ribiero

Are you/your leaders venturing out and embracing bold new ideas, or are you/they simply re-treading an old, worn tire?

4. You can outdistance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you. – Rwandan proverb

Who are you/your leaders, on the inside? What do your/their actions, behaviors and thoughts reveal about them?

5. Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. – William Jennings Bryan

Are you/your leaders choosing your/our destiny and creating it, or waiting for it to come by and carry you off to your life?

6. Man is free at the moment he wishes to be. – Voltaire

Are you/your leaders living a free and empowered life, or acting as a victim, complaining as if someone else is the cause of your/their life?

7. They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. – Edgar Allen Poe (Eleonora)

Are you/your leaders limiting your/their thinking and what is possible? Everything! . . . everything in this world was created from a thought.

8. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. – Martin Luther King Jr.

Where do you/your leaders stand? Have they shown you strength and inspiration in these moments?

9. The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out. – Chinese Proverb

Are you/your leaders putting forth ideas, or striking out with words and actions, thereby revealing their cards?

10. Treat a man as he is, he will remain so. Treat a man the way he can be and ought to be, and he will become as he can be and should be. – Goethe

How are you/your leaders treating those around you? Are you relating to their magnificent possibility, or their past, filled with preconceived judgments and assumptions?

A Demand for a New America

Is anyone else out there as immensely disheartened as I am in American leadership and government? I am not referring to the typical Democrat vs. Republican differences and quibbling that has overrun our government. Nor am I referring to, or interested in, Bush bashing. I am referring to the cavernous, dark void in American leadership that has me yearning for someone that will paint an inspiring picture of who and what we can be as a country. Someone that will rise above the sewage currently flowing in our state and national capitals and lift us all to higher levels. Someone that will paint a vision for me that reconnects me to what is so amazing about Americans and this country. Someone who dares to be bold . . . and inspiring . . . and committed . . . and vulnerable. Someone who will point their finger toward a future full of possibility and tell me that is where they will lead me.

Does anyone else yearn to be thrilled by such character and leadership?

I realize that America is what it is today because I as an individual have allowed it to decline to this point. I am as much a guardian of the values and tenants of this great country as our elected officials are – perhaps even moreso than they are. We as individuals need to demand more from our leaders. We need to let them know that who they are, how they are acting, what they think, is currently not acceptable to us. They need to know that the ideals upon which the country was born, those ideals that once guided our forefathers but have since become legend, must be re-instituted in their souls.

And yet, those ideals and legend, should only serve as a foundation upon which to build.

It has been 230 years since those inspiring moments of the birth in 1776. It was a combination of frustration and the possibility for a new way of governing that led to the birth of that new nation. As I reflect on that, it is hard for me not to see that that is what is once again present in this country – a tremendous amount of frustration and millions of people yearning for a new way of governing. Is it not conceivable that after so many years it might be time for a “revolution” of sorts? Not a bloody or violent one, but rather a conscious and evolved one that demands more of our leadership. A revolution of Spirit that when it reaches its tipping point, a dramatic and phenomenal shift will occur in how our leaders represent the will and spirit of America. They will become the soul of America, and in that honor and representation, they will shine a light that all of us will willingly follow and be proud to declare that we are Americans.

Copyright 2006, RL, All rights reserved

ReDeclaration of Independence

ON THE INTERNET, July 4, 2006.

The unanimous ReDeclaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the reinvention.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all People are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among its citizens, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of the People; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present political powers is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of a ruling class of government over these People. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

The vision upon which this country was founded has long faded into a faint remembrance, called upon only to serve one’s interests rather than the vision itself.

The divisiveness of this country has reduced the governing bodies to squabbling battle lines of we vs. they, all the while forgetting about u.s.

We the people, the founders of democracy, no longer carry that light by which to inspire and lead the world, but rather embark to secure short-term selfish interests, invoking no such inspirations.

The promotion of ideas and ideals that can lead and inspire has devolved into debates over issues and opinions.

The principles, ethics and character that once guided this country have been replaced by personalities, sound bites, and superficial image.

No longer can one afford to become a governing leader, for the entry fee is no longer a passion to hold or inspire a vision for something better or different, but rather an unaffordable ransom of advertising and marketing costs.

The honor of serving this country by representing its citizens has evolved into a neglected entitlement, those in power often ruling over their small kingdoms for a lifetime.

The guiding principle of this country is no longer a vision of something greater, but rather a short-term need, one that often sabotages and contradicts all that the vision is and was built upon.

Our imagination, ideas and vision once led the world, now it is our fear, power and military might – all true signs of a weakening country fighting its decline, rather than embracing its reinvention.

We the People have become uninspired masses, often feeling removed, frustrated and unable to affect those bodies which govern us.

We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their short-sightedness to continue on this path of divisiveness and lack of vision. We have reminded them that we the People are capable of amazing miracles if just entrusted with a chance. We have appealed to their common sense to free themselves of their current path of decline and selfishness. They too have been deaf to the voice of passion and reason. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Reinvention, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, partners in possibility, in Peace Champions.

We, therefore, the People of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be a ReInvented Nation; Absolved from all Allegiance to past democratic beliefs, and that all political connection between them and the future, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy new ideas, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this ReDeclaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Copyright 2006, RL, with obvious help from those great thinkers, All rights reserved