I know the human being and the fish can coexist peacefully

Collectively we on Mindsay, as in the world, are black, white, brown, male, female, leftist, rightist, centrist, atheist, humanist, spiritualist, straight, gay, passionate, passive, rich and poor, young and old. We all are different, but if we are to survive we must focus on how we are the same.

I've been in the world longer than most here, and I've seen a lot of history firsthand. It doesn't make me smarter, just older. When I perceive that things are going well, I don't complain a lot... I don't concern myself with politics or social woes. Lately, however, I am assaulted by conditions that tell me things are not going well, and I am complaining...I am concerning myself.

My children, who have multiple degrees from multiple universities, are struggling to pay for health care which is up 78% since 2000, decent housing which is becoming increasingly out of step with income, and energy costs that continue to rise even as oil companies amass record profits. Their food is poisoned, their planet is altered, and they are subjected to all manners of search and seizure. They have a public debt, in addition to their own, that they will be paying well into their golden years, while public assistance programs, Social Security, and Medicare will be dubious at best. Corporations are not paying their fair share of taxes, and jobs are being sold to the lowest bidder.

Their generation is being sent to war by old men who never went to war themselves. As I write this 3,334 soldiers have died in a country that was destroyed...not by Sadam Hussein, not by Bin Laden...but by the wrath of our own president and the hatred and terrorism he has galvanized. No one even knows how many thousands of Iraqi citizens and children have died in the aftermath. We entered a bad place and we made it worse.

None of us will be on the earth forever, and we must make the best of the time we have. We all have different ideas about how we will do that, but through it all we must find time to figure out how we can make our world a better place for all of us and our children...how we each can make ourselves better. This we have in common.

I hope someone will tell me that I got it all wrong, and then we can laugh and go get a coffee.  I hope.