Arrogance or what?

BOSTON -- Mitt Romney's campaign gathered the national press corps in their campaign war room this morning to deliver a simple message: It would take an "act of God" for any candidate not named Mitt Romney to win the Republican nomination.

Ignorance

We are in trouble. We the United States of America. I had lunch at a posh resort bar yesterday and asked the nice young lady behind the counter if she knew who the GOP candidates were seeking the republican nomination? She did not! She was 31 years old! I asked if she knew who the president was? She did! As the conversation continued she volunteered that she was a registered republican because her parents were, but she waited until the election and then looked at the issues to decide for whom to vote. We are in trouble in this country.

Super Tuesday

Hmmmmmmmm. Can an open convention be far behind?

America

Flying over this great land, looking down from 30-thousand feet you get a different perspective than from the road. I realize that is an obvious statement, but it sets up this post. I am meeting good friends in Beaver Creek to ski for a few days and enjoy their company and companionship on the slopes as well as in their condo and across a restaurant table. My friends drove from the east to Colorado. They do that a lot. Road trips they call it and they experience the magnificence of this country through people and places. Flying overhead also has its value for it brings in the gestalt and wonder of America. So few people in the world have the opportunity to see our planet from a high flying altitude. If they did, I would hope it would change their thinking away from narrow attitudes and a strict tribal mentality. I suppose in many ways America has a tribal mentality too. We think we are the greatest country on earth and in so many we are. We have opportunity and freedoms where others do not. We have a constitution based on fairness, and on guaranteed rights for all. We also have our political, cultural, and social differences, but we all call ourselves Americans and when it's necessary we put aside those differences and out of the many we become one. Note to Congress! Note to all candidates! It's necessary. It's time. Get it together. It's not your country. It is OUR country.

Radio Personalties

I am writing a new dictionary and starting with the the "R's". "Rush". The sound a blowhard makes when he opens his mouth. The crude and rude uttering's of a sot. A spokesman for the closet prejudice. An insincere apologist. A misuser of the public airwaves. See also: Arrogance Cruel Bully Bombastic Hubris Overbearing The next letter will be the "L's".

Ohio Tragedy

The tragedy like the one in Chardon, Ohio is all too frequent in recent years.

Some how, we adults, as teachers, parents, neighbors, and even strangers, need to increase our vigilance for the signs of juvenile aberrant behavior, and to speak up when we see it.

More importantly, we need to be ever cognizant of the reality that we are the prime examples for our children. We set societies criteria through our acts of kindness and through our acts of violence.

It is sad that T.J. Lane followed in the footsteps of his father’s violent past.

We especially need to teach our young that violence, in all its forms, attack, anger, greed, or desire, is not the adjudicator of conflict, as the fantasy of cartoons and movie fiction suggest.

It is the creator of conflict. It is we, as individuals, as families, as communities who must lay down the weapons of fear, that our children emulate, and take up the powerful effective swords of principle, truth, tolerance, and compassion and then be the evidence of them.

The youth of today seek not only a personal and generational identity, as all young do, but deep within them, as in all, they quest for the elixir of transcendence, a feeling of creative grace and accomplishment that precipitates into peace.

The delusionary addictive adrenaline of violence cannot give anyone peace, it can only give them emptiness.

Snow

Here in the mountains of the Northeast we are finally getting some snow. It's not much, but around five to eight inches; just enough to make the uninitiated drivers panic. I got behind one car that didn't go over twenty miles per hour and at that time there was only two inches of slush on the road. Traction was fine, but that person felt safer at that slow speed. I did my usual prayer for the other driver and I'll leave it at that.

Note: Those of you who have ridden with me in the past, please no anonymous comments.

Some house keeping notes:

I'll be traveling next week. March 3rd through the 10th so my posts will be from the road and probably just brief observations on what I see and feel. I'll include some photos since this is a fun skiing trip to Beaver Creek, Colorado.

I do thank you for tuning into these missives from time to time and always appreciate your comments and commentary.