"IF YOU DON'T FIND GOD IN THE NEXT PERSON YOU MEET, IT IS A WASTE OF TIME LOOKING FOR HIM FURTHER." Gandhi

* If you were alive in the sixties, but can only vaguely remember it, you probably were.
* If your clothes never match, guess what?
* When your kids ask who those strange looking folks are in some of your picture keepsakes, admit it.
* Marijuana is an herb, you're almost sure of it.
* Sex, love, and rock & roll is not our national motto, but you're pretty sure it once was.
* You know the lyrics to every song in the 60's and 70's, including "Louise, Louise." Welcome to hippiedom.
* If you get scared taking a shower, or going to the barber, or want to snort like a pig every time you see a cop, you were obviously once a hippie. Like they say, "Once a hippie, always a hippie."
* And oh, those hippie girls.

* Getting up in the morning in spite of it all.
* Thinking life will be better after you die.
* Buying a car.
* Voting.
* Giving birth.
* Going to the hospital.
* Looking in a mirror.
* It takes an act of faith to stand up and say "This ain't right" when everyone else jumps on the bandwagon.
* A leap of faith takes nerves of steel and about half a brain.

The three presidential candidates, actually all of Congress, in fact, pretty much all of us, miss the point: We talk about the economy, the mortgage crisis, the war, illegal immigrants, and numerous other serious, but not world ending, issues. The most demanding, most pressing problems of the time go virtually unmentioned:
1. We have got to get rid of all nuclear weapons. Starting with the U.S. All other countries must than follow. This is way too damn risky. One mistake, one gung-ho idiot with an itchy trigger finger, and it's all over.
2. We have to stop global warming. There are no if's, and's, or but's about this. There is no liberal conspiracy. This is a winner take all, or lose all, proposition. Our reliance on fossil fuels has to end. The oil companies and coal companies have made enough. It's either get with it, or parish.
3. Population growth has to be controlled, There are too many of us. Six billion and counting. Number two cannot be accomplished unless the population is controlled.
4. We have to give attention to other environmental issues, like the oceans, the coral reefs, the forests, soil, right down to the flora and fauna. We cannot keep destroying these things in the name of profit and consumerism. Our children, their children, and their children's children deserve better.
If we don't get these four things under control, and fairly soon, nothing else will matter.

As I lay in bed this morning thinking how screwed up this country has become, the questions start: How did we get to the point where we believe that killing people can win over their hearts? That we somehow think that we know what is best for everyone? How do you end up torturing people in an attempt to win them over to democracy? How does someone who joins the military end up as front page news, but those who protest the war continue to be looked at with disdain and suspicion? When is it going to end that people have to file bankruptcy over health-related expenses? Why would we keep a President in office who has blatantly and repeatedly lied to us? The longer I lay in bed, the more questions I have that I can't answer. So I got up and took my meds. Somehow, everything makes sense now.

(Headed for vacation. See you next Monday).
The Peever