Reality Checks

For many years in the U.S., we've fought a war on drugs. The war has been fought on the streets with guns, wielded by police forces trying to do their duty. The war has been waged in the courts at immense expense by tax payers. The war is struggled with daily in the overcrowded prisons, where people languish for years, often in the cell next to a child rapist whose release will be more imminent than the drug user's, in far too many cases.

In spite of all of these frantic actions and day-in-day-out duties, drug usage continues to rise in the U.S.--and this constant demand causes wars in other countries, where drugs are illegaly manufactured, transported and sold. Countries like Mexico, where too many people have died in the crossfire.

Some stastics from the U.S. Government's Institute on Drug Abuse, and the Bureau of Mortality Statistics state that guns in the states kill just under 31,000 citizens, and that illegal drugs cause an annual 15,000 deaths.

Tobacco causes a whopping 400,000 deaths and that all-time favorite drug of choice, alcohol, causes 100,000 people to die. Enormous numbers of people die every year from just smoking and drinking alcohol, and yet the advertising account executives from each of those industries are not among those hurting in the present economy.

Legal drugs, those we can get across the counter or with a doctor's expensive prescription, destroy 20,000 lives. Mercy, those legal drugs are even more dangerous than the illegal ones, the drugs we fight so hard to overcome and kill and maim and wipe off the face of the earth! The Oxycontin and Percoset, et al, cause 5,000 MORE deaths than do the illegal drugs.

What, I ask you, is wrong with this picture? Are people afraid that by voting to legalize all drugs, they will be counted as sinners themselves? By associating themselves with a country which legalizes all drugs, they might be tainted as running with the wrong crowd? Will we all go to hell if we keep the guns which cause 31,000 deaths per year, but we deny and criminalize the illegal drugs which cause less than half that number?

According to this research, more people die from simple caffeine than they do from marijuana. More die from aspirin than from grass! Really, do we understand what the story is behind this "war?"

Reality can be checked and categorized and cleaned up and printed in black and white beside ads for diet pills and vodka, but reality cannot be relied upon to be accepted. The fact is, Prohibition caused more crime and more deaths than the alcohol did....facts on record support this and other horrifying information on the subject.

The fact is, fighting drugs is big business. Selling arms to drug cartels, even bigger business. And it's about the business, folks, and we all know that deep-down; it's never been about the dangers or numbers of deaths or morality. Now, the next time a vote comes up to legalize illegal drugs, think about this: we spend more money as a nation fighting drugs like marijuana, which causes NO deaths per year, than we do in taking care of people who DO have real drug problems.

Reality? I don't think we know what it means any more.

ANNUAL AMERICAN DEATHS CAUSED BY DRUGS
TOBACCO ...........................400, 000
ALCOHOL ...........................100, 000
ALL LEGAL DRUGS ....................20, 000
ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS...................15, 000
CAFFEINE ............................2, 000
ASPIRIN ................................500
MARIJUANA ............................... 0
Source: United States government.
National Institute on Drug Abuse,
Bureau of Mortality Statistics

ANNUAL AMERICAN DEATHS CAUSED BY GUNS: FROM CDC: 30,896 (FROM 2006) ANNUALLY

But What is Mexico Really Like?

Subsequent to the FOX and other media coverage of the ongoing war on drugs in Mexico, or rather war on the cartels and the cartels' war on anyone in their way, I'm often asked by North Americans who have not recently ventured into Mexico, "What is it like to live in such a terrible, dangerous place?" I've lived here for nearly 15 years, and have driven from here to Texas and back many many times, so people tend to worry about this.

To this query, I can only reply, "It's just awful." We just live from minute to minute, worried to death. And we don't get the "stuff" we did in the states.The one thing I miss the most about the States is telemarketing. We don't get it in Mexico unless the phone company calls to offer us some new gadget, maybe once a year.

I miss the voices of bored, underpaid, overworked telephone sales people trying desperately to sign me up for anything and everything under the sun. I miss doing the Jerry Seinfeld thing, when he asked the telemarketer for her home phone number, and she said she didn't give it out, and he replied, "Exactly." Then he hung up. Good times, good times.

Another thing I really miss in Mexico is road rage. How boring it is, just toodling along with all the other cars being nice? It's so benign. People tip their hats or wave "gracias" if you let them go in front of you, stuff like that.

Yeah, we get some pretty aggressive drivers here, but generally if your car breaks down, you're going to get people lined up to help you out, offer you a ride to the nearest gas station or tow truck office, and then when you offer these nice people a monetary reward for their generosity and genuine lovingkindness, they flatly refuse it, saying something akin to, "What for? You'll pass on the favor to someone else."

We go to the movies for first-runs and pay about $4.oo--with our senior discount card it's about $3.50. The movies are in English--where is the challenge there? Sub-titles (or substitutos as one friend calls them) are in Spanish often, so you can at least get a nice language lesson. Watch out for the popcorn prices though: a huge box of it will run you about the price of your admission ticket. Gosh. Times are changing. Last time we saw a movie in the states, we paid enough to get our house re-financed, and something deep down just tells me, "you get what you pay for."

Property taxes are about 1/10th to 1/100th of those in the states...it's pretty suspect, considering we get water service, electricity, garbage service daily and people bringing bottled water to your door.

When we go shopping, there are locally owned stores and restaurants run by friendly people who give us the time of day, where we can buy organic foods and hand made items, for about 1/5 the cost we'd pay in the U.S. Or we can go to Wal-Mart, Costco, Sam's, Sears, Penney's, Sally Beauty Supply, Radio Shack, Office Depot, Office Max, Home Depot, Starbuck's, Domino Pizza, Blockbuster, Chili's, Carl's Jr., IHOP, McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Subway, Church's Chicken, and on and on and on with the international companies--all of which just make us homesick for What-A-Burger and Taco Bell.

Watching satellite TV also just makes us homesick for our local channels--how do we know who's run into a ditch or held up a convenience store? We get way too many PBS and BBC channels, too. (*Sigh.)

It's hell in the semi-desert tropics mountains. The average year-round temperature is 70-something, and infrequent are weather incidents such as tornadoes. Sometimes there's a flood or two, which gives us something to watch on CNN. Now, in June, the daily rains have come and the temperature today must be in the 60s. Nothing to complain about, and we never get triple-digit heat--the Texans just have all the luck. Same ol', same ol'--perfect weather all the time, year-round wildly blooming vines, things like that.

Danger: well, sure, there is violence and danger in some parts of Mexico. From here, you have to drive a long time to get into the danger zones, however. To see any real action, you'd have to call up the national police to ask when they think something's about to "go down," and then drive all night to get there, hoping to show up in time to see the action. Or you have to watch tv.

Because guns are illegal in Mexico (gee, what a drag), there are very very few shootings in general. Per-capita, they hardly exist. The poor cartels must turn to illegal arms dealers such as the Academy Corporation (according to the New Yorker) in the U.S. in order to buy their weapons. It's really hard to throw a knife and do nearly as much damage as you can with an automatic weapon or even a simple hand gun, as most of us N. Americans know. Sure is a dearth of action-packed fun here. Only time I've heard gun fire is in the states, one block from my white-as-white neighborhood, in fact, or in downtown San Antonio. In Chicago I was never so lucky, although I've heard-tell of some pretty exciting incidents there--again, you'd have to watch tv news.

Anyway, we make do here...driving through our area outside of San Miguel de Allende, sometimes we have to make room for people riding to and from their work on horseback, which is picturesque but kind of a pain. People come to our door selling nopales and tortillas, for just pennies. . . they have to make a living, so we buy what they have. Home-made tortillas melt in your mouth, but they don't have that chewy tang of the ones made by huge factories.

Then, there is the culture--one of dignity, pride and tradition. Kind of like Texas used to be before the GOP turned into the mafia. Just my opinion, you know, but it's not the same as it once was there. Here we put up with costume-festooned festivals with fireworks, parades, processions and miles and miles of head-feathered Indian groups, dancing and singing and beating out the joy of life with ankle-belled steps and moves a thousand years old, incense burning and flower petals patterned onto the cobblestones, the sound alone enough to raise the hair on the arms of even the most stone-cold hearted souls.

Colors we have never imagined are everywhere. In the houses, in the hills, in the sky, in children's eyes. It's rather distracting. Sometimes I have to tear myself from this machine just to go out and watch the wide-sombreroed charros practicing their rodeo with huge indignant steeds so magnificent they tear at the heart.

People dance in the streets. People celebrate and rejoice over the changing of the seasons or for the sheer joy of remembering who they really are. People smile and bow to one another and touch shoulders and hug and walk down the street holding hands, old and young, male, female, whoever they are. Families are stronger than the mountains, and they don't let one another go through difficulties alone. They pick one another up even if they don't have enough to eat themselves. They go en masse to the hospital, even if grandmother only has to have a thyroid test. Here, people relate to one another. People talk and talk and talk. People work. People love. People live.

Dull, in other words. A year here is never as exciting as one day in the life of the NYPD. But that's just my Mexico. You might find it refreshing.

Further Rants, Freedom of Religion

‎"In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case

gotten at secondhand, and without examination, from authorities who have not yet

themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them secondhand from

other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing." ~

Mark Twain

Some thoughts on freedom of religion, separation of church and state, and people who give

religion a bad name...Hitler was a Christian. Our beloved Abraham Lincoln was an atheist. Ayn

Rand happened also to be an atheist, one who hated nearly everyone, but who thought enough

of big government to cash her welfare checks--it's a free country even for right-wing

goddesses, godless or not.If you want to persecute groups for their sins, you're ineligible to

call yourself Christian, Buddhist or most other religions. Jesus provides tons of problems for

the right-wing Christians and others who would kill abortion doctors and such: he said we

ought to love our neighbors as ourselves and to forgive and to even LOVE our enemies.

Inconvenient facts for the rah-rah religious crowd, but there you are. Life is not a football game. Life is real life. One of my pet peeves is this attitude that one must "show unity" by agreeing with the Christian right. It's as if we're wearing the wrong school colors--cheering for the other team (whatever that is in this case, as there is a plethora of religions (35 different religions) and Christian demoninations (217 + different Christian sects in America today....145,800,000 + various Christians--that's tons). Mega churches and small groups of meditators and even smaller groups who simply come together to pray, Wiccans and Native Americans and Hindus like Julia Roberts and Russell Brand and many others.Muslims and Catholics and Seventh-Day Adventists and Mormons. It is a very big world, even in the states. There is room for all beliefs here.

The sweet-hearted Quakers meet not in churches but in meeting halls; they follow tenets formed over two-hundred years, at least--I'm just guessing here. They are Christians and they believe in honest relationships and in group prayer. . . but I don't believe they have a strong lobby associated with the Koch Brothers or with Rupert Murdoch. . . I believe that would go against the grain of their sincere, simple and quiet tendencies. Something about the FOX news church people is so ugly and dark, it might as well be a national movement of money changers whose temples are rooted firmly in Wall Street's criminal activities. I'm tired of other people's beliefs, especially when they

At a wedding reception, an overly earnest, frowning man asked a minister: "Do you believe in infant baptism?"

"Believe in it? I've SEEN it!" the minister cried. He was also a seminary professor who had just come out of a long semester's work, and who, that day, did not have patience to talk religion with someone who was obviously gunning for an argument over tenets, whose beliefs were held perhaps in higher regard than his own behavior. One on one or in huge mobs, religion is being flaunted in militaristic ways today.

Giving religion a bad name is not Kosher. Marching with signs against others due to religious differences is dangerous, it's a terrible and scurrilous practice which separates all concerned from any semblance of love. It is also in very bad taste--it's downright tacky, a term which describes a lot of activities carried out these days by Christian groups.

To the Tea Party members, with a huge sigh of impatience and very little tolerance, I wish you'd all cut it out, but this is not a perfect world. Just don't try to legislate the rest of us to fall in line according to YOUR religious beliefs and practices ...that's just being a bully, and it's unconstitutional. So worship as you please, but get out of my face with your hate mongering control-freak ways. It's supposed to be a free country, even for sleaze-buckets like Ayn Rand. She had her say, but she didn't try to legislate it for the whole country, did she? I don't THINK so.

The founding fathers of our country were mostly Deists. Their usage of terms like "God" had to do not with Christianity, but rather due to the present tradition that kings ruled under the authority of God--the Divine Right of Kings. But the constitution was wrought to avoid that. In fact, "the 1796 treaty with Tripoli states that the United States was "in no sense founded on the Christian religion"--not an idle statement meant to satisfy Muslims-- they believed it and meant it. This treaty was written under the presidency of George Washington and signed under the presidency of John Adams."

So we are not a Christian nation--to say so defiles the terms United States of America, as well as the term "Christian." It suggests that Christians are entitled to telling the rest of the nation what to do because "God told me so." Bull. Utter nonsense. Doing harm in the name of religion--I'd like to see people stop it.

But before they did, very likely their towns would have to be leveled by tornadoes or hail storms or floods. . . and those tragic acts of nature would probably have to be connected directly to polluting conditions, directly caused by corporations. Even then. Do you suppose most of the zealots would awaken?

My concerns are shared by many today. But I don't think we will have to worry for much longer about the right's taking over the government. . . the pawns they represent, their puppet masters, are not ideologically or theologically motivated. It's all about the money and most of us know that. The rah-rah crowds are falling into line,in keeping with those who really are the gods of America: those who already own us all. And that does not ring true according to any religious tenet I have ever read or been taught. That sounds more like pure evil. The evil Empire. At what cost will we awaken?

See http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html for a closer look at the religious connections--or rather disconnections--with the authors of our constitution.

Why I Hate Black Friday

My most comfortable pair of Reeboks bound my feet like some Geisha ritual, and my tongue was a piece of tattered felt; I could kill for a G & T but day's end would be but a leg of the journey. Was I at war, in the trenches, ready for another shelling to spray my comrades? No, I was just trying to find a working clock in the 3rd section of the market place in an IKEA store in Round Rock, Texas.

Very clever of the Swedes: there's no clock to be found--so if you've been cavalier and forgotten your wristwatch, you're dead meat. Still it's "the most wonderful time of the year," so one must do one's part. Truth be told, if we don't break at least five of the seven deadly sins, it just ain't Christmas.

"Sir, do you have the time?" I mumble raggedly to a man staring at kitchen gadgets.

"Ten of," he replied wearily.

"Uh-ten of what, if you don't mind."

"Ten of five, Ma'am. Long day?" He chuckles.

"Yeah, thanks. Long season." I'm turning away when he remarked,

"Well next time you're in this store, wear a watch-their most ingenious marketing plan is the lack of working clocks within sight of customers! You're gonna spend the day here."

"Oh Lord." I laughed too at this point. "No wonder we seem to camp out at IKEA. Well, Merry Christmas to you," I called cheerily, immediately catching my non-PC greeting.

"Thanks but I'm Jewish." He laughed. Wouldn't you know the one time I don't say "Happy Holidays," it's a nice Jewish man?

"God love ya." I said. We both laughed.

"Yeah," he added, "biggest mistake we Jews ever made--no Christmas--beats hell outta Hanukkah for retail."

We went our separate ways, both searching for the check-out lanes, miles from where we were.

IKEA is popular in many countries, but it's easy to see why Americans are wild for the place. It offers cheap, colorful and well organized STUFF, has something for everyone and even though you aren't always sure what you've bought, or how to assemble the neatly packaged gizmos, you're delighted with the prices

In America we're obsessed with cheap crap, and seconds-stores or overbuy outlets are more popular than ever. Entire malls are dedicated to outlets from the major design establishments, although it's hard to imagine why. . . do we need a rack of pink Polar Fleece vests in sizes 2 and 3? How do we justify taking home bags and bags of slightly dented picture frames or cute tins of tea with bruised cellophane wrappers? How? Because it's there. All over the place, it's just there.

Tuesday Morning is an establishment so crammed with department store overbuys they close early on Mondays in many locations, in order to make room for new shipments on Tuesdays. The store is incredible and chock-full of household items such as printed napkins in cow-hide designs. It's so crowded near the holidays it takes hours to get in and out, and by the time we check out we're so drained we contemplate the meaning of life. And not in a zen way.

We're dying of thirst, so we must, absolutely have to try that new holiday diet cranberry limeade freezy super drink at Sonic, but once we pull into the parking place, neatly supplied with reading materials announcing in neon colors the latest ice cream drink, we're also starved, so we order Tater Tots with Frito Pie Wraps, consisting of Fritos, chili and cheese neatly folded into a large flour tortilla.

Home again, deluged with tangles of plastic bags, we've ruined our appetites for a normal dinner, hopping instead into the shower, outfitted with automatic cleaning attachments and chrome dispensers of seven types of cleansing products. Hitting the sack, we think how great are these sheets: 375-thread count Egyptian cotton in peach and sage, luxurious to the max. But we got them at Ross for 1/5 the retail price. Drifting off, we murmur with our last breath, "God bless America."

Politics Again

It's always occurred to me that wherever two are gathered, there is politics. Often a sore subject for myriad reasons, politics is always with us. Like the poor, you say? Well it depends on how one reads that text, the phenomenon itself representing an aspect of politics. Politics of the word; how to interpret; how to restate; how to "bend it, shape it, any way you want it."

People may say, "Keep your politics to yourself. Write to your senator; don't talk to me." That works until the social security check does not arrive. Until the veteran's benefits run out. Until the Medicare check fails to arrive. Until that college loan is denied. Until the mortgage is foreclosed upon. Politics affects the way the world rolls. And THAT affects every person in every country at every hour of every day. And there's nothing to be done about that.

It would behoove us to look at the huge picture more often than not. To look at the facts as closely as they can be gleaned and reported to us. To vary our news sources. Whoa, that's a big one. For we're as devoted to our news sources as we are to our religious sects or our NBA teams. . . which can often become confused, as can our political-party affiliations with our fondness for labels. Pepsi or Coca-Cola; Ford or Chevrolet; Elvis or the Beatles. And on and on and on.

Politics has become nasty this year--calls for the president's demise. How sad is that? I couldn't abide even hearing Bush's voice. . . but I wish the fellow well. So the current vicious calls for vengeance (which is supposed to belong to God, isn't it?) baffle and disturb me.

We knew, all of us, that these Mid-term elections would be quite the tussle. We knew people would throw epithets and hurl insults, start rumors, sling mud and wrestle one another's ideas to the ground.

(What startled me was when three of the present senator's "crowd control" workers wrestled a protester to the ground.) One threw her to the concrete, another slammed her head on a curb and one of them stomped on her head, giving her a concussion--tiny little thing, brave as can be--and the bodyguards were like linebackers. That is just not right. In fact that is hard even to think about. The girl didn't even hurl insults or curse words, did she? Did she deserve even to be escorted out in a gentlemanly fashion? I don't think so.

I got this news from Reuters (which has displeased me greatly of late), NPR and CNN. . . later I read some additional reporting from Huffington, Keith Olbermann, MoveOn and other shared links via Facebook. I didn't watch or read FOX because I never have and never will--I know their agenda and don't agree with it; this is America and that is that. I must respect the source of my news, or why read it at all?

I know we're all different. That some adhere to their party as viciously as they adhere to their church's tenets. And it's clear that some people despise the opposite party on principle. Really, some haven't been out of the country or even listened to the stories of people of other ideologies very carefully at all. There are millions of traditions out there. Some function well; others struggle even to keep clean water. The political party in power can make great headway using its resources, or it can just bow to the money every time.

But we're talking about the very diverse United States. The place were Mickey Mouse was born. The place where Coca-Cola and Pepsi were invented (for better or worse). Where jazz came from. We're all over the place, and it's always meant to be that way. Try driving down the highway without running into some sign of diversity. Can't be done.

We have two parties for a reason. Tell you what: I'll help make mine the best advised and most scrutinized, cleanest and hardest working damned party on earth. . . and all I would ask of members of the other parties is to stop and think: is vilifying the opposition getting the job done? I mean really?

If we're snide and mean enough, does that signify the mark of great nations? If we attack the woman holding the sign, what does that mean? How close to criminals are we willing to get, in order to have our own way?

We can't get anywhere, or conserve our safety without a good automobile and a balanced driver. But we're skidding into oncoming traffic this very minute.

With Apologies to Will Rogers

I never met a mango I didn't like.

Mangoes.

They're impossible to describe. The color alone is blindingly sunny. Drippy, syrupy sweet/tart sexy fruit!

Think jungle fever overdosed with rum. Pulpy lemony angelica. Peaches on crack.

From the first time a Brazilian fruit platter swung near me, heavy on the mangoes nose-high, I've been hexed and have wanted only more. In Brazil they grow large, almost like footballs, and the varieties are yellow-skinned or coral blushed (as far as I remember).

Mexican mangoes are plentiful in the south year round, and in the central or north, they start showing up in the markets in late spring (I am in the central highlands, so their arrival may vary according to other regions.) The aroma intoxicates even before the golden-red orbs come into view.

My favorite mango recipes don't mess around with the fruit all that much. Slice it, squeeze the juice over the pulp, eat it up. Throw in some Kiwi, maybe a fresh tangerine, but not much else.

To get the most fruit from the skin, you cut them in half, one half delicately carved around the slippery large seed. Then after scoring the flesh into little squares, turn the curved half inside-out, and you're ready for a grapefruit spoon, or bare-mouthed bites. Prepare yourself. The earth will move.

One mango a day would cure the devil of all ills. The vitamin-mineral content is off the map. But the flavor itself makes it so popular. Many American markets offer fresh ones, but if you can't find them, they sell frozen mangoes these days--go for it! In a pinch, use them drained from a can, found in the Mexican/Central American sections of good markets.

A few diversions with mangoes:

The Mango Mimosa

4 freshly peeled & chopped mangoes, pureed in blender with 1 liter or quart mango nectar. Fill champagne flutes halfway, top them off with chilled champagne.

Mango Silk

Into the blender container, place: 3 mangoes, peeled & chopped. One can sweetened condensed milk. One cup heavy cream. Blend on high, pour into casserole dish, cover with plastic. At this point, you must decide: freeze it for a fabulous ice cream, or chill it for the smoothest pudding ever.

Fresh Mango Pie

Into deep-dish pie pan prepared with one layer of dough, place 4 or 5 (4 cups) sliced mangoes. Dust with 1 cup dark brown sugar, a bit of cinnamon and cloves, and a light sprinkling of all-purpose flour. Top with pie crust, make a few slits in the top. Brush with beaten egg yolks, sprinkle all over with sugar and cinnamon. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees; lower temperature to 325 and bake for 20 more minutes, 'til top is browned.

Excuse me--I have to check something on the stove. I'll be back at a later, to-be-determined time. Probably not 'til after supper.

Fear Itself

Today is Hallowe'en, one of the few days of the year designated for enjoyment. Candy and outdoor gatherings for the kids, trick-or-treats under the windy dark skies, in the guise of one's favorite character, letting go of self for a while. It's heaven for kids and oldies too.

Hallowe'en rocks. I love the part when the doorbell rings and raggedy clutches of costumed kids shout, "Trick or TREAT!!" Giggling with them, it's so much fun to act afraid and say "Oooooooh! Scary monsters!!!" Watching them skipping away, sneaking peeks inside their bags to see what they got this time, I remember going out with my brother and the neighbors, getting so excited to be outdoors at night, listening to the rustling of leaves circling the trunks of the darkened trees.

Spooky feelings were so delightful we would laugh suddenly and madly, as if we had best enjoy the moment before it combusted spontaneously. The myth that someone might put razor blades in the candy made it even better--real danger existed and we'd better watch out! Scream to your heart's content! Today it's encouraged!

Today as adults we can still enjoy Hallowe'en, but this year's has taken on a rather sinister quality. God forbid that we pass this scenario on to the kids and grandkids. . . they do not deserve it. . . let them trick and treat freely, as they'll grow up soon enough.

"Be afraid! Be very afraid!"

The message has become a mantra, a remonstration, a quasi-national command performance. Be afraid of the Muslim--of all Muslims. Be terrified of the immigrant, especially those coming from south of the border. Woe unto thee all who espouse gays, are gay, or who approve of gays: your day of reckoning is at hand. Tremble at the spectacle of social programs, most of all! They may overtake our "freedoms!"

The United States has become such a place of propaganda FOR being afraid, perhaps we should change our national symbol from the Bald Eagle to the plucked chicken. Wimps we are charged to become; but wimps don't get much done. More's the point. Wimps follow the leader to the nearest exit, to the ambulance entrance, to the right-wing rally, and finally to the soup line.

Yesterday's "Rally to Restore Sanity" mounted by Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert made a difference for me--their message was : turn off the set. The static is in your head. Don't listen to the media all the time. Think. Think for yourselves. WE are AMERICANS. We can make the changes we wish, without going off the deep end.

I appreciated that. For violence in real, every day life is scary. People who are armed and at the ready, for the invasion of nonexistent perpetrators are all over the place--they go off half-cocked all the time. Turn on the news if you don't believe me. But there are truly other ways to choose to live. Harmony is just around the corner.

Answer the door. Children are waiting. Make them happy today--and take today's message into the tomorrows of all time. "There is nothing to fear but fear itself."--FDR

"That the creatures of worry and care fly above your head, this you cannot change. But that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent." -- Chinese proverb