Checking Up on the Last Year

The Year Is Ending. It is time to review my progress toward goals set this year (and to consider goals for next year). This is always a curious process. There are goals that are unmet with good reason (e.g., as I progressed I concluded that they were not necessary or desirable) and goals that were lost in the rush of time. Here is my annual review and beginning of goal setting for the next year.

A Blast from the Past
Here is last year’s list of goals.Looking at them, I realize that they are not as fully formed, as they should have been. I have not done a regular check up, as I have in the past. This has been an interesting, and difficult, year. Goals set were:

• Financial: To live within a budget and to responsibly service my debts;
• Professional: To locate suitable employment that will allow me to meet my nut every month with room to spare;
• Music: Complete the CD and distribute, gig to support it and for personal satisfaction;
• Personal Relationships: Spend quality time with the important people in my life;
• Spiritual: Continue to do anonymous kindness for those that cannot repay me, improve my spiritual development.

My goal under “Spiritual” has remained this way for some years. I do not intend to change this.It is not tied to performance measures or milestones. It serves as a reminder of my need to continue doing for others with no expectation of being paid back for my kindness. Kindness should be lived in all contexts. I have often failed in this arena. I need to be reminded that I can never be kind enough; there is always room to grow. Having said that, I am happy that I have made this a centerpiece for my life this year. I have done much, most of which has not graced the pages in this ‘blog.

Music has suffered the most this year, largely owing to finances. I have been hit by several expenses that I did not, in any way, anticipate or budget for. Instruments were pawned to pay expenses.I am only now able to get them out of prison, and slowly at that.

July-August-September were particularly difficult.I developed some health issues that have taken their fiscal, as well as physical, toll. They will pass.The rest is only money. Debts will all be serviced. I don’t fail my obligations. Sometimes it takes me much longer than I wanted, though, to make good. Realistically, I don’t know what to do with my music project. I have too much invested into it to shelf it, but I lack the time to complete it. It may become a summer project. Money remains a mystery to me. My Financial goals remain the same: stability. While I am making slow progress toward reestablishing myself, I still struggle. Enough said here.

Professional goals now are shifting toward going clear on my credential. I am working, though I am clearing less money than I did as a long-term sub (by nearly $500.00 per month!). I am contributing toward my retirement, though. I need to think of this as income rather than a deduction. I will have to go back to school in September. I also want to complete my M.Ed. during this next year. That will mean more funds.

Personal Relationships were a mixed bag this year. There has been more virtual ink spilled over this in this ‘blog than I care to consider. When I fall in love, I fall hard. It makes the betrayals all the more difficult. I squandered my heart on an unworthy woman. Looking back, I can see that she had difficulties that, while unaccounted in this ‘blog, were key to her being unable to do anything without condition. I have done well with my daughters and friends, though.

What’s Next?
I will have to spend some time thinking about the next set of goals. The spiritual goal will remain the same. I don’t know about a specific discipline. Financial will need to improve, too. I need to work on music since much of my sanity is tied to my art.

More later…
- tDF

Not All May Live in Community

I will freely admit that this is disturbing to me. I have been thinking about the death penalty since the State of California executed Stanley Williams. It seems that there are several other people awaiting execution in my home state, several of which have already had the dates of their deaths set by the state. This begs the question: who is entitled to live in community?

Not All Are Entitled
I am a liberal to my core; this means that I value the individual rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness while understanding that the government must protect the environment, provide for just distribution of wealth, and defend those whose rights are endangered by a tyranny of the majority. It is that last clause that causes me such consternation. In good conscience, I have to say that not all are entitled to live in our communities. Some present a clear and present danger. Some must be removed.

While working as a social worker, I came upon a client that we'’ll call "“JR."” Through no fault of his own, JR was born with diminished mental capacities. He had a diagnosis of mild mental retardation and had psychological difficulties. As one psychologist phrased it, he was "all id and no ego," that is to say that he had no ability to understand culpability for his criminal actions. JR was a sex predator. While on a 51-50 hold he stalked and raped at least two women that were under sedation. Later, when confronted, he responded, "they didn'’t say '‘no...'"

I believe in freedom from the government's intrusion into my life. I believe that I should be free from wire-taps without due process. I believe that the criminal justice system should be just and humane. I believe that war is rarely - if ever -– justified; that all wars need to be minimal in scope and subject to both the consent of the people and international law. Having said this, I also believe that JR should never be given the right to live with the general population. JR is incapable of distinguishing right from wrong, feeling remorse for his crimes, or understanding that he is victimizing others, and -– most importantly -– controlling himself. For the safety and wellbeing of the general population, he needed to be removed. The question is this: “Where should he be placed? The last I heard, he was at Wasco. This is hell on earth.

A Civilized Option?
That all cannot live in the greater society or that, some have committed crimes so heinous as to have forfeited their rights to live in that society justifies neither a death penalty nor its moral equivalent. The next person scheduled to die is not a Nobel Prize nominee. Neither is he a study in repentance. He is a case study for the death penalty: Clarence Ray Allen was convicted of ordering the murders of three individuals while he was incarcerated at Folsom State Prison for the crime of murder. Mr. Allen, a member of the Choctaw Nation, is currently 76 years old, suffers from diabetes, is blind, and uses a wheel chair. He is scheduled to die on 17 January 2006. The man that carried out the murders ordered by Mr. Allen, Mr. Billy Hamilton, is also on death row. Mr. Allen is a nefarious character. There is no doubt about this. But the question remains: how is justice served by the termination of this life?

I have always argued that the strongest argument against the death penalty is that it is irrevocable and solely vindictive. There is no attempt to regard the condemned as human or to treat them in a humane manner. I can hear the right wing beginning their bantering, speaking about lily-livered liberals that don'’t care about victims'’ rights. I will say this clearly and for the record: no victim has the right to blood. The convicted must be removed from the greater society and allowed to live out their days segregated from the general population. Their needs must be met but their right to live with others is forfeit.

Pandering to Bloodlust
The benchmark of a civilized society is that we are not all id and no ego. We have the ability to see beyond the need of vengeance and our desire for blood. The death penalty does little, if nothing, to address the causes of violence in our society. It does lend an air of credibility, however, to the idea of an eye for an eye. By condoning violence committed by the state, whether by warfare, unjust distribution of wealth and resources, or utilization of cruelty in our penal system, we become that which the law forswears. The bitterest irony is that we use the law and the mechanisms of the State to commit this act.

I don't expect that Mr. Allen'’s pending execution will draw the celebrity that surrounded the execution of Mr. Williams. And I have to ask, what good does the termination of this life do that cannot be accomplished in so many other ways? It is time to impose a moratorium on executions in this state and to put an end to this barberous practice.

_____ _______________ _____

Writing on January 14, 2006 - The Governor of California has announed that this execution will proceed as planned. The link to Reuters is here. And my question still stands: what is gained for the termination of this life. I fear when our penal system becomes a means of castigation rather than reform. It is curious that the word penitentiary derives from the word penitence, a place where a soul found a means to repent and to be restored to community. The origin of the idea was one of restoring, not destroying life. To mete out punishment is to harden a criminal and steel his or her resolve to continue a criminal. I do not belive that all can be reformed, for various reasons (some physiological, others moral). And I stand by my statement, not all are capable of life in the greater community. There must be a human system to address the people that choose not to accept the bounds of law. But having said that I must object that equally it is immoral for the State to take life.
-tDF

We Are None of Us Innocent

The State of California has executed Stanley “Tookie” Williams: We have all become partners to his death. Our state has legalized the execution of criminals for capital crimes. The governor has acted in the name of the people, as have the courts and the penal system. Mr. Williams was put to death in our name. We are all partners in his death; we are all responsible.

A Cynical Political Gesture?
Gov. Schwarzenegger convened a hearing to consider clemency. Predictably, it was denied. I do not know if the governor was sincere in his actions or indulging in high drama with the aim of justifying his decision to allow the execution to proceed. At worst, having convened a hearing to consider arguments when a conclusion is predetermined is cynical and despicable. I hope that this is not the case. I do not know. The comments made by the governor seemed very scripted: “Had he apologized…” As if words of contrition are of greater value than acts of repentance.

The governor had the most convenient of covers: it is the law of the land. This was invoked: the governor that made his election on the claim that he would reform how California did business claimed to be without recourse as he enforced the mandate of the court. There is something disingenuous here. But this is not the central issue. It is only dressing on the stage on which this danse macabre was performed.

The Letter and Intent of the Law
I am not a legal scholar and make no pretense in that direction. What I offer are my thoughts. It seems to me that the death penalty is intended only as retribution. There is no redemptive value in it. To argue that it is the right of the families of the victims to see the perpetrator tortured and executed is to pander to our most base instincts. It is to make their suffering the justification for the deprivation of life. I do not believe that this is the issue: an eye for an eye is what stands at the root of this thing. The quote is attributed to Gandhi: an eye for an eye leaves all of us blind.

The intent of the legal system is to safeguard justice. Justice is not the same as retribution. Indeed, retribution should have no part of justice. To be just is to place a fair value on the rights and lives of all, even those that are the least of us; it seems to me it has as its goal the redemption of human life rather than its destruction. To ritualize the sacrifice of life on the altar of retribution and primitive justice is to deny what could be. Perhaps most importantly, it is irreversible and irrevocable. We are only able to play God to a given degree. Our finitude does not allow us to restore time or life to the erroneously condemned.

The Mark of Cain
All murder is fratricide. We are all our brothers’ keepers. We are all charged with the welfare of all humanity. That is an onerous charge and a daunting responsibility. The State executes a convicted felon. It does so in our name and, presumably, by our consent. There is not a one of us that does not bear the mark of Cain. Stanley Williams was no different.

The Crips is a murderous organization. I was a pastor is South Central Los Angeles for several years. I saw firsthand the violence and the mayhem that gangs leave in their wake. If Williams was innocent of the crime for which he was condemned and executed it was a miscarriage of justice. But to presume that a man who is responsible for the founding of a criminal organization that racked a community with terror, spilling blood and causing mayhem is not guilty of capital crimes is to ignore the reality created. I am a liberal. I wear that label proudly. I must say, however, that the excuse that gangs are victims of oppression is ludicrous. These are thugs, nothing more. Can a thug repent? Certainly. Does that repentance ameliorate responsibility for crimes committed in the past? Certainly not. Does this justify the intentional and systematic extermination of a life in the name of justice? No. And we are marked as truly as was Mr. Williams.

Repentance
The killing needs to stop. AB1121 is a bill pending in the California legislature. It calls a hiatus through January 1, 2009 of executions in the state. This is not a solution. This is a step in the right direction. The bill calls for a review of procedures and application of the death penalty. It is a travesty of justice, in my mind, as this bill works its way through the legislature that dates are being set for still more executions, still more blood being spilt, still more lives snuffed out to satisfy our sense of entitlement for the blood of those who’ve spilt blood.

And the our brothers’ blood cries to God from the ground. And we all stand guilty before Life Itself, bearing the blood of the guilty mingled with the innocent on our hands.

A Long Week Has Come to Its End.

It has been an intense week. I am tired and sitting at my desk in my classroom. I am carpooling this week, owing to the death of yet another car. I have come to a point of thinking it is time to buy a more reliable car. I have to admit that I resent having a car. SL put it neatly: “it’s a chunk of metal that the society has made necessary that I resent having to have.” Here, here, SL. You know how I feel about cars.

My Faith in My Fellow Men and Women
I am amazed how my daughter A can make any situation the occasion for a party. The child can simply take any situation and make it fun. She took what, for me, could have been a serious downer and made it her opportunity to entertain. A has a wonderful sense of humor and can see what is really important. She told me she had a great time because she was spending it with her dad. What a kid.

While waiting for my ride, no fewer than eight people pulled over to help us. I was amazed at the response to seeing the two of us waiting on the car for a ride. I have seen people pulled over. I have driven past them, thinking that I should have done something. I did not expect anybody to stop. Eight cars did. One pulled out a flashlight. One wanted to help with a tow. One offered a ride – yes a ride – to Ventura. These were people that I did not know. They had nothing to gain for helping me. I am so impressed. There are good people out there.

The Games Kids Play
I have had to make several calls this week. The week started off with a bang. Several kids were in performance mode, just pushing the envelope. My answer to this is not to get mad; I call the families. I have spoken with several parents this week. One kid came into class telling me how her father wanted to hang up on me. Another told me that I had no life. In reality, the calls to homes take about five to ten minutes of my day. I find that I get parental support by keeping them in the loop. I also call when kids are doing well. The kids forget about that. I suppose the reason that I went into teaching is that I have no life and hate kids. Just ask them, or at least the ones that have been discipline problems.

I guess that the real issue for me is that we have come to expect to little from our kids. We allow them to live lives without consequences and shelter them from the logical outcomes of their choices. We let them be rude. We let them do the least possible and call that progress. I am not suggesting that we adopt a draconian system of punishment. I am suggesting that accountability and pushing an agenda of excellence is a good thing, I don’t reward kids for meeting my minimal expectations. I reward kids when they go beyond them.

Today we are working on following instructions. I am giving very clearly defined instructions to my English class. They are having to follow procedure clearly. Consequences are clearly defined and quickly administered. So are rewards for following through. It is a hard lesson to learn. The idea is that work will demand that kids do what is expected. After all, employers are giving the kids money for their money. They have a right to expect excellence not excuses.

Saturday Work School
Tomorrow is Saturday Work School. I get to baby-sit the kids that have missed the mark. There are almost thirty kids on this list for this weekend. My bet is that only fifteen or so will show up. They are expected to do trash duty and then school work. The real issue is that they have fouled up in some manner. Tardies are epidemic here. I am a hardnose on this issue: If I am to begin on time the kids need to be here on time. That is the rule. Lots of kids have other issues: leaving campus without appropriate permission (BHS is a very open campus).

Oh well… time to go. More later.

Memories in the Mist

Often, the past lurks behind a shroud of indistinct implication; not all memories are crystalline. Some, if not most, are shrouded in uncertainty. Many dwell in the deep, dark, and moist places of the subconscious where they remain as notes that resonate but never clearly sing: Sympathetic vibrations of an unsettling past. My memories were jarred open this evening as I discovered a document that was like a Pandora’s box; full of my demons and shut too quickly, trapping hope in the darkness.

Exorcism

The first step in an exorcism is to name the demon. This allows the demon to be identified and recognized. The act of naming is as old as Adam in the garden granting identity to the created order. Too many of my demons remain anonymous. Perhaps it is time to name them, without regard for their baptismal appellatives.

I was looking for a wedding service for Denise, one of my students. She is working on a project for her Marriage and Family course. I told her that I had copies of the service found in the Lutheran Book of Worship and would be happy to copy the service for her. I was looking through zip disks stored for years and stumbled upon a document dated 8 August 2000. I was in therapy at that time. This was my first diagnostic reflection. I read the document, following a period of attempting to recall the password with which I had protected the document. An excerpt follows:

“I have a memory – though I have come to doubt whether or not it happened – of my grandfather, my father and me standing across the street from my grandfather’s barbershop. There we stood, under the quote from Cicero’s Orations: ‘He who violates his oath profanes the divinity of faith itself.’ I recall him telling me that this should be my legacy. He died shortly thereafter. I hope that this memory is real: it is one of the few good memories of my father and of my grandfather that I have.

“What frightens me the most about this is that I can ‘sense’ that this is an older pattern that has been around for years and was simply dismissed as being absent-minded (which I truly am). Times when I was certain that I had done something and found that it had not been completed or, at times, even begun testify to the endurance of this issue.

“I am not a deliberately dishonest person; quite to the contrary, I endeavor to be punctiliously honest. I know the difference between the truth and a lie; the problem is that I seem to have forgotten where the truth lay.”

This is a difficult passage for me. So much of my memory is gone. All I have are shades that move in shadows, implying and resonating never explicit or clear.

“This is the most difficult to attach a trigger to. The damning part of this is that I cannot trust my memory to fairly report how and when this happens. I can only assume from the accusations of dishonesty that this has happened. Issues about which I have been accused of lying to cover myself are issues that I am certain I have done, conversations that I am certain have happened. I can recall details of these conversations, how and when. But it seems now that they never existed. I understand how this could be seen as a lack of integrity. This is the most troubling of all for me.”

It is not just short-term memory. There is more, so much more.

An Appearance of Dishonesty

I strive to be an honest man. I know that I fail, more often than I care to admit to at times. A lie is an intentional attempt to conceal the truth. It is either done by modifying the facts, withholding information, allowing a deception to take place to give an impression that is at variance with the truth. Facts are ideal tools of the lie. Facts are not the truth, but they are good signposts to use to find the truth. I often lose myself in a distortion of the facts. I remember things that were never so. I have no memory of things that I was known to have said. This is part of my motivation with this blog, to bear witness to my life and serve as intentional memory.

At times, it seems to me that I wish to live in a glorious past that never was. There is much that I recall that objectively I know not to have happened. The difficulty is that I often find myself convinced of the veracity of an event or, better stated, the accounting of an event. It is almost as if I will not, cannot, accept the reality and will substitute my own version. Mark this well, this is not an intention. I am often not aware when it happens. I would like to believe that it is happening less than before. I do not know that to be true.

Truth?

There is so much that I have suppressed. I have a troubled childhood. I have a memory of seeing several jars with fetuses in them. My father had a macabre sense about him. There were jars with body parts – I had a human heart as a science fair project, I kept it in my bedroom for years as if this were a normal thing. The child had died at around five years of age. My father obtained the organ for me from pathology. Given this fact, the jars with fetuses is not far from credible. I remember seeing them in a closet, lined up neatly next to the Christmas tree ornaments. Somewhere along the line, they became the stillborn brothers that preceded me into this life and into death. The story about the heart is objectively true. The story about the fetuses is based in fact (they did exist in jars in a closet), but whether they were my stillborn siblings remains an issue of doubt. I sensed that they were and they scared me. The fear was real. The memory flawed.

I wonder how much of my memory is lost and comes back as a shade in the night to haunt the current moment. I try to live in the moment, but they anonymous cries in the dark still haunt me.

Unnamed Anxiety

There are times when a sense memory triggers anxiety. I have learned that this happens and am becoming better at addressing the events that follow in sequence. I know the rush of adrenaline, the tightening of my gut, the feeling that I am alive. I am not always aware of what the story behind the sense memory is. Perhaps it no longer matters. Night-blooming jasmine is one. I love the smell of Jasmine. I hate the smell of Jasmine for what it portends. I can recall, vividly and viscerally, the fights that my parents had when I smell this. I know that I become angry when I smell it. This is an example of a sense memory. Something – something sensed without words to explicate the metaphor – triggers a response and I begin to feel anew.

Feelings scare me. They scare me because they so quickly become destructive. And I’d rather be numb than feeding my adrenaline addiction anew. But the memories persist in the shadows and I am dumb to speak their names…

So Damn Serious

I have been pretty serious of late... time for some levity. Here are the results of several blog quizzes that I took for fun. Enjoy! Links are provided for your entertainment.

What Color is my blog?

What's the Color of Your Blog Personality? Quiz at About Web logs and...

My Blog Personality's True Color Is... RED It's all about passion, heat, and intensity. I take pride in my strengths and I learn to deal with my weaknesses. I like to blog about things that really matter to me.

Who'd have thunk it? I guessed blue.

My blogging personality?

I took the Blogging Personality Quiz at About Web logs and I am...

The Writer
Words captivate me. And, I like to capture words. Blogging enables me to write often. It also provides a place for me to share what I write with a reading public. I can be funny, inspiring, intelligent, cynical, or morbid. It doesn't matter what I write about in my blog. It only matters that I write.

Guilty, as charged.

Onto the Salacious Stuff...


You have a mysterious kiss. Your partner never
knows what you're going to come up with next;
this creates great excitement and arousal never
knowing what to expect. And it's sure to end
in a kiss as great as your mystery.


What kind of kiss are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Your Seduction Style: Sweet Talker

Your seduction technique can be summed up with "charm" You know that if you have the chance to talk to someone... Well, you won't be talking for long! ;-) You're great at telling potential lovers what they want to hear. Partially, because you're a great reflective listener and good at complementing. The other part of your formula? Focusing your conversation completely on the other person. Your "sweet talking" ways have taken you far in romance - and in life. You can finess your way through any difficult situation, with a smile on your face. Speeding tickets, job interviews... bring it on! You truly live a *charmed life*

What Kind of Seducer Are You?

what sexual things do you're friends think about you? LiveJournal Username Age Favorite ice cream Favorite season SummerSpringWinterFallWhat are seasons? Thinks you're ass is tight: Wants to lick hot chocolate off you're body: Wonders how good you are in bed: Wishes you would screw him/her on the spot: Is romatically in love with you: Wishes you were gay so he/she could love you better: Hopes you'll take him/her to great heights (wink wink nudge nudge): Day dreams about having sex with you 24/7: Fun Quizzes by Molly at BlogQuiz.Net

Free Daily Horoscopes at DailyHoroscopes.Biz

Would that it were so! It is good to know that I could pass a citizenship test.

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 8 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

Amazing what it means to have my birthday:

Your Birthdate: May 27

You are a spiritual soul - a person who tries to find meaning in everything. You spend a good amount of time meditating, trying to figure out life. Helping others is also important to you. You enjoy social activities with that goal. You are very generous and giving. Yet you expect very little in return. Your strength: Getting along with anyone and everyone Your weakness: Needing a good amount of downtime to recharge Your power color: Cobalt blue Your power symbol: Dove Your power month: September

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Politcally?


Socialist - You believe the free market can be
beneficial, but that a large and powerful state
is necessary to redistribute the wealth of the
top classes to those of the bottom. You also
think that basic utilities and trasportation
should be publicly owned. Your historical role
model is Eugene Debs.


Which political sterotype are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Have a good week... tDF.

Moral Consensus?

George Carlin was on HBO last night. He was doing what he does best; making pithy but sardonic comments about various institutions. Pro-lifers were on his radar screen. He observed that since most fertilized eggs are washed away in a woman’s menses that women should, by the logic of the pro-life movement, be locked up as serial killers.

Reductio ad Absurdum

Apagogic argument makes for good comedy. It is part of political discourse, sadly passing for reason more often than is comfortable or good for the health of the American Republic. It does not make for good theology. Carlin’s rant eventually leads to a ridicule of religion. Now let me completely honest. I no longer consider myself to be a part of the Church. Nevertheless, though I have separated myself from the Church, I have respect for Christian theology. The question that Carlin, and many secular critics of the church miss, is this: what is the will of God?

Accept for a moment – just for the sake of honest argument – the premise that all life originates in God and that the continual expression of human life is the will of God. Moreover, each life is of inestimable value to this God. The conclusion to any argument that begins with this premise is that all life is valued and that all life is born of the will of God. This belief impacts suggests that the worth of life supersedes the will to abort an unborn life. If all life is born of the will of God, it is an untenable choice to terminate willingly a human life, whether by warfare, the death penalty, privation, or abortion. The will of God is pro-life, given the premise suggested above.

The difficulty, as I see it, is that we do not live in a society that allows the premise that human life is of inestimable value. Removing the metaphysics from the discussion does not change the trajectory of the argument: if the preservation of human life is the highest good then warfare, capitalism, abortion, inequitable distribution of wealth must be considered inconsistent with that position. This works well in an argument that presupposes an ethical absolute. However, how do we negotiate a middle case? Consider the debate surrounding stem cells.

In Life It Is Rare to Encounter Two Equally Valid Viewpoints

I make no claims to grasp the arcane scientific details of research into therapies that require the use of stem cells. I will assume that there is a reasonable likelihood that this research may yield a therapy to address certain diseases and thus preserve human life. The difficulty is that stem cells must be harvested from fetuses. Some life lives, other lives are terminated. Who decides the value of each? Competing expressions of the good raise difficult questions that absolute dicta cannot adequately address.

I think that the solution to this problem is to consider that there are no absolute expressions of truth. All expressions of truth fall short of that which they seek to express. As such, they must be parsed to find how competing values born of the same concern for human life can be weighed. I am not always convinced that the mother’s life is the ultimate value in consideration of whether an abortion should be performed. I am equally not convinced that every life should be given the same weight. I do know that a rule of proximity is a slippery slope.

Slip-slidin’ Away

The idea of a slippery slope suggests a causal argument that presumes a chain of events that lead to an undesirable outcome. It may or may not be a valid argument. The key is the question of causality. To say that proximate relationship is to be most highly valued suggests that human life is an individual concern and that the individual is the final arbitrator of the good. I must admit that I am motivated by proximate concerns. My daughters are the most important people in the world to me. God help anybody that I perceive to be doing harm to them. I would not hesitate to take any step that I deem necessary to protect them. They are the people in the world that are closest to me. But, and that conjunction is portentous indeed, their wellbeing may not always be consistent with the wellbeing of humanity.

This is the contradiction that must be considered: to me my children are the highest value. Were I to face the option of preserving their lives at the cost of several other lives to me the question would be clear. I would act for them. Would not the family members of those whose lives were lost also be entitled to the same argument of individual proximity?

What Happened to The Will of God?

The idea of God’s will seems to me to have been a moral arbitrator that divided between the needs of the individual and the needs of the community. It was the fulcrum upon which the balance could be struck by providing absolute and elastic dicta that would address the needs of both while retaining an ability to be redescribed in terms that met the needs of the cultural reality. In a secular society that has proudly done away with such metaphysics as God the need remains for an agreed upon fulcrum that allows individuals and communities to leverage ethical discourse.

Apagogic discourse works for George Carlin. It makes for good satire and allows a sardonic wit to force thought. And I wonder whether this does not beg the question of a tertium non datur, or the law of the excluded middle that addresses such moral disjunctions. But this is probably best debated by minds more clearly focused than mine.

At any rate, I remain simply a fool…