Easter. What is it really good for?

 My first Easter post. 

As a child in Sunday school I learned of Jesus, the golden rule, forgiveness, and what it meant to be a good person. Not just a good Christian. But a good person. 

Now, as I biologist I have doubts about his rising from the dead without medical intervention without human intervention.  Something urgently needed now to achieve heaven on earth and restore our goldilocks planet to a garden of Eden.  

I won't waist my breath praying for President Trump to do the right thing in the Middle East, prioritize the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or to stop lying.  But I will offer a warning to everyone if we don't turn our actions urgently to comprehensively, holistically and synergically achieving the those 17 SDGs. 

Given the evolution of war, weapons, pathogens, violent extremists, violent weather patterns, and government debt by simply reacting to wars, pandemics, terrorism, and storm destruction - we must invest in preventing these disruptive forces now needlessly taking lives while we ignore vital environmental systems.  And just pay the consequences.  

Humankind has never had more wealth and technological solutions in human history. We have everything we need to achieve these affordable goals, but we are running out of time - our one non-renewable resource.  

While we all have thoughts constantly arising in our heads, we rarely have wise questions.  Such as 'what legacy are we leaving for generations to come?'.  Or 'why do we keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result?'  Especially since our species has known for millennia what we need to do, and have always had the resources to do it. 

The simple answer. Our minds are collectively insane.

God gave us all agency to control our destiny.  But our mind's gave us ambiguous words like peace, democracy, and terrorism - and delusional concepts like independence, national sovereignty, and peace though strengthen.  And then our mind resists the fundamental biological principle in the DNA of every higher life form. Offspring should not die before their parents.  

Life is a profound gift of anti-entropy in an unimaginably immense and hostile universe. I don't believe we are alone in the universe.  But I'm 99.999% sure, no other life form is coming to save us, and if they did, they would notice once the got up close and saw what we are doing to each other, and our miracle planet, we are not worth saving. 

Why is it, that each time humankind has had a chance to unite the world we chose to divide ourselves.  Starting with the golden rule, then the wisdom of indigenous cultures, followed by the Declaration of Independence, the League of Nations, the invention of nuclear weapons,  the creation of the United Nations, and then the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

Now in 89 days Americans (and the world) have the 250 anniversary of the Declaration of independence, a document that Abraham Lincoln said was for everyone, everywhere, for all time. 

My mind believes, given the evolution of weaponry, this may be our last change at dodging Armageddon. If it is not already too late.  Even some MAGA lovers believe Trump may be the Anti-Christ.  I'm guessing most economists would agree that SDGs are a true measure of human progress.  Yet they and our governments continue to prioritize the GDP.  The best means of measuring the wealth of those who don't need it, then rarely use it in serving the most basic needs of human health and nature. 

WTF is wrong with us?  In a nutshell.  Our mind (that voice in our head) now runs roughshod over the love and wisdom in our heart, soul, and human spirit.  And our mind is addicted to being right, keeping our body feeling good, while the health of our body and environment turn to crap.  It is that freaking simple!  Unfortunately, our mind has fallen into the Intelligence trap and believes everything it thinks.  Regardless of the horrific consequences to our body, mind, spirit, family, community, environment, government, and economy.  

What will it take for us to WTF up?  A nuclear war? If Jesus returned he'd get killed for being a Palestinian. It is not the prefrontal cortex of our brain that we need to listen to. It's the human spirit within each of our bodies.  Bodies that are all 99.9% the same genetically. In reality we are a human family.  Not special identities (national, religious, economic, political party, sexual preference, race, culture that are all unrelated to our basic biology) worth killing and even dying for.   

Our brain has been hardwired to react, but it also has the capacity for deeper, wiser, and systemic thinking. Protesting, voting, and mental depression is reactionary.  What's needed is transformational political advocacy to tackle the root causes of human suffering and environmental degradation.   For this to happen in mind, we must learn to use it for its original evolutionary purpose.  To solve problems related to the survival of our tribe.  Now the human tribe.  

And for God's sake, and the hopes of Jesus, stop defending dumbass ideas that may have worked once, or a few times, but are now, given our unpresented technological killing capacity, time to adapt and profoundly change our way of thinking. 

There is a name for species that fails to adapt.  Extinct. I'm positive that Jesus, even without a biology degree, would agree. 

The purpose of Government. Its devolution and an antidote.

 “Government is a disease masquerading as its own cure.” - Robert LeFevre 

"Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz., freedom and security.  And however our eyes may be dazzled with snow, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is right.”   Thomas Paine, Common Sense.  Published Feb. 14, 1776. 

"It has been thought a considerable advance towards establishing the principles of Freedom, to say, that government is a compact between those who govern and those that are governed: but this cannot be true, because it is putting the effect before the cause; for as man must have existed before governments existed, there necessarily was a time when governments did not exist, and consequently there could originally exist no governors to form such a compact with. The fact therefore must be, that the individuals themselves, each in his own personal and sovereign right, entered into a compact with each other to produce a government: and this is the only mode in which governments have a right to arise, and the only principle on which they have a right to exist." – Thomas Paine

“You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.” – John Adams

"The function of the true state is to impose the minimum restrictions and safeguard the maximum liberties of the people, and it never regards the person as a thing." -- Immanuel Kant  (1724-1804) German philosopher

"It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve."  -- Henry George  (1839-1897) American political economist   Source: The Functions of Government, Social problems, vol 12,  (1884)

 "The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant." -- John Stuart Mill  (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist

“The proper function of a government is to make it easy for the people to do good and difficult for them to do evil.”   William Ewart Gladstone  

“The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon. No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion—it is an evil government.”  – Eric Hoffer’

"There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing."  -- Andrew Jackson  (1767-1845) 7th US President    Source: July 10, 1832, Veto of the Bank Bill

“Reason is the life of the law.”  Edward Coke 

"The price system has two outstanding features. First, it is by all odds the most efficient system of social organization ever conceived. It makes it possible for huge multitudes to cooperate effectively, multitudes who may hardly know each other's existence, or whose personal attitudes toward one another may be indifference or hostility. Second, it affords a maximum of individual freedom and a minimum of coercion. And since people can cooperate effectively in production even when their attitudes on other issues are hostile, there is no need for unity and conformity in religion, politics, recreation, and language--or even in patriotism and good will except in the very broadest sense." – W. Allen Wallis, The Freeman [July 1957]

"In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of." Confucius

“The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people." Frank Kent

"Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants."   -- Benjamin Franklin   

"It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect."   -- James Madison (1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President    Source: to an unidentified correspondent, 1833

“Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.”  – Thomas Paine, Common Sense [1776]

"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."  -- Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694-1778) French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher

"Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil"   -- Thomas Mann  (1875-1955) German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, Nobel Prize in Literature (1929)

"Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness."  -- Thomas Paine  (1737-1809) US Founding father, pamphleteer, author     Source:  "Common Sense"

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson

"To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it." -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them." Paul Wellstone

"People only see what they are prepared to see.'' Ralph Waldo Emerson - (1803-1882) American essayist, poet

“Rights precede government.”  – Sheldon Richman, "TGIF: Free Speech Upsets Powers that Be" [2023]

“America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the the inextiguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government.”   — John Quincy Adams, Address [July 4, 1821]

"We are corrupted by prosperity.  And when the state is corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied."  -- Publius Cornelius Tacitus  (c.55-c.120 A.D.) Senator and a historian of the Roman Empire

"Government requires make-believe. Make believe that the king is divine, make believe that he can do no wrong or make believe that the voice of the people is the voice of God. Make believe that the people have a voice or make believe that the representatives of the people are the people. Make believe that governors are the servants of the people. Make believe that all men are created equal or make believe that they are not."  -- Edmund S. Morgan (1916-2013)

"Life, faculties, production -- in other words, individuality, liberty, property -- this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation and are superior to it."  -- Frederic Bastiat  (1801-1850) [Claude Frederic Bastiat] French economist, statesman, and author. He did most of his writing during the years just before -- and immediately following -- the French Revolution of February 1848    Source: "The Law" by Frederic Bastiat (1848)

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." – Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address [January 17, 1961]

“But what is needed for a satisfactory solution of the burning problem of international relations is neither a new office with more committees, secretaries, commissioners, reports, and regulations, nor a new body of armed executioners, but the radical overthrow of mentalities and domestic policies which must result in conflict.”  – Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government [1944]

“The worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster.” Ludwig von Mises, Chapter III: Etatism

"Through the rapid proliferation of laws reaching every corner of human existence, the government is manufacturing more criminals now than ever before.” -- Jonathan H. Adler   Tyranny Now, LIBERTY, p. 55, November, 1994.

“If pro is opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress?  Congress?”  Men's restroom. House of Representatives, Washington, DC

“Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.”   — Thomas Paine, Common Sense [1776]

“It is not by the intermeddling of ... the omniscient and omnipotent State, but by the prudence and energy of the people, that England has hitherto been carried forward in civilization; and it is to the same prudence and the same energy that we now look with comfort and good hope. Our rulers will best promote the improvement of the nation by strictly confining themselves to their own legitimate duties, by leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities their fair price, industry and intelligence their natural reward, idleness and folly their natural punishment, by maintaining peace, by defending property, by diminishing the price of law, and by observing strict economy in every department of the state. Let the Government do this: the People will assuredly do the rest.     – Thomas Babington Macaulay, Southey's Colloquies on Society [1830]

“If the ruling power in America possessed both . . . the right to issue orders of all kinds but also the capability and habit of carrying out those orders; if it not only laid down general principles of government but also concerned itself with the details of applying those principles; and if it dealt not only with the country's major interests but also descended to the limit of individual interests, then liberty would soon be banished from the New World.”  — Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America [1835]  [apply quote to our global level!!!] 

"It is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work -- work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it. It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. ... We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup. How can we love our country and not love our countrymen, and loving them, not reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when they are sick, and provide opportunities to make them self-sufficient so they will be equal in fact and not just in theory? ... We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free. It would be fitting and good, I think, if on each Inauguration Day in future years it should be declared a day of prayer."   -- Ronald Reagan  (1911-2004) 40th US President   Source: First Inaugural Address, 1981

"The mission of the law is not to oppress persons and plunder them of their property, even though the law may be acting in a philanthropic spirit. Its purpose is to protect persons and property.... If you exceed this proper limit -- if you attempt to make the law religious, fraternal, equalizing, philanthropic, industrial, or artistic -- you will then be lost in uncharted territory, in vagueness and uncertainty, in a forced utopia or, even worse, in a multitude of utopias, each striving to seize the law and impose it on you."  -- Frederic Bastiat  (1801-1850) [Claude Frederic Bastiat] French economist, statesman, and author. He did most of his writing during the years just before -- and immediately following -- the French Revolution of February 1848  Source: "The Law" by Frederic Bastiat (1850)

"That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression."  -- Alabama, Declaration of Rights Article I Section 35 

"The government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the government and the buying power of consumers. The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of government, but it is the government's greatest creative opportunity. The financing of all public enterprise, and the conduct of the treasury will become matters of practical administration. Money will cease to be master and will then become servant of humanity." -- Abraham Lincoln   (1809-1865) 16th US President

"The difference between [socialism and fascism] is superficial and purely formal, but it is significant psychologically: it brings the authoritarian nature of a planned economy crudely into the open. The main characteristic of socialism (and of communism) is public ownership of the means of production, and, therefore, the abolition of private property. The right to property is the right of use and disposal. Under fascism, men retain the semblance or pretense of private property, but the government holds total power over its use and disposal."  -- Ayn Rand  [Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum] (1905-1982) Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter    Source: “The Fascist New Frontier,” The Ayn Rand Column, p.98

Cw Summary:  If we are to meaningfully oppose big government power and prepare for the local consequences of its failure of ‘independent’ system of national sovereignty to prevent or deter globally disruptive interdependent forces - it is necessary to encourage and rely on local community resilience, health, and sustainable economic grow using institutions and organizations, not federal states that too often will their enormous power to control or prohibit whats needed and wanted. When people support a local parish, raise a family, build a business, create mutual aid organizations, or foster local civic interdependence, they are doing work that is absolutely critical to muting state power while flourishing locally. While it is always good to support global efforts for justice, health, and a sustainable environment while opposing big government’s countless violent and impoverishing policies, all of this is still insufficient. We must strengthen the health of mind, body, spirit, family, community, environment and governing/economic institutions in every action in our daily work and daily lives. 

Overhaul urgently needed for US Constitution and UN Charter

 

The Justice Department just confirmed the delusion our government has been operating under for about 240 years. The U.S. constitution was founded on the quicksand of independence, a mental construct Albert Einstein was not around to warn them about, but the Decantation of Independence was.  Most Americans don't know (I didn't until a month ago) that wasn't its official title then. It was "The unanimous Declaration of thirteen united States of America."   Einstein called "independence" an "illusion" in our irreversible interdependent universal reality. He understood this fundamental principle of the universe. Everything is connected, interdependent and vulnerable - operating on "the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God", which was expressed in the Declaration. Then ignored by those democratically codifying the Constitution with a majority vote asserting (and some believing) slaves were only 3/5 of a human being.  

Imagine all the wars our nation could have avoided since then, plus pandemics, violent extremism, extreme violent weather conditions, or unsustainable debt, had we not just reacted to things we believed were separate.  And used systemic thinking instead.  

Only four of the Declaration's signers came to the Constitutional convention. And now, all the ambiguous words within it give the Supreme Court job security, and to make decisions on their own interpretation of history.  Ignoring biology, physics, environmental sustainably, and psychology of the human spirit.  Delivering not justice, but more chaos and personal/national/global insecurity.  

We need a new constitution engineered by NASA. Not more lawyers and corporate lobbyists. Those on the Artemis space mission, if they return to before the next world war, might be able to convince us after their experience with the overview effect - that humankind's collective insanity is real. And the US constitution and UN Charter are in need of an urgent overhaul.   Not by majority vote.  But by adhering to Thomas Paine's Common Sense, science, and the foundation of every religion (the golden Rule on our goldilocks planet. 

POLITICS and Rotary in a time of war. Plus a global prescription for action.

In politics Rotary has long held a principled position.  It is not partisan!  Yet Rotary International is deeply political in the most fundamental sense.  It's concerned with how we (Rotarians and humanity) organize ourselves to serve the common good. This distinction is critical.  Avoiding partisan alignment does not absolve anyone from confronting whether our national or international systems of governance are fulfilling their most basic purpose. 

Rotary proudly promotes that at least 49 Rotarians served as delegates, advisors, or consultants from various national delegations in drafting the UN Charter at the San Francisco conference during World War II.  Three notable Rotarians were Archibald MacLeish, a U.S. delegate that helped shape the Charter’s preamble, including its enduring moral language.  Lester B. Pearson who later became a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, participated as part of the Canadian delegation, and contributed to diplomatic negotiations that influenced the Charter.  And John Foster Dulles, was part of the U.S. delegation, and played a role in negotiations and the Chater’s structural elements including the UN Security Council.   In hindsight, the Security Council has been the greatest barrier to preventing, stopping, or resolving conflicts and genocides (more deadly that wars).  Or in protecting other unalienable human rights or holding those who committed them accountable.

While the UN Preamble remains inspirational, the Charter itself cemented the protection of national sovereignty over the protection of human rights and the environment.  This has been tragic for hundreds of millions of people and billions of square miles of nature.

In 1776, six months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense, was published.  In the first 5 pages his reasoning defined the vital importance of politics. He reminded us that ‘government’ is a necessary construct - precisely because we are not angels. And its legitimacy rests on a simple foundation: the protection of human “freedom and security”.  Not the preservation of nations, political parties, the defense of abstract borders, or the enrichment of corporate elites. Thus, when government drifts from that purpose, it becomes not a safeguard of liberty, but a distortion of it.  And the Declaration of Independence followed six months later, building on his logic with “Truths” that “WE” should all “hold” “to be self-evident...”

Current disruptive conditions are the result of at least 8 decades of ignoring these Truths. Particularly since the onset of GWAT (the global war against terrorism) we have witnessed an acceleration of problems, starting with the erosion of clarity with constitutional mandates.  Just today the US Supreme Court is considering ‘birthright’ citizenship language in our Constitution.  A few ambiguous words within that statute will eventually be decided on human principles.  Principles decided about 240 years ago by wealthy white landowners participating in Constitutional convention. In the sweltering heat then is surprising they didn’t consider the biological ‘fundamental principles’ exhibited by “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” offered a decade earlier in the Declaration.

Today’s Supreme Court Judges and lawyers parsing the Birthright Citizenship case kept using the two words “fundamental” and “principle”.  They never put them together.  This is the human mind rationalizing the defence of historical concepts instead of the biological nature of our DNA and human spirit.   Then American citizens wonder why our nation’s partisan politics are increasingly polarized and sometimes literally insane or violent.

Engineering a government and its laws using ambiguous or delusional words that cause division instead of unity is a form of insanity -based on the delusion of independence.  Consider the blurring of the power to declare. Or the definition of “terrorism” that has been expanded with zero precision into endless ambiguity.  Like enabling the lethal targeting of individuals and/or groups based on suspicion, no trial, or any clearly defined legal standards.  Such mind calculated policies (domestically and globally) shifts our nation further from the original intent of government - as envisioned in both the US Constitution’s Preamble and the UN Charter.  Zero consideration of the wisdom within the Declaration of Independence - with the prioritization of universal freedom and unalienable human rights.

History offers a parallel insight and call to action. Abraham Lincoln decided to run for President because of a proposal by a US Senator suggesting voters in above the Mason Dixon line use democracy to allow slavery if into territories where it had previously been prohibited.  Lincoln felt this was an abomination, making for an even less perfect union.  His objective wasn’t merely political victory. He intended a moral realignment—bringing the Constitution closer to the ideals expressed in 1776.  And this is exactly the realignment between governance and principle urgently needed now.

Rotary’s Four-Way Test—asking whether something is the TRUTH, is it FAIR to all concerned, Will it build GOODWILL & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS, and Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned? —provides a powerful, nonpartisan framework for evaluating today’s Presidential, Congressional, and Judicial decisions. Applied honestly, it demands that we have the courage to question policies that undermine international law, including clear violations of the United Nations Charter, or that weaken the commitments embedded in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution: to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty.

There is a growing contradiction between our nation’s stated ideals and our collective actions. We pledge allegiance to “liberty and justice for all”, yet to often tolerate policies that fall far short of those promises—both domestically and globally. This dissonance is not merely political; it is ethical and detestable.  A literal blood stain on a Rotarian commitment to service above self.

An emerging insight into our human cognition suggests that our primary challenge is not just institutional, but neurological.  As sociologist Erica Jordan framed it, some minds are oriented toward pattern recognition and systems analysis, while others are oriented toward social connection and cohesion. Whether or not one accepts this evolutionary framing associated with these differences, the practical implication is clear: healthy societies require both capacities. When policy is driven solely by strategic calculation without empathy and compassion, or by group identity without systemic understanding, an imbalance and conflict will follow.

The question is not whether we have both—but when, where, and how can we unite build something just and sustainable together. And ASAP. The evolution of weapons, pathogens, and hate is not going to stop on a dime.

Rotary is uniquely positioned to model that integration and possible transformation of human thinking and action. Rotary is a global network of 1.4 million members, 46,000 clubs, in over 200 countries. All have sworn a commitment to ‘service above self’ and have credibility across cultures placing it at the intersection of moral vision and practical action.  In this unique moment in history, this role should be elevated—not diminished by hesitation.

Central to this effort must be an enlarged and undivided commitment to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These goals are not abstract aspirations; they are a comprehensive blueprint for human and ecological well-being. The potential to attain most of the 30 rights listed in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights for most of humanity.  By ending poverty, ensuring clean water, sanitation, primary health care, basic education, protecting and restoring ecosystems, and creating more peaceful/non-violent communities. These are the real measures of whether governance is serving its purpose.  They represent a shared global agenda that transcends borders, ideologies, and partisan divides.  An affordable, achievable, measurable, holistic, comprehensive and synergist plan that requires our species to finally unite and apply our minds to solving problems – not creating them by defending unsustainable concepts and principles.

Prioritizing the SDGs is not an optional extension of Rotary’s mission.  It is its natural evolution. Service above self, in today’s interconnected/interdependent world, means recognizing that the health of people and nature are inseparable. It means understanding that insecurity anywhere - creates vulnerability everywhere.

If Rotary is to remain true to its values, it must be willing to engage—not in partisan advocacy, but in principled political critique. It must ask difficult questions, challenge inconsistencies, and encourage a re-alignment of governance with the foundational ideals/principles of freedom, justice, and our shared humanity. The future will not be shaped solely by those in positions of formal power, but by those willing to transform and align how we think – and with what we know to be true.

In that alignment of mindsets and governing policies—lies our best hope of building a world that is not only more secure, but more just and sustainable for all.  A legacy far beyond eradicating Polio.

NO KINGS rally misses the most important target.

Blog Summary:  The real warning in the recent Louisiana drone swarm is not drone warfare itself, but the human spirit and the heart and mind behind it. Technology now allows small groups, or even individuals, to inflict catastrophic harm easily, cheaply, and anonymously from a distance—through drones, cyberattacks, biological threats, or disinformation.  In our real world, “peace through strength” was never enough.  Tactics beat flawed strategies.  Military power still matters, but it can no longer deter all threats driven by hatred, fanaticism, or alienation.  Now we urgently need a deeper form of security: a stronger and wiser acceptance self-evident objective “Truths”, ethical judgment, and shared human identity. Future wars will not be shaped by the weapons we build, but by the values and intentions of those who use them. If governments intend to maximize security for elected officials and their citizens in an age of AI and remote warfare, they must pay maximum attention to the roots of violence.  And how it originates in the human mind, and then fueled by mental concepts that failed to adapt to the inventions of WMD and intentions who want to use them. 

Full Blog: Trump is the consequence of our own reactionary democratic habits and our comfort/feelgood seeking behaviors - within a complicated, complex, and constantly changing world.  Now a world where the most fundamental principles of life are known but ignored by those with money and power.  The Golden (or platinum) rule is simple.  Our mind however, easily falls into the intelligence trap - which overrides the wisdom within our DNA embedded in the human spirit of a very clever social species with opposing thumbs.  

Today's lead editorial in the Washington Post was “Drone swarm in Louisiana is a warning about the future of war” It got much right in most of its news stories and other Opinion pieces opposite the Editorial page. But missed the root cause of the conflict. How did Trump get elected twice? We could point to our flawed Constitutional system, point to the other party, or look deeper into our reality. And without transforming our thinking - things will get worse. Far worse!

The editorial highlighted the rapid evolution of technological change on the battlefield. Yet the missed the deeper problem regarding humankinds' mental constructs.

Drones so far have only delivered kinetic weapons. But non-kinetic killers like bio, chem, or radiation contaminated dust are not far behind. Consider the history of the distribution of smallpox-infected blankets mass murdering Indigenous people. Or the ease of poisoning water supplies. Now a cyber disruption of vital supply chains can result in slow massive death tolls. Consider current dangers of conventional technologies like airplanes, cars and trucks. This capacity for senseless murder is well embedded into growing technology dependence and ignorance of our global/universal interdependence.

Every cell in our body is susceptible to bioweapons, just as every line of computer code is in our defense or supply system. Keep in mind that the natural evolution of DNA and human computer coding will continue with means to technologically stop. These invisible bits of neutral information can be used for global good or unprecedented harm. Both are dependent upon the intent of the heart and/or mind of the user(s).

Now, evolving rapidly at scale with social media, is truth decay, hate, and the human intention to inflict harm -- fed by propaganda and disinformation. Both globally fueled by hatred of others due to their specific religious view, passport, or political tribe. Such hate feeds violent extremism, war, and even genocide - forms of mass murder are not inevitable features of the human spirit. Their origins? Once useful mental constructs that helped bond bigger and bigger tribes. But left largely unexamined by modern governments, economists, and the unique variations within almost every religion. Now, even after the invention of nuclear weapons, these remain operational global doctrines.

And the long-standing dominant notion of “peace through strength” is now entirely misaligned with our reality on this Goldie locks planet. Tragically, a small group—or even an individual anywhere—can engineer catastrophic harm from a distance - anonymously. So strength is no longer a deterrent. And such a weapon can escalate conflicts in many ways. This capacity is now armed with AI.

Humankind needs an urgent transformation in thinking. First in recognizing we are all one species. A human family 99.9% identical genetically. But most important! Is our shared vulnerabilities. Our focus on emphasizing humanities visual, religious, cultural, patriotic, and/or political differences are trivial compared to the growing risks we face collectively.

Highly valuable institutions like the Army Center for Lessons Learned have traditionally focused on adapting tactics and technologies on the battlefield. But the greatest consequential adaptation urgently needed lies beyond the battlefield. We must adapt our human mind to solving problems of the human spirit - in our heart.

Therefore, understanding the psychological and cognitive roots of conflict should be elevated to the highest priority of every government, religion, organization, educational, and economic entity. The lesson plan: Mental resilience, ethical reasoning, and a sense of shared human identity are no longer abstract ideals; they are strategic necessities needed for our species to survive, thrive, and hopefully flourish.

Other species may exhibit violence, but only humans have developed the capacity to kill at scale, at distance, without thinking about, or even experiencing the immediate but inevitable consequences.

Now, with advances in AI, the possibility of designing biological agents targeting specific genetic traits is no longer science fiction. It is a horrifying reality—and one that could spiral beyond control with devastating speed.

The future of war will not be decided by technologies. It will be the mindset that prioritizes the human spirit loving one another, cooperation, and the coordination that all other social species thrive with. If we and our governments fail to evolve this 'service above self' Rotary mindset, no level of technological sophistication will keep us safe. Security, like the mental construct of independence, is an illusion.

Either we unite in achieving the 17 SDGs or our comforts, freedoms, health and wealth will all be diminished.

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Below is the Letter to the Editor printed in the Washington Post on the Sunday after the Buddhist monk's march.

Title:  Close encounters with Buddhist monks:  Regarding the Feb. 11 Metro article “Monks arrive in D.C., bringing solace with them”:  Printed 2-15-26

Dear Editor,

Mindfulness, stripped of mysticism, is disciplined awareness of how we think. Whether one approaches mindfulness spiritually or scientifically, the proposition that healthier minds contribute to healthier societies is not fringe; it is foundational.

At a time when violence — international and domestic — seems increasingly normalized, the psychological roots of conflict deserve serious attention. Wars begin long before the first shot is fired. They begin in the mind: in distorted concepts, in ambiguous language, in narratives that frame domination as security and dehumanization as necessity.

Descartes wrote, “I think, therefore I am.” The human mind’s creativity is remarkable, including its ability to rationalize mass violence with chilling sophistication. That dual capacity may be our greatest vulnerability. Descartes might now say, “I think, therefore I am ... probably wrong. Where can I get a fact check?”

At minimum, the Buddhist monks’ winter walk for peace invites a conversation about whether the prevention of violence begins not only in treaties and arsenals but also in the architecture of thought itself.

Chuck Woolery, Rockville

Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer. [Trump is a consequence]

This is the first time I've posted another person's writing.  It best represents nearly every Trump flaw, grift, and mental delusion that I can think of.  There was at least one great thing Trump did do.  In 2018 he created CISA (the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency). In the first month of his second term CISA got hacked. And now its employees are a victim of the budget impasse...due to Trump's abusive and lethal immigration policy.  Far worse.  His unnecessary war has put our nation's electrical grid as our greatest venerable target. Just one non-kinetic attack could result in mass casualties without a shot being fired.  How did we get here?  Trump is a consequence of American's failure to unite for good.  

Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.

It all started when I first heard Barack Obama speak at the Democratic Convention. I knew he would go on to be the greatest president this nation has ever known. I'm the liberal, outspoken, pro choice, obstinate, headstrong woman they warned you about..

 I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016, and then again in 2024, given how emotionally toxic and depraved he is.

I don’t wonder anymore. I think he won for that exact reason. Because he carried at least one broken shard to reflect the broken shards in millions of others.

If you’re a racist, you found your guy. If you’re a misogynist, you found your guy. If money is your only religion, you found your guy. If your heart is armored shut, you found your guy. If you mock the disabled, you found your guy. If intelligence makes you insecure, you found your guy. If you’re a sexual predator, you found your guy. If you trade in humiliation and conspiracy and filth, you found your guy.

If you’ve never done a single hour of emotional inventory, you found your guy. If you cheat, stiff contractors, bankrupt your obligations, and call it savvy, you found your guy. If you lie as easily as you breathe, you found your guy. If cruelty feels like strength, you found your guy. If white grievance is your comfort food, you found your guy. If your ego is a black hole no title can fill, you found your guy. If warmongering fuels your ego, you found your guy, If empathy feels like weakness and dominance feels like oxygen, you found your guy.

If he’d only carried one or two of these pathologies, he might have been dismissed as just another loud, damaged man. But he carried a buffet of them. That was the appeal. Millions could locate themselves somewhere in the wreckage. They didn’t have to agree with all of it. They just had to recognize a piece of themselves in it.

It was never really about him. It was about the validation. The absolution. The permission. He didn’t invent the resentment; he amplified it. He didn’t create the cruelty; he normalized it. He gave millions the intoxicating relief of hearing their ugliest impulses echoed back at rally volume.

Trump is a symptom. The deeper illness is collective. If there’s one sentence that defines his power, it’s this: “He says the things I’m thinking.”

And that’s the part that should chill us.

Because what does it say about us that so many were thinking those things? That tens of millions of Americans harbored resentments so deep, so seething, that they were simply waiting for a demagogue to baptize them as virtue? That after decades of supposed progress on race, gender, and equality, so many white men felt so threatened, so displaced, so furious, that cruelty became a political platform?

Maybe we were living in a fool’s paradise, mistaking silence for healing, politeness for progress.

Now the mask is off. Now we know.

And knowing is a far more dangerous place to stand.

– Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.

World TB DAY! March 24, 2026

First the basics.  On this day it is worth knowing and remembering that tuberculosis remains one of humanity’s oldest and most persistent microbial adversaries. Roughly one-third of the world's human population carries the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis - most in a latent state—contained, but not eliminated.   It is held in check by healthy immune systems.  The most important body system protecting us from what has always been humankind’s greatest threat (bacteria, viruses and fungi).

When a body’s immune system is weakened by malnutrition, stress, co-infections, or other disruptions to our internal an external immune defenses  - this silent passenger can become an active, contagious, and often deadly disease.

"For some, TB feels like a disease from the past, but it's actually never been eliminated anywhere in the world. In 2024 alone, 10.7 million people were infected with the bacteria, and 1.23 million people died from TB. And after years of decline, cases are rising again." Gates Foundation, March 2026

TB and other bacterial infections are a compounding challenge due to three other factors.  First is the constant evolution of all pathogens.  Second is decades of antibiotic misuse and overuse —in both human medicine to fight TB and increase livestock production.  This still continues accelerate the rise of drug-resistant TB strains. With the newest strains extraordinarily difficult and costly to treat.  And even then, with only a 50 percent chance of survival.  

Prevention of infection and treatment of TB has always been possible at dollars per person - when antibiotics are properly used they yield significantly higher cure and survival rates.

The third factor is humankind’s collective mental resistance to mounting a global campaign to put the health of people and nature as our highest priority.  And a global plan for this wise mission has existed since 2015 with approval of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  Most important are 169 affordable, measurable, and achievable sub-goals within the 17.   If achieved where they are currently lacking humanity would be the closest we have every come to enforcing the 1948 list 30 human rights within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Note that the SDG subgoals would be prioritized differently within every community. The homes and huts where the descriptive and destructive global forces are now hitting hard, and hitting hardest on those least able to deal with them, is what sustains the unsustainable.  If achieved, these goals would be vital in saving the most people and protecting nature’s life support systems for all species for the first time in human history.  Thus, dramatically increasing human security and nature’s sustainability for generations to follow.  

For nearly a century humanity has always had resources and solutions to achieve this. We never had the political will to do  what has always been possible and vitally needed.   

In this context, the wisest, most efficient. and cost effective (saving exponentially more money that it would cost) would be establishing and strengthening primary healthcare clinics in every community globally.  Not as a medical priority.   But as the cornerstone of human security and global stability. 

With small investments of money for trained staffing and minimum of equipment, empowered by AI local data collection and global communications, these health care centers could serve as an early warning system, rapid-response hubs, platforms for research/development/treatment, and most critically—for prevention of multiple threats.

This systems would be essential, not only for TB, but for responding to a wide spectrum of other emerging threats (new or reemerging infectious disease outbreaks, the cascading human and environmental health impacts of climate extremes, and hints of social instability.  

These align directly with the spirit and intent of the SDGs. Particularly those focused on health, resilience, global partnerships, human security, and peace (including all seven Rotary International Pillars of service) in comprehensive, holistic, and synergistic effort.  Which would be far more effective than past progressive movements and organizational siloed efforts.  These have made some progress – yet failed consistently -- in achieving many of the vital and well-intended results - including the global eradication of Small Pox.  One virus that could be put in the history books behind Smallpox.  Measles could be the next. 

We are running out of time.   It's been the accelerating evolution of technology and disruptive events that now has civilization at multiple tipping points (peace, environmental, economic).  With the evolution of pathogens, wars, weapon systems, debt, extreme weather patterns, and an increase in both local and global violent extremists – our government systems are in need of rapid adaptation.   

We can no longer accept reactionary government or organization efforts  – or global chaos will continue to worsen.

World Health Day, April 7 - offers yet another day to deeply examine, then act on the fact that government change must happen faster than the problems that we are no facing. 

What are you going to do to inform and inspire others to abandon our delusional mental construct that we are independent beings in independent governments.  In Truth, everything in the known universe is connected, interdependent, and vulnerable.  This is an Einstein assertion.  You are free to believe whatever you like. But the rest of us, and other life forms on this planet will experience the consequences.