By the time humanity has the maturity and responsibleness to allow all persons in a society to own and use firearms, we will have already realized that such a right is not necessary or desireable. Disappointedly, this point in our evolution looks to be far into the future. Firearms technology and the ease of ownership exceeds humanities ability to control the amount of senseless killing that people with guns perform. Be it intentional, accidental, self-inflicted, by-police, by-criminals, mass-murder, serial-murder, or war - it really is all the same. The evidence is indisputable, we have not evolved to the point to permit a right for all people to own and use firearms. Even those that require firearms to protect the rest of society, make serious errors in judgement. We need to realize that it's human nature to make these kinds of errors. It was almost 220 years ago that the second amendment was ratified out of fear that a federal standing army would threaten the security of individual states. So the right to maintain well regulated state militias was deemed important for individual states. I agree with former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens this this point of view is an out-dated relic of the 18th century. I also support Steven's call to repeal the second amendment. Until we do this, we will continue to see escalations in mass murders, serial murders and accidental murders using ever more powerful weapons. Until we do this, we will continue to have single-issue organizations like the NRA controlling the votes of our Senators and Congressmen. Imagine a society where the police don't have to shoot first, ask questions later out of fear for their own lives. Imagine a society where weapons ownership and use are a privilege for those that have a reasonable need, are well trained, and have demonstrated a responsible character.
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For the month of January, 2018, I eliminated my usual 1-2 cups of coffee per day from my routine, as a life-learning experiment. I don't believe that there is anything inherently wrong with coffee. And, I love coffee. But, I think its important to continously examine the things that we do, and to re-affirm the perceived value that they bring to our lives. January, 2018 began with an 8-day energy-focused meditation retreat., which occupied about 11 hours each of those 8 days. This turned out to be a good time to eliminate coffee as I was focused on relaxation and mind, body, spirit unity. At the end of the January, I realized that I had not missed coffee, or at least I had not missed the caffein affect of coffee. I missed the rituals associated with preparing coffee, holding the warm cup and savoring the rich aroma of coffee. February 1, 2018 my day began by preparing a good strong cappuccino at home and savoring the drink for a good 30 minutes. An integral part of the life experiment, was to re-introduce coffee after a month to assess it's real value to my life. I continued to prepare and drink coffee for the next couple of days. What I discovered is that while I love the taste of coffee, I don't need the caffein kick. In fact, caffein is actually a consumer of your body's energy. It does not generate energy, it depletes it. By late morning and early afternoon, I was much less energized than on the prior 31 days without coffee. So, is it goodbye to coffee? try decaf, maybe? At this point in my life, I am exploring cultivating and flowing energy through practice of tai-chi, bagua and meditation. The caffein is a disrupter to that practice. So long coffee, as a daily routine. I'll welcome you as a special occasion soon! For the month of January, 2018, I decided to eliminate all things from entering my body that I thought may be causing some harm. I ate only vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, green and herbal teas. The items that I eliminated: Highly-processed foods, coffee, alcoholic drinks, grains, added-sugar, meat, seafood, dairy, eggs. Of these eliminations, I had already been limiting highly-processed foods, grains, dairy and meat. Highly processed foods are full of GMO corn & soy, salt, sugar and refined grains. I know these make my body feel abused, but still at times I ate them. So what would it feel like to completely eliminate them all for a month? Grains make my body feel bloated, especially in their highly refined forms, like flours. They are also highly glycemic and contain minimal nutrients in these forms. --But I love a good bread. Dairy and meat I can put in the same category of animal products for which the vast majority are produced by animals living and dying un-naturally and cruelly. I believe that this causes their meat and eggs to contain negative compounds and negative energy. No matter how things appear in time and space, you will prevail. You are a forever being, a God-particle, and all else is illusionary. What’s real is love, what’s fake fades away. You’re here by choice, inclined to succeed, surrounded by friends, with positive thoughts 10,000 times more powerful than negative ones. Go, make hay, because in the blink of an eye, we’ll all move beyond the drama of circumstances into new adventures, no one left behind, more loved and in love. Yet right now, for just a little bit longer, we get to play here. -- Mike Dooley Minimalism is not about owning no things, but about no thing owning you. -- The Minimalists |
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AuthorKen Schmidt |