The next few weeks or even days are going to be interesting to watch how Democrats deal with demented President Joe Biden as their candidate for President. They are already squirming. And Joe has taken the position he is not stepping aside.
The fact is, it is already too late in many states for a different name — or absent Joe, any name — to be on the ballot as a Democrat in November for the office of the presidency assuming Joe is still alive or is not declared incompetent by a court. Even removal from office under the 24th Amendment would not get the job done. And impeachment is certainly not going to happen in a Republican House nor would that even affect who is on the ballot in the fall. The Democrats are stuck with ole Joe unless he voluntarily or involuntarily steps aside, it seems.
Even if Joe did step aside or be removed, there are barriers. For example, all the funds sitting in the Biden campaign war chest would have to be returned to donors. They could not be simply transferred to a different candidate. This involves millions of dollars.
And how would a replacement for Joe be chosen if he does voluntarily or involuntarily step aside? It could not be by a vote of citizens in a primary election. Too late for that. It would have to be at the Democrat National Convention where delegates are locked into a vote on the first ballot for Joe Biden. The fight would then begin. The Democrat Party is not homogeneous. There are factions who would want their candidate to prevail. And who would that be? Gavin Newsom, Hillary Clinton, Michele Obama, Kamala Harris, or someone else. All seem to be pathetic. My guess is that Hillary Clinton would emerge. She has been seething ever since her defeat in 2016. Crooked Hillary.
The world saw what some are calling the walking cadaver in the debate on CNN. It is crystal clear Joe Biden is demented to the point of being dangerous as the “leader” of the free world. Before the CNN debate there were millions who were ignorant of how bad the situation really is. Those were the CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, NYT, WP and others who watched and/or read the liberal media only. Now they know. They saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears. Shock hit them.
On top of all of about Biden, the US Supreme Court has ruled the J6 Congressional Committee was not legitimate. This likely will mean that most of those being held in prison resulting from J6 court actions will be freed. And the Court has yet to rule on the question of presidential immunity. The prediction is this will favor Trump and will blow away all or most of the politically motivated indictments he has had to deal with. And last, it is likely the Florida court will decide Special Counsel Jack Smith was not appointed legally. The case about Classified documents will disappear.
So, Democrats can mourn. They have tried to destroy our country in so many ways. The chickens are coming home to roost. The people have awakened.
Normandy Beaches….. 80 years ago. Invasion of Nazi German held territory by thousands of troops from the USA, Great Britain, Canada, and more. Thousands died there that day, but the first steps toward defeating the dream — no, nightmare — of Adolph Hitler were taken in blood.
Eighty years have passed. The grounds of the American Cemetery at Normandy are lined with white crosses and the Star of David. The grounds are silent. Grounds that one roared from cannon and gunfire and death. The grounds are hollowed by the souls that gave their lives there to preserve freedom around the world. We must never, never forget that.
We watched the 80th remembrance ceremony in full. My wife and I were reminded of our own visit to Normandy some years ago and our walking among the grave sites. We were reminded of our own feelings of sorrow and gratitude for the men who died and were buried there. You really cannot imagine the feelings unless standing among the graves yourself.
We were reminded of the many armed conflicts and men and women who have died since those days of World War II. We think of Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq, and Afghanistan and the untold many smaller fights our military has been asked to fight. And we think, too, that most, if not all, of the undeclared wars fought since WWII resulted from corrupt or unwise USA leadership.
Ole President Joe Biden could not help himself. He could not be content to honor those veterans present and those in military uniforms and the many who had gathered to pay homage to the few who remain alive from that horrific day. Joe had to turn his speech into a political speech. He had to bring up Ukraine and Russia and try to liken that to what happened at Normandy. That is blasphemy. He seems to forget that Russia was an ally to the USA in WWII and that Russia lost more people in that war than all other countries combined. Biden had to bring up NATO; an alliance long ago outdated as a deterrent to any invasion of Europe by Russia later during the Cold War.
The world is a different place today. The power of nuclear weapons is too much to even comprehend. And Joe now has to continue to poke the “BEAR”, as Russia is often referred to. Under Biden, the USA has pumped billions of dollars and tons of weapons to Ukraine; a corrupt country. Now Biden is allowing USA provided weapons to even be used against targets inside of Russia itself. And there are reports there are US troops involved directly. This is insanity. What happens in Ukraine is NOT in the interest of America First. It is time for the USA to butt out and let the European nations figure things out. Bring our troops home and shut off the money. We have mountainous needs in the USA.
I absolutely do not believe Valdemar Putin wants to invade Europe. I do believe he wants at least part of Ukraine given its history of being part of the Soviet Union and that the eastern part of Ukraine is populated with Russian speaking people. I say let him have it. The world does not need WWIII.
[Below is a speech by Eva Vlaardingerbroek, a Dutch national, at CPAC Hungary. She clearly tells what has and is happening in Europe as a result of illegal mass migration. There are parallels and differences for us, the United States of America. We are a country of LEGAL immigrants with the largest numbers coming in the 1800s to the early 1900s. From the beginning, we were a mix of Native Americans (the Original People), Europeans, Africans, Hispanics, and others. We managed somehow to get through some pretty difficult cultural times, but we did it with a devotion and loyalty to liberty and freedom and respect for all citizens… and with guidance from the US Constitution. Times are different now. The USA cannot tolerate the hordes of ILLEGAL immigration. Legal, yes. Illegal, no. We have enough problems to solve to take care of US citizens. As in Europe, mass illegal migration into the USA must end and all illegal immigrants returned to the countries from which they came.]
Hello Hungary…. Hello Budapest…. Fellow Europeans and American friends! Thank you so much for having me.
Allow me to skip formalities for a moment and dive right into subjects not so cheerful, but very, very necessary to discuss.
Let me walk you through the past seven days in Europe. This week in Stockholm, three elderly women in their 70s were stabbed in broad daylight on the streets. In London, 4 people were stabbed in a time span of just 42 hours. In Paris, hundreds of African migrants took to the street to riot. And in Brigamot, France, yet another church was burned down to the ground. That —ladies and gentlemen— is just a few incidents in just a couple of days on our beautiful continent. But we all know that these “incidents” are not “incidents” anymore.
If there is one thing that is for sure, it is that we know, and our governments also know, that there is a link between mass migration and crime.
In the Dutch city of Dorda, something interesting happened the other day. They announced — and this is a small city in the Netherlands — that a new asylum center will be put in that little town. And what did the municipality do? They said we are going to offer citizens who live in the vicinity of the center 1000 Euros to take extra safety measures.
Our reality in Europe consists of frequent rapes, stabbings, killings, murders, shooting and even beheadings. But let me be clear about one thing: this did not used to happen before. This is a newly imported problem.
Samual D Huntington predicted this over 25 years ago when he wrote, “In the new world of mass migration, the most pervasive and dangerous conflicts will not be between the social classes. They will not be between the rich and the poor. They will be between peoples belonging to different cultural entities, tribal wars, and ethnic conflicts will occur within civilizations”.
Well, boy was he right. And the worst part is that we as a society seem to have become indifferent to it. When an other white boy or white girl dies at the hands of an immigrant, we might shake our head… we might let out a sigh… we might even get angry for a minute or two. And then we go on with our lives. We offer the family thoughts and prayers, but nothing ever changes.
Ladies and gentlemen, what does that say about us? This is the response of a society that has already given up. A society that has already accepted its defeat. But, is this true? Have we given up? Do we really accept the new reality that our globalist leaders have in mind for us?
And know one thing for sure. That is that if nothing changes…. If we don’t start to seriously fight for our continent, for our religion, for our people, our countries; then this time that we live in will go down in history as the time which Western nations no longer had to get invaded by hostile armies in order to be conquered. This time will go down in history as the period in which the invader was actively invited in by a corrupt elite. And not only did this corrupt elite invite the enemy in, they made the native population pay for it, too.
Everyone who has eyes can see it. The native white Christian European population is being replaced at an ever accelerating rate. Let me back this up for you with some statistics from my home country. Let’s take Amsterdam, the Capital. Amsterdam currently consists of 56% migrants. The Hague, 58% migrants. Rotterdam, almost 60% migrants. And, of course, most of these immigrants come from non-Christian, non-Western, African and Middle East countries. Conclusion: the Dutch population is already out numbered in the majority of our cities. But let’s look onwards.
London, 54% migrants. Again, conclusion: native population outnumbered. Brussels, — color me shocked — 70% migrants. Conclusion: native population majorly outnumbered. And other Europeans will follow suit soon, if they have not already.
So, I am going to draw the forbidden conclusion here. The Great Replacement Theory is no longer a theory. It is reality. And what is interesting about replacement is that the establishment will either deny its existence or, when they admit to it, they say it is a good thing that the native European population is soon no longer a majority on its own continent.
Such national disgrace and dubbed “Climate Pope” Frans Timmermans already stated in 2015 that diversity is humanities destiny. And that Europe will be diverse. And, of course, by now I think we all know what they mean by “diversity”. It means less white people. Less of you.
Imagine this in an Asian or African country. Imagine their leaders rejoicing in the fact that their people will soon no longer be a majority in their own country. Absolutely, unthinkable. Unimaginable. So, what in the world is wrong with our leaders?
The underlying sentiment is always they same. Our establishment claims that white people are evil and that our history is somehow fundamentally different from that of others. Consciously or unconsciously, they have sucked up the lies of anti-white dogmas of the Neo-Marxist Critical Race Theory. That why the totalitarians in Brussels are trying to force you, the Hungarian people — a sovereign nation, to accept immigrants despite the fact that the population has said “no” and so has the government. But make no mistake, the majority of the Dutch people have not asked for this either.
Just like Brussels is forcing Hungary to accept hordes of immigrants, they are doing the same now even in the smallest of towns in the Netherlands. No part may remain Dutch in a traditional sense of the word. No part of Europe may remain “European”. And it is not difficult to understand why.
If the old Europe still exists in certain places, then people will be able to compare the new Europe to the old…. And —news flash — they will prefer the old. That is why the bureaucrats hate Hungry so much. And their message is clear. Our way of life, our Christian religion, our Nations…. They have to go, without exception.
Their vision of the future is the neo-liberal, unrecognizable Europe where every city becomes kind of like Brussels: ugly, dirty, unsafe, zero social cohesion, where the buildings are constantly under construction and they never, ever seem to finish. And, even when they do, the end result is uglier somehow than what they started with. And what are we left with? A permanent state of isolation, confusion, and disorientation.
Ladies and gentlemen….. Welcome to the New World Order!
So what is the antidote? A strong Christian Europe of sovereign nation states. That is why we need to outright reject the lies that nationalism causes wars. It is not nationalism or national sovereignty that causes wars. It is expansionism. And where in Europe do we find that now days? In one place and one place only: Brussels.
Isn’t if funny that the same people who erode our national sovereignty and love to do it … give it all up to the Eurocrats there… that those people are now telling us that we need to spend billions and billions of Euros on the national sovereignty of Ukraine? It’s a joke, honestly. And it is pretty sick and expensive dangerous joke.
During a recent interview, I got ask do you ever think you go too far? Do you ever think that you are too radical? I thought about it for a second: said NO. No, I don’t think I go too far. Truth be told, ladies and gentlemen, I think we in Europe do not go far enough.
I think that if we really think about the organized structural attack on our civilization, that we don’t do enough. Do we do enough to stop the attack on our families, on our Continent, on our countries and on our religion when we hear about another murder, another stabbing of a young innocent child; do we do enough? When we know that our national sovereignty has been given up in less than a century to Brussels; do we do enough? When we hear that Christian kids in Germany are now converting to Islam to ‘fit in’ ; do we do enough? I don’t think so.
The totalitarian institute of the European Union needs to come down. Let me be clear. I don’t believe in reforms. When the foundation of your institution is rotten, and that is the case in Brussels, you can rebuild the house on top of it all you want, but it is still going to crumble. So, the only answer is the Tower of Babel needs to be destroyed.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are the daughters and sons of the greatest nations on Earth. And we ask ourselves, what has happened to us. Where have we come from. And more importantly, where are we going. Our elites have declared a war on us and now it is time for us to put on the full armor of God, fight back, …. And WIN.
[Kristi Noem is the Governor of South Dakota. This article is adapted and edited from testimony delivered before a recent hearing held by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Agriculture.]
I come before you today as the 33rd Governor of South Dakota. My home state is known for the gorgeous Black Hills, rolling plains, and, of course, the historic and iconic Mount Rushmore. If you haven’t visited us yet, consider this a personal invitation.
Agriculture is our number one industry, followed by tourism, so protecting our land is incredibly important to our people.
Today, the focus of this committee hearing is “The Danger China Poses to American Agriculture.” Over the years, I have witnessed this hostile communist country work to systematically take over more of America’s vital food supply chain. Decades ago, I watched China start buying our fertilizer companies and making us more dependent on them for this crop care product. Then, they went after ownership of our chemical companies. I watched our government offer citizenship to members of the CCP in exchange for investment and ownership of our food processing systems. Now, they’re buying up our land.
Flag of China
Between 2010 and 2020, the Chinese Communist Party’s holdings of U.S. agricultural land increased by 5,300%. Reports show China owns about 384,000 acres of U.S. ag land valued at about $2 billion. This should be alarming to all of us. The USDA admits this may not even account for all of the land that has been purchased.
Why? Because the federal government does not monitor and track foreign interests in these large transactions. There is little reporting and very few consequences for allowing countries that hate us to buy up our assets.
Just this past summer, my Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources was contacted by Chinese nationals wishing to meet, tour, and have conversations about how we process and grow our food. We declined those meetings, and within days, the State Department contacted us to notify us that those individuals were Chinese spies trying to steal our intellectual property and crop genetics.
Make no mistake, the CCP will do anything to control our food supply. The Chinese Communist Party is not our friend. It is not our partner. It is not our ally. The CCP is our enemy – a rapidly expanding national security threat that cannot be ignored.
Let me be clear. China is buying up our entire food supply chain.
When America can’t feed itself and relies on another country to feed us, it becomes a national security issue. The country that feeds us controls us.
Let me remind you of why we do a Farm Bill. In the past, the Farm Bill has always been a bipartisan issue. I had the opportunity to work on two of them as a member of Congress. A Farm Bill is simply a safety net. America decided years ago that our nation’s security needed a safe and affordable food supply that we grow. Every family in this country should be able to afford to go to a grocery store and buy their family’s necessities.
The Farm Bill ensures that. Farmers who get up every day to make sure there are groceries on those shelves can have one good year and pay their bills and look forward to the next planting season, or have one bad year and have drought, hail, or flooding and lose everything. It is a risky business, and I’ve often said some of the biggest gamblers I know are our family farmers.
The Farm Bill should be designed to help farmers, not environmental extremists. Our farmers don’t want President Biden dictating their agriculture practices to fulfill his extreme climate agenda. As a conservationist committed to protecting the abundance of natural resources in my state, so-called “climate-smart” agriculture dictated by the Biden administration does not help farmers who need help developing conservation, natural resource, and wildlife habitat solutions that best meet their needs at the local level.
It is in our nation’s best interests that those farmers exist because we do not want one entity to eliminate their ability to keep prices low for our families. The Farm Bill manages that risk and is their safety net. I implore you to do your jobs and get it done.
Recent media reports show the largest Chinese holder of American ag land is shipping food and medical supplies to China to be stockpiled by the Chinese military. We all saw when China purchased land in North Dakota that they claimed it was for a corn processing plant. But there wasn’t enough corn around to support that kind of a facility. And it was just a few miles from a U.S. Air Force base.
South Dakota is home to Ellsworth Air Force Base, the B-1 bomber, and the MQ-9 Reaper drone. It will soon be home to our next-generation bombers – the B-21s. This platform will protect our nation for the next 50 years. As governor, I refused to let what happened in North Dakota happen in South Dakota.
For almost two years, I worked with our legislature, our ag community, and our business community to stop China and five other evil foreign Governments from buying ag land in our state near our military assets. I’m happy to report that we’ve banned them – and strengthened reporting requirements to identify and stop illegal purchases in the future.
China doesn’t allow American companies to own their land – they don’t even allow their people to own land. Why would we allow them to purchase our most significant asset?
It’s clear President Biden does not have a plan to protect the American people – not against crime in our major cities, not at the southern border, and not against the threat of China. So, today, I’m here urging Congress to stop the CCP and other nations that hate us from infiltrating our country.
In summary, let me remind you that for decades, China has manipulated their currency, stolen our IP, spied on us, mistreated us in trade practices, is purchasing our nation’s debt, controls our nation’s prescription drug supply chain, is poisoning our children with Fentanyl, unleashed a deadly virus on the world, uses Tik-Tok to spy on and control our nation’s population and is willing to put their people through horrific situations to fulfill the plan they have had for thousands of years to be the dominating world power.
The only thing standing in their way is us. America. If we lose this country, where will we go?
The time is now to ensure that every policy we pass and champion puts America First. Our safety depends on it. Our security depends on it. Our American way of life depends on it.
I picked these up from a post on Substack. They are profound. I disagree only with numbers 9 & 10 regarding population. It is my opinion that the entire world crisis with migration of hordes of people is due to high fertility rates in many countries around the world. This has been going on for decades. Earth can support only so many people in a reasonable standard of living. Now we see those that don’t have migrating to countries with lower populations and that do have. This must stop. Dr. Stephen Emmott, the head of Computational Science at Microsoft Research, believes we have already passed the human population level the Earth can sustain. I totally agree.
The way down the toilet for our country:
Open borders & illegal immigration
Rampant crime and unsafe cities
Mass addiction and Fentanyl
Election insecurity and interference
The educational indoctrination of children
The asymmetrical weaponization of justice
The destruction of private property rights
Inflation and debt
The global depopulation agenda
Record low fertility and birth rates
Unaccountable federal bureaucracies
Toxic food supply
Vaccine and pandemic disinformation
The trans-contamination and sterilization of children
Over prescription of pharmaceuticals
Destruction of the nuclear family and parental rights
DEI and the new racism
Moral and societal decay
Financing of endless foreign wars
Sprawling surveillance state
Centralization and consolidation of government power
Destruction of trust in institutions
Censorship industrial complex
State media propaganda
The smearing of those who challenge it
Paul Harvey, a journalist from our past, said, “History promises only this for certain: We will get exactly what we deserve”.
Now we learn that ole Joe has it within the power of the Presidency to confer a blanket pardon to all illegal aliens, which is in effect amnesty. This would mean no criminal charges could be levied against any who had crossed the US border illegally. What it does not mean, though, is citizenship. But what becomes very fuzzy is the question of deportation of any illegal border crossers. I think, though, such an act would mean suicide for the Democrat Party. But one never knows what ole demented Joe will do.
Now, too, we have the insanity possibly coming out of the US Senate. Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator Mitch McConnell have unveiled a 370 page “Border” bill in the Senate. It is expected to be brought to the floor of the Senate for a vote on Wednesday, 2/7. This bill is a $118 billion package that “overhauls” the asylum system at the border and at the same time gives massive military aid to Israel and Ukraine. It would send $60 billion to Ukraine and $14 billion to Israel. Oh… and more….. It would provide millions to the US defense industry, $5 billion to Asia-Pacific allies, and humanitarian aid to civilians in Ukraine and Gaza. What else could be thrown in? Maybe a new house for Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell! So, we shall see what Republicans vote in favor of this monstrosity of a bill. Of course, old Joe is urging Congress to pass this bill immediately. No surprise.
Fortunately, the indication from the House of Representatives is the Senate Bill is “dead upon arrival”. This message has come from House Speaker Mike Johnson and the House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. The expectation is the Senate Bill will not even be brought to the House floor for a vote. The House will vote on a separate aid package of $17.6 billion of military aid for Israel.
The truth: the USA is broke. The racking up of national debt continues unabated. This is not sustainable. The USA needs to entrench at home. Both the southern and northern borders need to be secured against any illegal immigration. There should be no allowance for amnesty for a time. The only immigration allowed should be legal and only for skills that benefit this country. Otherwise, close the borders.
We are in the fight for survival both internally and externally. Time to become “fortress America”.
Times change and new opportunities emerge. Substack is new to me, but it sure seems to be a path for me to be able to write what I want when I want. In eons past, I was able to write articles and columns for the Kokomo (IN) Tribune at will. You see, I was part of the family that owned that newspaper. I was either in top management or the CEO/Publisher of this then a 34,000 daily newspaper having about 185 employees and over 300 newspaper carriers. All employees were considered family. Together, we were designated the top newspaper in the USA for penetration (subscribers) of its market for 9 of 10 years running; and second the one odd year. On top of that, we were leaders in new technology in the industry. Times have changed since then…. and not for the good. Many communities now are news deserts without a local newspaper.
I do write a blog and have for many years: kentblacklidge.com. I will continue to post on it, but I have become rather erratic in posting. I know why. I no longer have and have not had the decision authority for decades about what goes into the Kokomo Tribune. Since my family sold the KT, this newspaper has passed through two group owners. It is now owned by a group (CNHI) that editorially is way too far left politically for me. The Managing Editor has published columns I have written from time to time, but I have given up that route. It felt constrained. In recent times, when the KT prints a column with which I disagree strongly, I typically will email the columnist directly. Again, constraint given no one else reads/knows my thoughts and writing directly has resulted in fewer blog posts. Not a good reason, but true.
On a national and state level, I write representatives directly. I intend to continue this but at the same time will post any letters to Substack and my blog. I have things to say even if no one else gives a damn about my opinions.
My interests are wide. I have indicated in Substack I would be particularly interested in politics, government, science, and the environment. These interests are not limited to local issues. They would include local, state, and national matters. And what credentials do I have to write about these areas: four degrees from Purdue University which are a BS Industrial Management, MS Conservation, MS Aquatic toxicology, and a Ph.D. in genetics. Those plus over 20 years in newspaper journalism.
In my opinion, honest and open communications between people is the glue that holds communities and countries together. The major media, print and electronic, in the USA have failed. They largely have become propaganda tools of the political left. It is up to us, individuals, to restore the integrity of news offered to the public. We must. I intend to do my part. The Peoples Osprey on Substack is open.
Kent Blacklidge Ph.D. (kentblacklidge.com and peoplesosprey.substack.com)
Time for Western nations to wake up. There is a war again between nations predominantly Christian and those predominantly Muslim. This is against a backdrop of over 2000 years. In short, Christianity and Islam are incompatible. Islam today is dominated by violent aggressors wanting to take over the world. The goal is to overtake any nation or peoples that are Christian or Jewish. It cannot be allowed to happen.
All western European nations have their roots in Christianity. Hundreds of years ago, they had to beat back Islamic aggressors. With the hordes of Muslim illegal immigrants that have flooded into Europe, they may have to do it again.
The United States of America was founded by Christians. Those that wrote the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were not Muslims, nor Buddhists, nor Hindus, nor any other religion found around the world. They were Christians. The USA is a Christian based country. Yes, there are minorities of a variety of religions now in the USA, but none except Islam followers seem to be aggressive and wanting to take over the “West”. It cannot be allowed to happen.
Our southern border is being flooded with illegal aliens. The DHS reports there are hundreds of potential terrorists among those who have crossed the US border. And who are these terrorists: followers of Islam.
It is time to slam the US borders shut to all illegal aliens with particular attention to Islamists. It is time to export all illegal aliens, again with particular attention to Islamists. And it is time to keep a very close eye on all Islam communities existing already in our country. I heard even this week that New York City has proposals for there to be more mosques and public loud speakers that call for Islam prayers during the day. This, too, must be stopped.
Christians must be prepared to defend the country and the Christian faith. The Judeo-Christian roots must be made stronger. Otherwise, the country is in peril.
Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator an destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar”, every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived here — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
Carl Sagan 1994
[This writing by Dr. Sagan is one of the most profound ever written. We are coming up to Earth Day 2023. Earth is in trouble environmentally and politically. The future is far from certain. The dot is in a photo taken by Voyager just before it left our Solar System. Sagan reminds us how precious and sacred our small planet home really is.]
Our country and the life we once lived has descended into twisting and turning darkness and chaos. No matter your values, beliefs, or political leanings; this is something universally agreed upon. Worldwide pandemic restrictions and consequences, corruption in all institutions we once relied upon to govern our world, runaway inflation, supply chain nightmares including baby formula shortages, federal agencies weaponizing surveillance powers, explosion of social media an cancel culture nightmares, the breakthrough discoveries of quantum physics, and technologies advancing at warp speed are just a few of the forces that impinge upon our psyches daily.
Our collective planetary nervous system has awakened — begun communicating and expressing itself. Yet some things remain largely intact. The birth of this nation and with it the unique concept people could live and flourish in individual freedom and self-governance lives on. To date, we are struggling but have not fallen.
Interestingly, massive changes in science, technology, and belief systems have placed in the hands of the common person one of the most powerful inventions to date: hand-held devices and the networks over which they transmit. Worldwide communities have sprung up connecting people by interests they share.
Our planet is immersed in a collective dark night of the soul. The outcome remains undetermined but there are a few variables we can count on.
First, we each have free will. The choices we make will create our personal future and greatly influence our collective fate. Second, with choice comes responsibility. As individuals, we must arm ourselves with awareness, knowledge, and formulate a belief system by which to guide our choices. We are born into this world alone, we are responsible for the read we crate through this world, and we will leave this world as we entered it: alone.
For myself, I choose to look to those who have come before for hope and guidance.
Chief Seattle 1854
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.”
John 3:2
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it.”
[This was written by Marcia Blacklidge as a part of submission of her art creation for the Artists Alley in Kokomo, Indiana]
