LEAVE IT TO PEEVER

Hey there, all you sinners

– Bumper sticker of the week: Don't let school interfere with your education.

– Quote of the week: "My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." Tenzin Gyatsoi, 14th Dali Lama

– Creationism on the run: Finally, it appears, people are coming to their senses. It is futile and ignorant to take a mythological story as fact. It reduces the value of the story. What is the spiritual meaning of a flood, or the Garden of Eden? Taking these stories literally exposes them to scientific and historical scrutiny. The creation story shows up in all cultures. It is to be understood as a universal, mythological necessity for all of humankind: To wonder where we came from? Somehow, right-wing Christians just don't get it. Oh well, at the very least, maybe they'll pray for me. I can use all the help I can get.

– Hey there, all you sinners. A time will come in the not so distant future when people will look back and wonder just how uncivilized and ignorant we were:

• Why was it that anyone could buy a gun? They must have considered gun manufacturers as Gods. Owning one must have given the common person a sense of power. Guns must have made them feel special.

• Apparently these people were allowed to do anything they wanted in the name of profit. Making money seemingly took precedence over everything else. They exploited the Earth and everything it put forth. They cheated one another. They would do anything for cheap labor. They needed people to stay poor. There seemed to be no end to their exploitation of the lower and middle classes. We suffer greatly for their ignorance and lack of foresight. They did not think about future generations, only themselves.

• They doled out health-care like it was a commodity, not a human right. The haves were well taken care of, the have-nots suffered. Compassion and the simple act of caring for one another were absent. This was an odd thing to have happen in a society so technologically advanced. We have not been able to figure out why this occurred. Perhaps again, the profit motive is to blame.

• They were verbally and in their writings committed to their children, but this did not play out in their actions. Millions were malnourished and allowed to succumb to preventable diseases. Educational opportunities remained poor for millions. We read about a program called ''No Child Left Behind," which apparently was some kind of a cruel joke. They seemingly were unable, or unwilling, to move forward in helping the disadvantaged children. It is a hard thing to understand, that adults would do this to children. Why did they not get punished?

• Government appeared very authoritative and the leadership seemed to want to draw from the past rather than look to the future. They wanted to keep things the way they were rather than make them better for everyone in the future. A troubling period appears at the beginning of the new millennium, from 2000-2008. Things obviously accelerated in the wrong direction, and we are still recovering from such callous and cruel leadership. They cloaked themselves in the Christian faith, referring to each other as right-wing Christian soldiers. A Dark Age seems to have appeared periodically in our history. This is what we call this period. War, torture, destruction, violations of individual rights, lying, deceit, all reared their ugly heads. And darkness fell on the land.

• It was an interesting, disheartening time. They had all the tools to move the world forward in a peaceful, compassionate, enlightened way, but they failed. They looked at the possibilities and closed their eyes. We look at what they left us and cry.

– It's July 4th tomorrow. Take advantage of it. Recommit yourself to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The revolution has started. Don't let it pass you by.