Bumper sticker of the week: My reality check bounced.--

Quote of the week: ''Don't believe it when President Bush says that, to protect our security, we have to drill for oil in America's most pristine and sacred places.

''Don't believe it when he says we can make ourselves safer by building new nuclear plants and relicensing old ones.

''Don't believe it when he says relying on renewable energy to achieve genuine security is some kind of pipe dream. Most renewable energy sources are decentralized and invulnerable to disruption. They're safe, secure, and 100 percent homegrown.

''Don't believe it when President Bush and his administration suggest that, in the name of fighting terrorism, we have to tolerate the devastation of our environment.

''And most important of all, don't believe it when they suggest that, in the name of national unity, we should silence our voices and bury our values.'' Greenpeace--

The government's reaction to the recent corporate failures in America is to punish the wrongdoers and give the company more corporate welfare so that it doesn't collapse. These solutions are short-sighted and will not work. The end product that all American corporations arrive at is always the same: Make a profit at any cost. The end result: Wal-Mart, Nike, Halliburton, corporate welfare, WorldCom., accounting fraud, insider trading, sweatshops, Harken Energy, hostile takeovers, massive layoffs, Arthur Andersen, downsizing, hidden partnerships, World Trade Organization, Enron, temp employers, uninsured workers, Monsanto, environmental catastrophe, Citibank, channel one......... Welcome to BushWorld, where no one would dare suggest that perhaps the way we do business is fundamentally flawed.--

Happiness:

­­ is a life well lived.

­­ has to do with our capacity to give and the sense of self we get in doing so.

­­ does not come from money and possessions.

­­ has nothing to do with sex, but has everything to do with the intimate dance played out around it.

­­ is wearing a hat that fits you and socks that match.

­­ means never having to say, I'm guilty.

­­ Some days happiness is just waking up.--

The World Summit opened in Johannesburg last week. Guess who wasn't there? We wouldn't want the world to mistakenly believe that we are anywhere near interested in the environment or world peace and cooperation. Instead, W. George stayed at home and busily went about lathering up the public to support his war against Iraq. The goals of the summit are to develop specific plans for expanding the poor's access to electricity and health care, to reverse the degradation of agricultural land and to protect the global environment, none of which are goals of the Bush administration. People are looking for action, something the Summits have sorely lacked. The U.S. has acted as a constraint to international cooperation. We have become despicable to most of the people in the world. We are the enemy.--

Enterprise Zones and TIF Districts are symptoms of an economy and economic development plan that can no longer work in Galesburg. Our emphasis continues to be on giving tax breaks to businesses, at the expense of the taxpayer and publicly supported institutions. As services from these institutions decline, the ability to draw business into a dysfunctional community lessens. This cycle has prevailed in Galesburg over the last 20 years. No one is creative enough, progressive enough, or brave enough to step forward with a solution. It's always more of the same: The continuation of the fantasy that Enterprise Zones and TIF Districts will help us. This is a delusion based firmly in a suicidal economy.