INTERESTING TIMES

Humans need to believe in something to have some sense of control in difficult times. The more confusing the situation, the great our sense of loss of control, the greater our need for understanding. The understanding that we create may be based in relatively few facts, and it may be true, or untrue. But we perceive the patterns and act based on our understanding, regardless. This link is to a 17.49 minute long Science Friday radio program that speaks to these tendencies in humans.
( more )

Political awareness dawns slowly for me. I was not a good student of history in school. I lasted nearly 4 years after the airplanes hit the world trade center before I viewed video of that event. I am like the proverbial ostrich with my head in the sand. But today I came to a new understanding of JFK. He really was working for peace. He was in opposition to the military industrial complex. Eisenhower had recognized and named it, but he did not attempt to restrain it. Kennedy did. And there is no politico-economic force more brutal than that which specializes in death and world domination. Of course he was assassinated. Of course.

JFK had a prayer, borrowed from Abe Lincoln, that he said to himself to maintain calm in the face of incredible pressures for war. The prayer ended with "I am ready"....and it seems he was ready to accept full responsibility for his actions and the retaliation that took his life. No wonder this man is so often referenced by presidents and peace advocates. He lives in our subconscious as a warrior for truth, good and right. And he was martyred. And as for the conspiracy theorists; yes, there must have been a conspiracy. Such actions are rarely random. I don't know the details, but just like 9/11/01, JFK's assassination was intentional and for profit. The stench lingers in the story. The executor of such action is carefully and completely separated from the planners so as to insure "plausible deniabililty", but the link is there, somewhere.

Many thanks to my local radio station, KBOO, for the history lesson, and for the inspiration.