History Questions Alert

~ When did the Spanish, French, and English realize that they had allied themselves with measles, small-pox, and tuberculosis?

~ Of what use may it be to know how New World discoveries affected Europe?

~ When is mankind subject to waves of deadly disease?

~ How does it feel to be on the road to certain death?


~ How true is it to say that the more money there is in circulation the less it is worth in relation to commodities?


~ When might you find the value of your debt dropping?


~ What did New World sweet potatoes and regular potatoes do for Europe and much of the rest of the world?

~ How can mercantilists love low wages? 


~ What is a great good of a joint stock company?


~ What drawbacks are sometimes associated with join stock companies?


~ How were Slavic slaves brought to Spain?


~ What can you tell us of the Mandingo and the Songhai?

Gratitude Affirmations

1. I propose to avoid debt right here and right now.
2. I am willing to admit that I may carefully use a mortgage to buy a house today.
3. I am ready, willing, and able to learn to avoid debt of all other kinds.
4. I am ready to learn to let more good wealth into my life here.
5. I am ready to learn to better know what it means to see that my true nature is an aspect of the best within me here.
6. I am ready, willing, and able to learn to tap a source of refreshing clarity and energy here.
7. 7. I am ready and willing to learn to live well in my home this year.
8. I am ready to learn to better use my life here.
9. I am ready, willing, and able to learn to be aware that I am in my home this season.
10. I am ready and willing to learn to appropriately show my gratitude for the friends I have here.
11. I am ready, willing, and able to learn to be grateful that I have an adequate income this week.
12. I am ready and willing to learn to be grateful for the beautiful prospects I have here.
13. I am ready, willing, and able to learn to be grateful for a good idea of mine this year.
14. I am ready and willing to learn to be grateful for this excellent way of beginning my life anew now.
15. I am ready and willing to learn to have some help to make a good life plan here.
16. I am ready and willing to learn to be aware of a gift I give here.
17. I am ready and will to know that I give freedom and respect here.

People of the United States

A page about Fidel Castro in our World History book stirred me to consider how I thought about "the people" in the "We the People of the United States ....." which begins our Constitution.

I believe that "People" is meant to be inclusive. I don't think that it refers to the comfortable ones among us alone. I think that word includes those who want a better, more just nation.

I believe that the People of our Constitution includes the hundreds of thousands of Americans without work  and the hundreds of thousands who have work, but don't earn near enough to care for their families well. I think that 'the People' includes industrial workers who not only lost their jobs, but also watched their benefits and retirement funds disappear.

The People must include those men and women who pay interest on money borrowed to get their families from one month to the next, from one week to the next. The People includes tens of thousands of teachers and professors who are paid less than jailers and honored little more.

Tens of thousands of small business men and women weighted down with debt and confounding paper wok are equally part of the People.

Tens of thousands of young professionals with fresh degrees and a desire to work who find themselves before closed doors are included among the People.

Each  of these Americans are responsible for his or herself each stands ready to pay taxes and to defend the country with blood; each is ready to help us unite in a more perfect union.