We

We are all involved in our our survival.

The Most Toys

After decades of study and travel I was easily able to see why our underhanded, dangerous, neo-colonialism disturbed the peoples of nearly every nation on earth with our corporate tentacles distorting the political, economic and cultural aspects of their lives with its wringing exploitation.


However, criticism of another of our 'national characteristics' surprised and disturbed me. It was something I knew well and thought I understood pretty well. It was something I a accepted and had found acceptable. What had surprised and disturbed me was how deeply it was felt by the peoples of the earth and how profoundly disillusioned and betrayed many felt because of it.
They called us materialistic and it was our materialism which disturbed them. What touched and disappointed them so deeply was to observe that our concern with money and possessions seemed  stronger than our concerns with spiritual and intellectual values. We might say, "Right, he who dies with the most toys wins." Do we value dollars, gold, goodies, and the power of material wealth more than, say, church and school? Were dollar values very much greater than spiritual values in our lives. What surprised  and disturbed me was that I had not even noted that much in our lives was biased toward the material.


The more I saw us as many others do, the more the more I thought about our apparent prioritization of values, the more I felt a sort of disappointment. My earlier surprise turned a bit sad upon realizing how easily I had gone along with fellow American attitude that the buck and the stuff came before mind and spirit.


How many prominent Americans value monetary power over others more than they value the quality of their own spirit and intellect?


Who are we?

In Your Own Mind

Never give up.


Those who were our judges are being bought by men who don't know us. We haven't supported our judges very well.


A significant number of those who were our Senators and 'Representatives' have already sold out. We haven't even watched them.


Our Presidents are well on their way to becoming tyrants. Who nominates them?


We know what we can do:
~ We can find ways to know who we are.
~ We can find ways to share more useful and trustworthy information which is meant to be real, true, and honest.
~ We can continue to educate ourselves in inclusive, effective, self-governance.
~ We can persist and thrive through our own honest actions.

Not Much Left

What do we have left to give up?


I looks as though we have just about given up being us.


In the 1950s we gave up our war powers.


In the 1960s we gave up our military.


In the 1970s we gave up K - 12 education.


Remind me, what did we give up in the 80s and 90s?


Now it looks like before 2020 we will have given up our higher education.


The University of California seemed representative of State higher eduction:
* private capital already pays for more of it than we do;
* undercover quasi-ferderal projects have co-opted significant portions of it;
* we seem not to control the curricula;
* it looks like that before the end of next year students will be paying more for their studies than we do.


I seems that there is noting that we are not willing to give up. The worthless of yesteryear may have been willing to sell their soul to the devil. We seem willing to give ours away.


Who are we?

What Kind of People Are We?

A caustic friend of mine gave me pause for thought. I would begin to relate a problem of mine, but before I got far into it he would say, "Tell someone who cares."  Am I writing to someone who cares about what kind of people we have become?

At other times I would begin a sentence with "We" and before I got much further he would say "Do you have a mouse in your pocket?" Might we be a "we?" What kind of 'we' might we be?

How does a "we" come about? How is a "we" created.

To be a 'we' we'd probably have to have something in common. That which we had in common would probably determine the kind of 'we' we are.

Many years ago I sat at a cafe table with several young men from various Latin American republics. Because they were better educated and possibly more courteous than I, we were speaking English. We each began telling the others where we were from. I was among the first to respond. I said, "I'm an American." I was taken a bit aback by the responses: "Me too." "So am I." "We all are." "Aren't we all?" Of course they were right. The New World is The Americas.
If we had been Speaking Spanish or even Portuguese I might have avoided further mix-up. Trying to correct myself I said, "I'm from the United States." Now they were ready to have some fun with me. "Oh" one said, "The United States of Brazil or the United States of Mexico?" One of my companions said, "He's a North American." Going along with their play, I  asked, "Which do you think I am Mexican or Canadian."

Saying who one is, is not always easy. Just naming ones group or category can be difficult. How much more difficult might it be to name a new "we?"

Center for Civic Education Introduction

Center for Civic Education Introduction


"We the people ........."