"The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers…” Poet William Wordsworth was contrasting nature with a materialistic world when he wrote that in the 18th century. What has changed? THE BUDGET AND THE "CORPOCRACY" Can you relate to a budget of $2.77 trillion—one that takes from we the people and gives to the corporations? A budget that includes staggering sums for war and security? Whose war? God, Country and Exxon Mobile? Whose security? Do you feel more secure now that our borders are leaking sieves penetrated by drug dealers, cutthroats and who knows what else? AN INDIFFERENT BUREAUCRACY Yesterday there was butchery in the Congo, unimaginable slaughter in Rwanda. Today, Sudan's Darfur is yet another deadly wound in the bleeding heart of Africa. Despite face saving overtures from Western bureaucracies, starvation, rape and genocide rage unchecked. What has changed? SENIORS AND THE REST OF US Here is a quote from a 1959 Department of Labor Subcommittee on Problems of the Aged and Aging. "I am an 80 year-old woman and for 10 years I have been living on a bare nothing, two meals a day, one egg, a soup, because I want to be independent.” In the year 2006 seniors still must choose between health care and food, while trying to figure out the prescription drug program. What has changed? The middle class is the backbone of this country. The backbone is beginning to crack. Feel it? THEN AND NOW The problems facing the country today seem insurmountable compared to those of yesterday. But yesterday people thought the same. The country's ills seemed impossible to solve for people struggling through the Great Depression and a savage World War. Good leadership and the strong will of the people got us through it. Fast forward to Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. What has changed? LIARS AND CHEATERS Is it any wonder that some people feel they have no control over their institutions, their government and their own lives? They depend on drugs to get them through road rage, outrage and one sickening "breaking news” atrocity after anot

her. In the ethics scandal brewing on Capitol Hill, our elected officials smell like rotting fish. Corporate executives lie about their credentials and cook their company's books; students lie to get a degree and a job. Writers lie about their writing, sports icons lie about steroids, smart minds waste their talents on planting viruses and stealing IDs. Is there anything new here besides the technology? WHAT GOES AROUND… Everything that happened in the past is happening now, and will continue to happen in the future until the individual becomes responsible for his/her actions. Change has to start with the individual. Think about it. When we don't learn from our errors we repeat them. When we're absent from history class we suffer the consequences of war, hunger, pandemics and mass murder. What goes around comes around because cold indifference is the antithesis of change. THE INDIVIDUAL IS YOU There are billions more people on the planet today than yesterday, competing for the same finite space and resources. *If you were born in 1950 there were 2.5 billion people in the world. Today there are 6.5 billion. By 2015 there will be 7.2 billion. Those who want to make a difference in the quality of life must begin with themselves. Every individual has to help him or her self before they can help anyone else. When you do something to help yourself (only you know what that is) you are making a difference to the people around you and the environment you inhabit. Send not to know for whom the bell tolls… Just do it.

*U.S. Census and the International Data Base

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