Second Amendment Myth: The Myth

The Second Amendment:

'A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'

Note: the CDC (Center for Disease Control) is legally barred from studying the effects of firearms upon the American population– really GOP? This means the US Government has no more idea of the mental health implications of gun violence than anyone else. There are no numbers. No one knows exactly how many people were shot dead last year in the US. There's no precise database, no standard– only estimates. Beyond working towards a day when the numbers are finally seen and studied, we have no other choice but to look outside of the US for clues.

“It's not access to guns; it's an issue of mental health.”

Every time I hear this, I cringe. It's both. Generally in countries with restrictive guns rights (at the very least on par with driving a car), gun-related mass-murder by the populace is not the daily occurrence it's becoming in the US. In modern societies with the most limited rights like Japan, these events are rare if ever. Australia is a wonderful example of how removing weapons of useless violence after one of these incidences drastically reduces these incidences. It is not about removing tools that happen to be guns but addressing access to weapons of mass-murder and mental health. How much of an arsenal does one require to protect one's self from lunatics?

Access to Arms by the US Citizenry as a Constitutional Right is a lie, in fact a very lucrative myth. Nowhere in the Constitution are individuals given the right have a gun. It is the right of the people (everyone in every State) that the States are given an implied directive to create a well regulated Militia (the words are capitalized for a reason; although this is not the ratified version of the amendment, it exists in the National Archives as the original version passed by Congress, handwritten by William Lambert). The Second Amendment gives this and only this Militia the right to keep and bear Arms because a well regulated body (and I'm going to hammer the point here: only the Militia is bestowed with the right to keep and bear Arms) is 'necessary to the security of a free State.'

And when it comes to regulation, 'regulated' is the third word of the amendment. Furthermore, the word 'gun' or 'rifle' or the phrase, 'just enough explosive to blow this tree-root apart,' cannot be found in any corner of the Constitution. Arms are strictly tools of war, created to defend the State from enemies, both foreign and domestic. The Second Amendment has nothing to do with Cousin Skeeter duck hunting with a hunting rifle. The Second Amendment is about securing a free State. Arms include everything from a knife to a Cruise missile. Just about everyone can have a knife but no one can have a Cruise missile. Missiles are for governments; States are governments with a Constitutional right to keep and bear Arms. The term 'Arms' clearly applies to States, not individuals like you and me.

Why does the Constitution create Militias? Think about it: they're the touchstone of American freedom. The Revolution was a bunch of independent, community-based actors coming together to win. When this document was written, America had no cash to finance a standing army. But we had skills and an effective model. We succeeded in the face of an overwhelming invasion by stitching together a cluster of militias into an effective army at a moments notice.

The Second Amendment's sole purpose insures a ready-force, willing to act in the face of an external threat to the freedom of any State; the only individual here is the State. This amendment does not provide citizens ready-access to an arsenal of mass-murder. Only the State's Militia has the right to these instruments of destruction. In truth, this amendment's brevity is matched only by its genius: it provided our newborn country with a relatively affordable, standing army, comprised of people like you and me, supplied, and trained by the State to bear these Arms for our collective security.   

$ Strategies: the Keep

I plug every hole I see but sometimes there are holes I cannot; so, I take the extreme measure of building a credit-keep: an impenetrable fortress of security, buried deep in my fortified city.

Credit-rating agencies are the keepers of the rivers of commerce; credit flows. By default, our credit is open. With the right information, signatures, verifications, and paperwork credit lines are established through these three agencies. What does Identity Theft really mean? Money. I define Identity Theft as the moment someone has convinced these agencies that they are me. If someone is slick enough to slide the right information past the right sentinels of commerce, these agencies will have no choice but to accept the debt on our behalf. The trick is to dismiss the guards and close the gate.

And there are many guards, many for-profit companies eager to provide the monitoring necessary to protect your open credit. For a monthly fee, they will scan the universe for intruders. But is this money well-spent? In a word, 'no.' You will pay these agencies to protect you from something that you can do much better for yourself at a minimal cost with a maximum benefit. For anyone willing to put a little effort into their financial health, credit-monitoring is a scam. How? Simple: a credit-lock.

Let me say that this solution is not for everyone, all of the time. That said, this solution is for anyone willing to fortify their credit. But it requires work and discipline. You must open and close your credit with planning and intention. It also costs money, not much but some. It's easy to use, and secures us against the greatest risk: unknown, unauthorized credit lines. The process is relatively simple. You sign up at each of the agencies. You request a lock on your credit, pay the fee, and create a password. Then, when you want to open your credit for some perspective creditor to view, you create a temporary lift of the lock and pay that same fee again. This means that if you want to open a new credit-card, buy a house, or a car, you will have to plan for it.

Although it takes effort, a credit-lock insures our exposure is vastly limited. Having to intentionally use our credit means we considered new lines more closely. I highly recommend it. Then again, if new lines of credit is critical to your long-term business strategy, maybe this isn't for you. In that case, you could do worse than to pay the right people to monitor your credit. But come on, if you're wealthy enough to be opening and closing accounts regularly, you've got people whose sole job is to take care of that. The effort it takes to live with a credit-lock is how the rest of us remain bulletproof.

Donald Chump Treasure

The basic question when it comes to 'The Donald' and his run is whether the Office fits. Please.

His candidacy has always been about the luxurious nature of his candidacy. His singular message encompasses many traditional GOP points of view, including the Putinesque strongman image of the 'Doer.' Doesn't matter the problem, he knows the guy. The Donald gets it done. For every question, he has no other answer: the Donald's a Doer. He loves everyone, everyone loves him, and he knows what's best. The shinny, golden, god-like level of the Chump's narcissism is not run-of-the-mill.

No, it's the best, most classy, luxurious, highest quality in Town. He sets the bar.

Although there would be no greater Democratic gift than his nomination, Donald's Treasure is for the GOP. His candidacy represents an opportunity to pivot. Over the next year, the bashing of the Chump's 19^th century's views will allow this party to redefine itself and finally join the 21^st century. The Donald raises many issues worth discussing: immigration, healthcare, women's rights, and the legitimacy of Obama's “official birth-certificate.” Okay, not the last one; that's more of an example of this pivot-point. The value of The Donald is the distance the GOP can run from him. This distance is directly proportional to their remaining relevance. Run Republicans run.

Why is he so popular right now? Because it's right now. Activists are the only ones engaged at this point and they love him. Let's hope more than the GOP candidates challenge his message. What would be really nice is if the other side seizes this opportunity for real dialogue. Then both sides can come together for a single purpose:

Pile-on the Chump!

May the truth of this Treasure be the moment the GOP has a real conversation with the American People.

Their failure insures their status as the inevitable third-party.

$ Strategies: The Fortified City of Wealth

The best financial defense is your effort: spend time; remain alert, proactive; monitor exposure. Keeping the avenues of commerce open while avoiding obstruction is a balancing act. As Sun-Tzu might say, 'though a general does not lose, it does not mean he wins.' Victory does not simply come from a good offense but requires a solid defense. Sun-Tzu warns the invader to consider the great cost when attacking a fortified city. Financially speaking, we can vastly limit our exposure and create that fortified city of wealth.

A simple example of a great defensive habit is to log-out. Why should I make the effort if the system will automatically deactivate access to my account after being idle for a specific interval? Fair point. For the most part, that protects most of us most of the time. If being secure most of the time is good enough for you, then why worry? For me, I'm concerned about those moments when automation fails. I close each secure session every time. The second a system is hacked sufficiently, all open accounts become targets. Anyone with the bad luck of being connected to a breached system's core runs the risk of exposure. During this time, the system's security will find it challenging to detect your absence when the hackers raid and manipulate your information. Because you did n

ot log-out, their activity appears as your activity. It takes so little effort to click the link. That's why it's there. Use it.

A tight ship does not leak. Any hard-copy with my personal data is stored or burned. Period. One thing we control is what comes out of our homes. We can toss our junk mail out; we can be lazy and fail to go through it. On the other hand, we can imagine the many pieces to the Identity Theft puzzle. Junk-mail constitutes a few. Credit-card offers are a prize, like a game-piece ready for play. Denying any single avenue makes theft difficult for thieves; denying all of them makes it impossible for anyone. I choose to burn; others prefer to shred. Ashes, when scattered, are not as easily reconstituted as bits of paper. Maybe some alien, quantum magic exist out there where spread ashes can be reincarnated. I guess I'll take my chances. What I am not willing to take a chance on is shredding.

Of course, large-scale shredding that is directly recycled is perfectly safe for industry. But it's different when it comes to my limited, personal information. I plug every hole I see.

$ Strategies: Powerful, Easy Passwords

If you ever suspect a favorite website has been hacked, run a malware and virus scan on the devices used to access the site, then change your password. For sites with financial accounts such as online banks, utilities, or credit cards, create unique passwords that are not used with any other type of site. If a hacker gets your password from a favorite shopping site, social media site, or even from work, they can't empty your checking account and clone your credit cards.

The creation of passwords is tricky and exhausting. Never: use the same password for everything, use birth-dates, sports jersey numbers, addresses, ID numbers, pet or family names, or use the word 'password.' And if a word appears on any of your social media platforms, don't use it. The challenge is to create one you can remember that isn't your last name followed by one, two, three. So what do you do? You can come up with lists of passwords, get a password generator, or try the key-and-lock approach.

This method breaks the password into two pieces. The first half is a standard password like BlueB04. The second half is related to the specific site. This could be the first letters of the site's address, the company name, or any other information relating to the account. In effect, a single password becomes many. Examples: BlueB04Costco, BlueB04SBUX, BlueB04XYZ123 … With financially significant sites like a bank, you could use a special code or pin between the two parts. Example FIN for financial would look like: BlueB04FINXYZ123 – the longer the password the better.

There is a different technique altogether. Instead of picking some absurd concept to encode on a keyboard like BlueB04, use the keyboard as a landscape and plot a pattern the same way most phones are opened. For example, a straight, horizontal line would be 'qwerty.' Your password becomes a simple, geographical pattern on the keyboard, like a little journey or dance your fingers play out in a specific way. Think of a picture-key. This method consists of circles, taps, and swipes over an image. Simply translate that to the keyboard. You start at a point and walk a predetermined path. This makes the password easy to remember, super-fast to enter, and can be quickly changed by simply starting with a new key but following the same shape.  

The ultimate strength of a password is its randomness. Personally, I use a combination of both techniques in three sections: first, a pattern; second, a standard; and third, a site-related. Example: qwertyBlueB04XYZ123. This tactic produces powerful, easily-managed passwords.

The Enemy's Flag Flies Over US Capitals

Why did the US Civil War happen? Simple: the power to make money; aka the right for the rich to stay rich despite the cost to humanity.

The institution of slavery created centuries of wealth for many of the world's governments. The practice is Biblical. But it becomes increasingly difficult to treat people as animals when they are increasing seen as human. The US was not the first nor the last to abolish this source of unethical labor. And like the Exodus, it came at a great cost to the nation resisting change. But unlike the ancient tale, the force facing the American Pharaoh named Jefferson Davis was a well-regulated army of soldiers supported by a diverse middle-class, not a mass of ragtag slaves lead by a psychic magician across the parted river into the empty desert under a watchful eye.

The American Civil War began over the establishment of California – a state free from slavery. The South felt boxed in. Without direct access to the Pacific, maximizing profits from their ill-gotten gains became untenable. With this irreplaceable export route blocked, they formed a new country and went to war for the right to exist; they had to protect the old-fashion way. Over the preceding decades of increasing restrictions to their business model and in light of the contemporary trend of world governments abandoning the practice altogether, the South saw the writing on the wall and like the Luddites raged against the machine of progress. 

The Confederate States of America was the attempt to create a foreign country within US boarders based on the institution of slavery. The Confederate Battle Flag symbolizes a foreign country's aggression upon this soil. What other enemy is favored with such an honor? Such logic requires zombie-like cognitive dissidence. How much longer will the enemy's flag fly over US capitals?

$ Strategies: A Worst Case Scenario

Identity theft is ugly. When it strikes, recovery takes a lot of work; but the injury never heals. Using a false identity for gain is not limited to the riches of bank accounts or credit cards. Criminals use our very online presence to create havoc. We all live with data-risk. We cannot protect ourselves one-hundred percent. It helps to accept this. It also helps if we know how to protect ourselves from the greatest risks. Then we can relax, knowing our exposure is limited.

As Sun-Tzu might say, 'a man who knows himself and his enemy may not win but cannot lose.' There are many avenues into our accounts. They exist for the benefit of our access. Being mindful of that process is important. Passwords, PINs, login names, security questions, smart phones, codes, and biometrics are just the beginning. The ability to separate the authentic from the usurper seems never ending. 3-D printed plastic fingers become keys to locks that cannot be reset – nature provides only one set of fingerprints. Even the complexity of biometrics are now in question. Though it may never be perfect and constantly struggles to keep up, security always improves. As it does, we are wise to take advantage of the technology to monitor and limit our exposure.

So, in this worse case scenario, what is the one thing we can do? The single most important behavior is involvement. Review statements. Check credit ratings. Intentionally limit the number of credit lines. Research an institution before opening a financially-related account. Follow best practices.

There are many things we must be aware of when we share our data online. Never open links in unsolicited emails (better yet, don't open them but report them as spam). Never send account numbers, PINs, or passwords via email or enter personal data into an unsecured site. Use only secure or encrypted sites. You'll know because the address line begins with https:// Limit the number of credit cards used online to one (if possible). For the most part, don't save credit card numbers in any digital format; enter them manually every time. And remember, managing each password is important.

The truly damaging identity theft happens when someone breaches the walls of our credit and is allowed to operate as if from within. From the importance of simple passwords to the ultimate tactic of impenetrable security, my next few post explore strategies to plug these holes.

$ Strategies: Credit Card Hygiene

Recently, I had the rare experience of losing my credit card after a visit to a certain colored box for a movie. This is the second time I've ever lost a card. Unlike the first, its absence eluded me. The bank called after someone turned it in at the branch, only a few hundred yards from this colored box. To my relief, the last charge was the movie. They invited me to retrieve the card. I declined.

I told the banker to destroy it. I would order another. Why? My father taught me to avoid even minor threats. Sure it's unlikely that whomever found my card copied the sixteen-digit account number and three-digit card number. Doesn't matter; I'll never have to know because I ordered a new card with a new set of digits. What's the benefit of retrieving the card? Convenience. The cost? Theft. What's the cost of getting a new card? Inconvenience. The benefit? Security. I will say this just once because I could say it at every point: financial security is the ship that keeps us afloat in society; you cannot be too careful with the integrity of its hull.

A few ideas about plastic:

Don't sign. Instead of signing the back of your card, write the words 'see ID.' Once it's a habit, it doesn't take any more time to produce your ID with your card when making purchases but it makes it difficult for criminals to access your credit, should they find a card that has yet to be reported lost.

Pay down, not off. Instead of paying off the card with the smallest balance, pay the minimum on all your cards except the one with the highest interest rate. With that card, pay it off or as much as you can as soon as possible. Carry the largest balance on the card with the lowest interest rate. And it goes without saying, never miss a payment or pay late – it's too expensive.

Pair your cards. Pair your cards to your costs. For example, use one card for gas and groceries; one for online purchases and reservations; another for large acquisitions; etc. Resist the urge to have an 'emergency card' that lies dormant; credit agencies do not look favorably upon them. Personal fiances suffer when too many credit lines are open at any given time but it is good to have enough active lines to pair different cards with different expenses. This not only helps with budgeting and flexibility but fraud. Credit-card companies like to see predictable buying habits. When something unpredictable happens, they are easier to work with and often the first to spot the fraud.

Credit-cards are the common, daily oil of our financial machine – the engine of the ship. If we don't pay attention, the fluid becomes grimy, gritty, dirty, useless, and then potentially dangerous if the engine heats up and breaks down – bankruptcy. But if we take a few extra moments each day to be mindful of this important yet mundane aspect, we keep the oil clean and the engine running smooth, getting us where we want to go.

$ Strategies: A Conservative Foundation

My personal financial history isn't terribly interesting. Things are steady as she goes. So, what's the secret? How did I survive the Great Recession? To understand that, we must understand the other great financial crisis. The Great Depression began when my father was a boy. It shaped his manhood. His financial hygiene was as impeccable as his legal briefs. I cared for my father until he passed in his mid-eighties. Those hard decades for this country were carried into his last days. Example: when he couldn't finish dinner, he'd collect the leftovers into used napkins. He stuffed the bundle into his pockets. Later when I found the stash and asked about it, he couldn't remember doing it. He spent the innocence of his adolescence toiling in the dust of the Depression. Those wicked years manifested scares in old age – a powerful point of view he imprinted upon me. In his honor, I will share this hard-earned perspective, reshaped for today.

Money is the power that drives modern man. Without it, one does not last long. Nature did not equipped our species with the intrinsic tools to live more than a few nights alone in the wilderness. We require supplies, shelter, and tools. Only the most accommodating environments provide any chance. Of course, those places are filled with much more capable predators than a soft human. Even pray pose a threat; if the lion doesn't get you, the stampeding herd of water-buffalo will.

Humans are born to live together. We need each other. We don't need money to survive but we have collectively accepted it as the medium of our lives. Therefore, money matters and makes us happy – to a point, about seventy-thousand dollars a year for the average household. After that, the reasons for making more money become increasingly narcissistic. Example: the CEO of a Seattle company recently took a huge pay-cut and raised the minimum wage to this magic number. It is a bold move to maximize productivity, retention, and innovation. Only time will tell if it works.

Personally, I see money as a rudimentary system of enslavement that rapes the Earth and turns a cold shoulder to the ninety-nine percent. It corrupts and retards progress. It shapes our preferences and loyalties. It treats the average human as a selfish child and punishes us as if necessity equals petty greed. It places blinders on our future and distracts our ability to be present in the moment. But it is a fact of life that must be faced. Hating the system does little to change it or survive it.

Most do not make seventy-thousand a year. Many in this world make less than two dollars a day. This means most of us will be happier, healthier people if we learn to maximize the value of our resources. Outside of making more money, there are ways to make more out of the money we do have. This series of posts discusses my father's insights; make use of those that apply.

God's Tiny Reflection: Neural-GPS

Let us return to the concept of God. It is my theory that the microtubule-structure is a map of the brain (the whole) in relation to the individual (the neuron). Imagine the brain from the point of view of the cell. This view would not be a detailed topography-map like the old folded road-maps of yesteryear. It would look more like the contemporary word-maps where those with the most weight appear larger and more prominent, while others with little significance are small and off to the side.

In effect, the structure of the microtubules comprises the cell's personal Bible. It's their frame of reference, their point of view, their manual of operation. The unique pattern of the microtubules are the cell's perception of reality, a kind of brain within the brain. Consider neural-plasticity. After injury, the brain has the ability to rewire itself. Uninjured parts take over for the injured. The dynamic nature of the microtubules account for this capacity to draw a new map, a new reality, and to begin to function in a new way.

Like the neurons of the brain, we are the individual parts of a larger organism called humanity. We must all choose our perception the way neurons construct their microtubules. Do we choose the rhetoric and ideas of others or do we choose the authentic reality of our individual lives? When we pollute our minds with lofty platitudes and fortified positions, we are like the diseased cell, harden with plaque, stricken with dementia, and unsure of its pattern. But the more clearly we see our position and function in the larger body of human potential the more we are like that nimble neuron, capable of filling in for a fallen soldier.

Whether God exists or not, meaning does. How we relate to the world is our personal orthodoxy, our individualized religion. When we confidently fire our sound into the complex web of history, we shift reality towards the wisdom of integrity. It may not seem like it but the future is counting on you, being you, just as you count on each neuron being its wonderful, unique, individual self. And like that healthy neuron, we must all be ready to redraw our map and redefine our reality as we sense the changing social-weather and readjust our position in this human network. After all, humanity is the living brain of this planet.  

God's Tiny Reflection: Quantum Bias

Computer scientists use the model of unidirectional brain activity to create computational strategies based on the simple interpretation of how a cell decides whether or not to fire its axon. The algorithm uses multiple, analog, biased inputs to determine a single, digital, monotone output. Each input is assigned a bias or importance that changes throughout time as experience refines its overall impact. This happens through the recursive pruning and expansion of a dynamic decision-tree's limbs. It is a fractal growth that bends towards the increasing value of its output. A few important or highly biased dendrites can fire the axon while it takes many more with a lower bias to coax emission -- the quantum event.

How the biological cell determines the bias and firing patterns associated with its individual network is a mystery. There are about a hundred-billion neurons and a hundred-trillion connections (more than the stars in our galaxy). With this much complexity, how is a brain anything but a big box of noise? Why would a single neuron decide to fire? How does a sole voice count in a cacophony of others? It seems so random but functions much like a democratic poll; the brain signals the body to act when relative networks exhibit the required activity, in other words, reach the tipping-point; the little guys dance with enough enthusiasm to raise the roof. Unlike a democracy, not every vote is counted the same. Like a kleptocracy, an important few can make all the difference. Stars often steal the show, blowing that roof right off the walls.

However a cell determines whether it will fire or not happens inside the cell where a dense mesh of microtubules holds the architecture of the cell together. For some time, this was the sole function assigned to the stuff. Now we know it plays a role in the firing of the axon. This substance is like the bones of a body except there are many more microtubules in a cell than bones in a body. This essential component of the system is linked with neurodegenerative diseases. How these fibers are aligned and what parts are stable and dynamic are the subject of intense study. But what do they mean?

God's Tiny Reflection: Brain Bits

Let's take the old Taoist idea, 'the one and the many,' to a new level. The brain is a fascinating place. Moods, thoughts, reactions, perspectives, flavor … the neural-weather of synaptic-energy swirls in great gusts of chemistry. There are thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and even desert-like calm. But how do these electrical clouds of mind race about, where are they going, and why?

The brain is a complex network, comprised of individual units with two fundamental parts: nodes and connections. A node is a neuron, a special cell with the digital purpose to fire or not to fire. Connections occur between axon and dendrite. The brain is like a city of microscopic people, each with a job and a social group. The metaphor deepens. Imagine the dendrites as a tangled mess of arms, the node as the body, and the axon, the leg. We use our hands to touch the world, sense our surroundings, and interact with materials. Dendrites are a dense system of thin branches, connecting with the axons, the outstretched legs and toes, of other cells. The cell gets a feel for their neighborhood's motion by receiving input via the dendrites. Each time an axon fires, an array of dendrites are stimulated.

When the cell decides to move or metaphorically step to the beat, it fires the axon. What is known about brain function is largely derived from devices such as the MRI. These things observe how geographic bundles of floating neural-people dance the rhythm of our consciousness. They're all just wiggling their legs while feeling the wiggle of so many other legs. It's like a game. How many wiggling friends does it take to get me to wiggle and how will I wiggle in response? As the arms with tiny hands, holding the many legs and toes of others, sense their community's neural-weather, iron-rich blood flows, changing EM fields, and lighting the devices. At first, science could only imagine electricity flowing in one direction and in one way: cell A fired its axon with a single signal until it reached its terminal. Cell B's dendrites sensed cell A's signal through the neural-chemistry of the synaptic clef. Cell B calculated the bias and decided to fire its axon.

That was then. This is now. Today, we know signals come in all kinds of patterns and sometimes signals originate from cell B's dendrites and move into cell A's axon – backwards. But even with this newly discovered complexity, it still seems pretty random and meaningless until you remember that our very consciousness is derived from their little game of wiggle-wiggle. Though they may seem to dance as a flock in the air or a school in the sea, they are just like us, individuals that make complex choices science has yet to fathom.

God's Tiny Reflection: Defining God

The term 'God' is controversial for some, comforting for others. God is derived from the word 'good.' 'Good-bye' comes from the expression, 'God be with you.' If a practical interpretation of a deity exists, what would that be? I like the Taoist expression, 'the one and the many.' God is the mixing of you, the individual, with the whole, the universe. God is the paradox that bridges you and not you. God is the meaning we ascribe to our relationship with reality. Whether that meaning is finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or simply uncovering the novel cracks in the universe, the meaning and purpose of our lives derive from our interactions, whether they are with nature, humanity, or even our own bodies.

Atheist assert the idea of an afterlife and a puppet-master pulling the strings is nonsense. The universe is what it is; there is no God. In this case, God or the 'good' exists strictly as a human construct, an outgrowth of the human collective. On the other hand, believers assert the 'good' or God is an individual with a plan and the means to pull it off. In that case, jump on the bandwagon or be tossed aside. God's Will generates the motion of the universe and to defy it is to destroy one's self. Both perspectives pour concrete words into foundations of quasi logic and postulated facts. One can no more prove a negative than the existence of anything outside of existence – a fact of logic.

The truth? The truth is, the horizon of a human life is limited by the organic material we inhabit; in other words, without the right perspective, some things can simply not be seen. But what we can see is a universe with structure and function, operating within an ordered set of probabilities. At the personal level, finding God means finding your place in the universe, your fit, your spot, your point of view. Whether or not God exists looses focus; discovering the significance of our relationship to the whole increases meaning throughout time.

Whether religious, agnostic, or atheist, comprehending, evaluating, and navigating our personal reality is about all we do. Therefore, the religious word for the secular concept of supreme personal meaning is God. Further definitions lie beyond human experience. But once we shed this mortal coil, we will either cease to exist, find God, or discover a reality incomprehensible to the human mind, something beyond vocabulary and narrative. If I were a betting man, I'd put the farm on the latter.  

# Am I Charlie

What does this cartoon mean? Better question: is the Prophet depicted?

This is a Litmus Test. There are five identical stick-figures holding a single-word sign: renewal, peace, transcendence, redemption, or salvation. Each idea is associated with every major religion; they are the promised rewards of the observant. Whether you see the Prophet or not depends on two things: one, whether or not you want to; and two, whether or not you can read. But if you do see him, what does the police lineup imply? Am I placing suspicion on a specific religion or all religions? Or, am I noting the false indictment of religion in light of their associated extremists? My intention is to illustrate the connection between the individual actors and the faceless group. Religion is both the suspect and the victim. On a deeper level, the stick-figures are a juxtaposition of the complicated archetype of a religious figure and the child-like rendition of a few simple lines. The truth is always more complex than the soundbite.

Radical Islam did not invent terrorism. But what about the suicide bomber? Let us not forget the Kamikaze or the Tamil Tigers. This cartoon is about knowing where to place our focus. Rooting out the individuals who create the acts of terror is important but not as important as understanding the soil in which they sprout. It is rich with pain; tilled continuously with injustice; soaked deep in loss; scared with hate; and left to burn in the sun of stereotype. The zeitgeist does not address why terrorism exists but obsesses over ways to stop it. There is only one way to stop terrorism: stop fertilizing it; then salt the earth with healing, justice, hope, love and respect. Only then might it never grow back. Instead of trying to bat away every bee, we must think in terms of nipping this in the bud.

We must address the source. But first, we must comprehend the cause. Terrorists are not born in a vacuum. So, is religion the problem? End-of-the-world rhetoric and promised treasure beyond death certainly oils the machinery but if a specific religion was to blame, all the terrorist would belong to that religion; they don't. In fact, not all terrorists are religious. We must look elsewhere – how about the mirror. Our indifference to the injustice and suffering caused by the entitlement of Western society is a singular trauma felt by those inspired to separate from humanity and kill with joyful vigor. Covert operations, manufactured wars, bipolar assistance, financial piracy, sanctions, and most recently, the ultimate insult of the most high are just a few of the injuries in need of adjudication. These typically young men with limited personal role-models and no real life-rudder watch the small-screen and see big money flaunted in far off places. The disparity of opportunity to improve living standards fuels the feelings of inequality. With no avenues of amelioration, their feelings of unfairness have no place to go but to build to crushing heights. If we want to stop terrorism, everyone must thrive.

Even if there is some magically way to provide endless opportunity to each individual on Earth, we'd still have one thing left to face: justice. Insults are the ultimate wedge. The key to respect is understanding and showing deference to cultural differences. Cartoons that throw fuel on the fire are not the root of unrest but the straw that breaks the back. However, long-term resolution cannot be swayed by abrasive satirists who lack the wisdom to help instead of hurt. Reparations will require more than an apology for an insult. Terrorism will end when there is justice for unjust war, compensation for looted wealth, prosecution of the arrogant murderer, education for everyone, opportunity for all, and the fair distribution of resource throughout the world. Only then will terrorism lose its grip. And until we solve the systemic cause we will be forced to live with its continued cost.

One can cherry-pick the past and find moments in history worse than any on Earth today. But one will never find a time when so many hurt so much as right now. Humanity stares into an abyss of change. The shear power we will soon possess has the potential to either save everyone or leave no one. We need each other and have the ability to save the world. Resource is a matter of effective efficiency, not a number at the end of an equation. Eventually technology will either destroy society, leaving the one percent and their robots, or it will create life, liberty, and justice for all. But it all starts with how we treat each other today and where we place our efforts. We will eliminate the terrorists once and for all when our focus settles on their origin instead of their identity.

Experience the fate of a terrorist in my short story Aftermath available at Amazon.com.