Let's face it...we have to have a bad guy. The old black hat versus white hat. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Cowboys and Indians. Really, our entire culture is built around opposing sides--Democrat or Republican, Red Sox or Yankees, pro-choice or pro-life.

We try to...perhaps we need to...find a bad guy in everything, including grand tragedies and fateful accidents.

It comes as no surprise, really, that we orchestrate such things are these moronic 9/11 hearings to identify, "clearly", the one person or entity responsible. As if any of them has the courage to admit the truth...

Instead, they pull themselves up to the table, command the attention of all, and politi-speak. Reminiscent of the Little Red Hen story...

"Not I," said the duck.
"Not I," said the goose.
"Not I," said the cat.
"Not I," said the pig.

"Then who?" we ask. "It must be SOME one!"

Truthfully? Courageously?
It is all of us.

It is all of us who think we are immune to the world-wide violence.

It is all of us who think we are better than...

It is all of us who do not vote smart.

It is all of us who do not speak up.

It is all of us who forget there is another way...

As 1987 Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias once said, "Peace is not the product of a victory or a command. It has no finishing line, no final deadline, no fixed definition of achievement. Peace is a never-ending process, the work of many decisions."

- - - - -

We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life

We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves...

Switchfoot, "Meant To Live"

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