An Axe was Found in the Barn amongst the Crates of Vienna Sausages and Vanilla Scented Candles. So was a Copy of Darwin's Origin of the Species

In Which Part Our Half Naked Hero Newly Arrived on the Scene Wearing Just Pajamas and Peanut Butter Obtains a Working Set of Correction Department Handcuffs

Zen practice isn’t about a special place or a special peace or something other than being with our life just as it is. It’s one of the hardest things for people to get: that my very difficulties in this very moment are the perfection. “What do you mean, they’re the perfection? I’m gong to practice and get rid of them!” No, we don’t have to get rid of them, but we must see their nature. The structure becomes thinner (or seems thinner); it gets lighter and occasionally we may crack a hole right through it.

Joko Beck, Everyday Zen p. 138

Last night I voted to close a school. It is a decision that has been percolating for a long, long time in my community. The decision was not easy; the vote was 4-3. The outcome was not satisfying. But life in these times in schools in every district across our country is not easy nor is it satisfying.

Our country is facing challenges brought about by our national myopia, greed on a scale not seen in generations (both individual and corporate) and by institutionalized hubris. While the dismal state of our economics seems to be the focus of the pols and the news dissemination services, our core communal morality is at risk. We collectively seem to have lost sight of values that were instrumental to our moving forward as a nation, as a people.

While those short statement set forth in the paragraphs above may sound conservative, I am not conservative by tea party or Republican standards. Duh. Not a xenophobe, homophobe, social Darwinist, libertarian, or a socialist (although I claim to be) I am merely an average citizen truly worried about what happens next.

I believe in some basic constructs:

• We should live within in our means,
• We should expect a solid effort from all of our citizens to the extent of their abilities,
• We should engage in democracy and not simply be observers on the sidelines,
• We should take care of those who cannot take care of themselves,
• Education is a core value,
• Taxes are not inherently evil,
• Taxes are not a panacea,
• We should accept people for who they are,
• No one has a right to a free ride,
• No one should be expected to carry more than they are able to,
• No one is entitled to privilege by some right of birth,
• The middle way or the golden mean, Buddha or Aristotle, is what we should be striving for, neither excess or deficiency, and
• We should live the golden rule.

Maybe a nation of 300+ million people is too large to be manageable. Maybe Kurt Vonnegut was right and we should be Balkanized, that is cut up into small countries. In a smaller nation state maybe a individual voice has a greater chance to be heard and individuals have a greater more direct stake in the outcome of political decision. I just don’t know.