Category: 2012

Whose Heart Is God Hardening Now, and Why?

Exodus 4:21 The LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.”

Exodus 7:3 “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.”

When Moses wanted to appeal to Pharaoh in order to convince him to allow the Hebrews to leave Egypt, God advised Moses that he would harden Pharaoh’s heart so that Pharaoh would not allow the Hebrews to go free. What followed, the plagues, the death of children all happened because God meant for them to happen. In fact, in the study of the Old Testament there is a great deal of destruction and conquering, it is really brutal. And what is important about that is the fact that the major disasters which occur in the Bible are all orchestrated by God. It should be noticed that in the Bible, the false idols are statues built of gold.

Another ancient spiritual text, the Bhagavad-Gita centers entirely around a battle. On the surface, like the Bible, we have a story about Arjuna and his relationship with many of the people on the other side of the battle. We know that he is a great warrior, but it seems that many of those people that he will be required to kill, were also important to making him into the man that he has become. The Bible seems to be filled with unfairness, and ambiguity. Many Jewish Sages have created back stories to make just what seems unjust, but it is still adding details to a story thousands of years after the story was written. In the Bhagavad-Gita the Lord Krishna, who had been posing as Arjuna’s charioteer gives us a spiritual view of the story, depicting it as an external playing out of a human internal battle.

It was understandably easier for the eastern philosophies to be clear in the meaning of their stories because they were not competing with so many other regional belief systems that made it necessary to make the hide the teachings in stories without explanation. But it is my belief that all religious stories are meant to be inner journeys and that all of the experiences that we have in the world around us are the physical manifestations of those inner journeys to be taken by the soul.

There is no other way to make sense of the world that we live in. Today in the United States there is a hardening of the hearts of Republicans and some Democrats who call themselves “Conservative” to the suffering of Americans who, because of the cost of living, the economy and subsequent unemployment, and the rise in catastrophic illness and its cost are literally dying and losing what little they have. There is no explanation for these statistics except that God has hardened the hearts of of those who could make a difference.

It is easy to see why some people believe that we have been abandoned by God. It is easy to see this if we see life as beginning and ending with the body. From that perspective, either there is no God, or God is uncaring and capricious. Life is as senseless as so many stories in the Bible. But we are not these bodies we are the souls within them. And God did not create the world and turn away, the world is recreated every moment, with every life born into it. Flesh and blood come from the earth, come from man, but life, the life force that animates us and all that is, comes from and exists within God. It is not manmade.

So God is here and God is Love. The experiences that we have are lessons for the soul and the bodies that we wear to have these lessons are no different than a school uniform. Rich, poor, black, yellow, red, brown, white, all are nothing but parts of the lessons in this life. Their meaning is personal and universal but only within the life in which we wear them. The soul has not race, nor does it have a gender. It has wealth but that wealth is measured in love, compassion, and understanding.

The following statistics, are proof that our hearts have been hardened, and proof that there can be no recovery because our hardened hearts will not permit us to make the only changes that would prevent what lies ahead. And so we will fall, and that falling is what will free us, what will part the Red Sea – the sea of suffering and oppression that enslaves us all.

At-Risk Americans: The Uninsured And Underinsured

By Janis McMillen

Data from multiple sources agree that in 2007, 47 million Americans (15.6 percent of the total U.S. population) lacked any kind of health insurance coverage. When these numbers are adjusted for age (excluding those 65 years and older), the uninsured percentage of the population rises to 17.9 percent. Moreover, it is estimated that 25 million adults under age 65 were underinsured during 2007, despite having insurance all year. In total, 42 percent of all adults (86.7 million) were either uninsured or underinsured during 2007.

Putting a face on persons who were uninsured or underinsured during 2007 and 2008¹

Age: One of three people under age 65 were uninsured for some or all of 2007 and 2008; of the total uninsured population, 60.1 million were adults (between 19 and 64 years of age)
Duration: Among the underinsured/uninsured, 74.5 percent were uninsured for nine or more months and one-quarter were uninsured the entire 24 months
Employment status: 80 percent of individuals who were uninsured were in working families and only 16 percent were not in the labor force (due to disabilities, chronic illness, or serving as family caregivers)
Income: Nearly 60 percent were in families with incomes below the federal poverty level (FPL: $21,200/year for a family of four); 52 percent with incomes between 100 to 200 percent of FPL went without health insurance in 2007/2008
Racial and Ethnic origin: 55 percent of Hispanics/Latinos, 40.3 percent of African Americans and 34 percent of other racial or ethnic minorities had no health insurance in 2007/2008, compared to 25.8 percent of whites. While racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to be uninsured, whites accounted for 49.8 percent of the uninsured
Age breakdown: The likelihood of being uninsured declines with age; 49.5 percent of those 19 – 24 years old, 36.3 percent of those 25 – 44 years old, 32.5 percent of those 45 – 54 years old and 21.2 percent of those 55 – 64 years old were uninsured over this two-year time period. The 55- to 64-year-old age group consumes more health care on average than younger adults.

For all ethnic and racial groups, lower-income families and individuals were more likely to be uninsured than lower-income whites. This disparity continues even as incomes rise in all groups.

There is a marked increase in the number of adults having difficulty paying medical bills – the most visible consequence of the weakening in insurance coverage. In 2007, 41 percent of adults (72 million people) reported problems paying medical bills, faced bill collectors or were in debt for medical care, up from 34 percent or 58 million in 2005. The majority had insurance at the time these bills were incurred² – well in advance of the economic downturn.

¹ All statistics above and below are from http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/publications/reports/americans-at-risk-findings.html

²The statistics in this paragraph are from http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Testimonies/2009/Feb/Testimony-Insurance-Design-Matters-Underinsured-Trends-Health-and-Financial-Risks.aspx

Janis McMillen (LWVUS Board member and LWVKS) is chair of the LWVUS Health Care Education Task Force.

Produced by the LWVUS Health Care Education Task Force, 2009

Poverty Facts and Stats

Author and Page information

by Anup Shah
This Page Last Updated Sunday, March 22, 2009

This page: http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats.
To print all information e.g. expanded side notes, shows alternative links, use the print version:
- http://www.globalissues.org/print/article/26

Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.

At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.^{Source 1}
More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.^{Source 2}
The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.^{Source 3}
According to UNICEF, 25,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”^{Source 4}
Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
If current trends continue, the Millennium Development Goals target of halving the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.^{Source 5}
Based on enrolment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls. And these are regarded as optimisitic numbers.^{Source 6}
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.^{Source 7}
Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.^{Source 8}
Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.^{Source 9}
Water problems affect half of humanity:
- Some 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhea
- The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.
- Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.
- Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water.
- To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit.… The costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labour diversions … are greatest in some of the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses about 5% of GDP, or some $28.4 billion annually, a figure that exceeds total aid flows and debt relief to the region in 2003.^{Source 10}
Number of children in the world

2.2 billion

Number in poverty

1 billion (every second child)

Shelter, safe water and health
For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:
- 640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
- 400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
- 270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)
Children out of education worldwide

121 million

Survival for children
Worldwide,
- 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)
- 1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation
Health of children
Worldwide,
- 2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized
- 15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom)
^{Source 11}
Rural areas account for three in every four people living on less than US$1 a day and a similar share of the world population suffering from malnutrition. However, urbanization is not synonymous with human progress. Urban slum growth is outpacing urban growth by a wide margin.^{Source 12}
Approximately half the world’s population now live in cities and towns. In 2005, one out of three urban dwellers (approximately 1 billion people) was living in slum conditions.^{Source 13}
In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass—fuelwood, charcoal and animal dung—to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China.^{Source 14}
Indoor air pollution resulting from the use of solid fuels [by poorer segments of society] is a major killer. It claims the lives of 1.5 million people each year, more than half of them below the age of five: that is 4000 deaths a day. To put this number in context, it exceeds total deaths from malaria and rivals the number of deaths from tuberculosis.^{Source 15}
In 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption. The poorest fifth just 1.5%:

The poorest 10% accounted for just 0.5% and the wealthiest 10% accounted for 59% of all the consumption:
Shah, Anup. “Poverty Facts and Stats.” Global Issues, Updated: 22 Mar. 2009. Accessed: 25 Nov. 2009. <http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats>

Today we live in an age where information is at our fingertips. We cannot hide from what is all around us and because of this, we are responsible for it. Yet we do nothing.

When the pharaohs heart was hardened it was because Egypt had become a nation that worshipped the golden calf. What is the golden calf but money, power, and all of the things that turn one away from God. Had Moses convinced Pharaoh to free the Hebrews it would not have been because he had seen the error of his ways, nor because he had realized that the Egypt had become corrupt and inhumane, no, it would have been nothing more than a gesture made to the brother he grew up with. Had he released the Hebrew slaves, he would have simply increased the numbers of the other slaves. It was time for Egypt and the Hebrews to see what happens when man turns his back on God and on his fellow man for the sake of the wealth that gold promises.

Man has lost his heart. The industrialized nations of the world are Egypt. In the United States, Congress represents Pharaoh and its heart has been hardened to the plight of the majority of the people. The government and all of those with power worship at the alter of insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, banks, and all of the movers and shakers Wall Street. And we are the Hebrew slaves. We are enslaved by the insurance companies that take our money and give back nothing. We are enslaved by the pharmaceutical companies that charge so much for medications that people die because they cannot afford them. We are enslaved by the banks that charge so much money for credit card interest that we can never pull ourselves out from the debt that they pile on our backs.

We are the slaves and we are not going to be freed. Those who could free us have had their hearts hardened. We will be freed when the system collapses under the weight of its own inequity. We will be freed by God, but that will only be the beginning. We have already been given the commandments by which we must live. We already know they type of people we must become to enter the promised land. We must become the promised land. We must build something new. We must not attempt to recreate the golden towers that enslaved us. We must redefine success and greatness. We must establish a new path for our children to follow, one that is not for the self but for all. We must become one people, and one family. We will have no choice. We are slaves, but it is time to build a free world. We will not recover, we must reinvent. We must acknowledge the chains that bind us and know we are bound by the chains of our desires. And when we relinquish those desires, we unlock the chains. We will then lift the fog that hides our future and once again see a light to follow.

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No Comments by Denise Gibel Molini on March 3, 2010

filed in 2012, Changing Life, Escape from Egypt, Exodus, brotherhood, destiny, spiritual

tagged Arjuna, Exodus, freedom, Krishna, Moses, Today we must again escape Egypt

2012 – The Possible Direction

It would be very easy to say that based upon the nature of man as he has shown himself throughout history, the only destination is self-destruction. We are in an escalated time of war, hatred, greed, and all of the things that spell disaster.

I see things symbolically. When I was working for the man who would later become my partner, for a business in New York, I remember walking down the halls feeling as though the file cabinets on either side of the hallway were falling in on me. I felt the same urgency as Chicken Little in the story saying “The sky is falling, the sky is falling”. It was this sense of urgency that caused me to push my boss into opening our own business, and we did. Not a month later, the company that we worked for went bankrupt.

During George W’s second term as president my friends would complain that he was going to get away with everything, it seemed that everything was working out for him. Yet, my vision this time, was of a dam with a hole, and like the story of the little Dutch Boy, he had his finger in the hole. However, in my vision the holes kept coming – more and more until the entire dam collapsed. This was, to me, what began with Bush and would continue with whoever became president after him. The impression that I was left with was that there was no system, not corporate, not governmental, not environmental, not social and not religions that would be sustainable for much longer. What we needed was not just change, but transformation from the ground up. The dam could not be salvaged or patched, it had to be demolished and rebuilt.

I used to paint furniture. As an artist, I would use furniture as my canvas. One day I found this perfect desk. What I should have done was sand it down to the bare wood, then prime it and begin painting. But that was too overwhelming a task, so I just primed it. The paint was not holding, so I would pile on another base coat. I kept putting paint on top of paint and although it looked beautiful when I was done, I could not sell it – or even use it because I had added too much good paint to the bad. Some things need additional coats, and others need to be stripped down to the bone and built up from scratch. This is where we are.

Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. “ Regardless of a new administration in the White House, the solutions to our economic problems are being sought at the same level of consciousness that created them, which has been – take care of the corporations and they will take care of the people. Make sure that the banks have money and they will spread it down to the people. I guess it is just a continuation of trickledown economics. What would constitute change – real change? It would be working from the bottom up. You see, even if the banks are willing to give people credit cards again – the people are not going to be so willing to take them. We are becoming debt phobic.

Between the years of 1988 and 2006 the average wage in this country rose a total of about one percent. During that same time period the average cost of living rose over ten percent. How was that gap supposed to be filled? I know, credit! Credit that we could not pay because of the gap, if we could not afford, on the average wage to life, how could we afford to pay a credit card with growing interest rates? Why did no one look at these figures and anticipate a problem? The answer is greed. And it is that greed that prevents the kinds of change that we need now to guarantee the future.

The government should not loan money to investors to buy the bad debt from banks, the government would take the bad debt itself, declare a moratorium of up to two years on foreclosures and renegotiate the loans so that the people could catch up. The government would focus all of its attention to creating jobs and keeping people in their homes. Nothing would stimulate the economy more than for people to have disposable income, not more credit. Nothing would improve consumer confidence more than to feel safe within their homes and with their healthcare. We are giving the thieves who stole the cookies from the cookie jar, money to replace the cookies. There is no change here, just a new twist to an old knot. With the number of homeless and unemployed expected to continue to rise, I wonder who the economy is picking up for. But it doesn’t matter.

There is something else happening that is an deeply difficult issue to tackle and therefore an issue that is not addressed. People have paid money into social security and into their pensions in the belief that these were up there with death and taxes in terms of things that we could count on. Today people are reaching retirement age with nothing, social security that is not enough to live on, Medicare that is not enough to keep one healthy, and a pension that has been stolen by the same corporation that promised it.

We have no trust, we have no reason to trust. A terrorist attack is only one of many threats to our lives that we live with, losing our homes, our ability to feed our families, our ability to provide the education that will safeguard our children’s future, and the healthcare to keep them alive should they become ill. Keeping the homeland secure should be much more far reaching.

The only thing that the people are able to count on is that they have the power, the right and even the duty to change the system.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.-

We are a skyscraper that is on fire on the first two floors, the occupants of those floors are dying, but the people in the penthouses are feeling safe and secure. But soon the fire will eat its way up to the top, and although some people on the lower floors are close enough to jump to safety – that can’t be said for the high income floors. But we won’t address the basement until those in the penthouse are affected, which of course will be too late.

Add to this we have a growing climate emergency, which the huge coal and oil industries do not see that it can be addressed adequately for at least a few decades. The scientists tell us that we don’t have one decade if we don’t start transforming our way of life today. North Korea is desperate to attack someone and prove itself as a major military power. Israel is desperate to bomb Iran. And all of the fundamentalists of all religions are excitedly awaiting Armageddon.

If this were a novel, no one would be anticipating an happy ending. But there could still be one, a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a new generation of Senators and Congressmen. President Obama was not just elected by those who were of voting age. He was elected because of the hard work of many young people who were not yet old enough to vote but will be not only old enough to vote, but interested enough to run for office in the year 2012. Those who will be voting in that election will have a different agenda and enormous power over communications through the internet.

The generation of the sixties had great promise and hope of a world in which there was peace, brotherhood, and an end to war. Sadly, their hopes were dashed and their faith was shattered when their candidate for President lost the election. They became cynical believing that they were up against a system that they could not, with all of their work and enthusiasm – defeat. Some just withdrew, some decided that if you can’t beat them, join them. This is not the case today. The young people of today did win, and they did change the face of the country. They are empowered.

Seeds are being planted now in every area of life. The technology exists to end consumption of fossil fuels. These young people are growing up in a time where greed is not good. They have a voice and they will use it loudly.

Things change, the world changes, and it is very hard, even in our own personal lives to know the exact date that it happens because we are not aware of the change until we are well within it. From there we look back and say, “yes, it was around that time that….”

Monopolies were one banned because they inhibited free competition. We decided free competition was not really necessary. The next generation of law makers will rid the world of monopolies, not because of their impeding competition, although that will always be a part of it, but because by their sheer size they threaten the global economy, as is being proven today. They will create the kinds of far reaching changes that will pave a new path for the world, a path to sustenance. It will be a world where everyone having some, is more acceptable than some having everything. I see the new government supporting education, healthcare for all and self sustaining communities. Where fossil fuels with be the alternative and fuel created by the Sun, the Water and the Wind will be the norm. The new leaders around the world will come to see that if everyone has the same size guns, they become a useless weapon. Then a handshake and a helping hand will be the weapons that end hostility, instead of life. After the darkness of path that we have set before us, I see a new path, and I see the first steps on that path coming in 2012.

2012, Age of Aquarius, Changing Times

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No Comments by Denise Gibel Molini on September 15, 2009

filed in 2012, Age of Aquarius, America, Changing Life

Approaching 2012 – Part One – Keeping Our Fingers Crossed

By Denise Gibel Molini

One day as I was driving my car I had a vision of the future. It was a future that seemed to me to belong to those who will be here perhaps thirty to fifty years from now. I saw young people living with each other in an environment of peace and cooperation. I did not feel any remnants of the world that we live in today, in fact, I felt very strongly that they had built their world on the ashes of ours. The ability to communicate using ESP and all forms of mental powers was very strong. The only feeling that I had of that time which was negative was their memory of what mankind had to endure in order to get to where they were. I sensed that there had been much suffering before that point was reached.

This time is very clearly approaching. It is led by compassion. I had seen a video on you tube about the bond between a dog and an elephant. A while back I saw one on the bond between a turtle and a hippo. I watched on video where a man and women went into the wild to reunite with the lioness that they had released back when she became of age. The lioness ran and jumped into the arms of the man who raised her. I had seen a story a couple of years ago about an Orangutan in Africa who adopted abandoned kittens and a pig who adopted puppies Today I watched a story about a dog who nurses abandoned tiger cubs, and cheetah cubs, and a cat who brought an abandoned baby rabbit and nursed it with her kittens. I saw a nine year old hippo in South Africa lying in bed with her human owners, kissing and loving them – nestled next to the family dog. Then there is the remarkable video of the lioness who took care of a baby antelope, and after that one was taken by a lion she went on to care for five more. The natives named her, Blessed. Every instinct in her would tell her that this animal was food – but her heart took over.

The underlying energy of this planet that we live upon was for thousands of years, that of dog eat dog, survival of the deadliest – a giant food chain. It was violent; that which was wild, was by instinct savage. Not anymore. The animals that we see are exhibiting what must be called basic compassion. This is coming from their connectedness with the earth – they immediately incorporate into their instinctual behavior the energy that comes from the earth. We, as humans have lost our connected with the earth, we are slow to respond to the changes in her energy fields that arise. We are slow; we are closed off by our belief systems.

We advanced very quickly from the printing press to the industrial age, to the technological age and now the information age because all we had to do was modify what already existed in order to move to the next step – we did not have to reinvent the wheel. I felt as I experienced this vision that this generation had to reinvent the wheel. Whatever we built, it seemed that we had either destroyed or used up the resources necessary to maintain. I felt saddened by what we had done, but happy knowing that the future was so beautiful.

All of the ancient prophesies declare a coming era of peace. One in which as the Bible states in ISAIAH 2:4 “And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”. This is the destiny of the New Earth and her inhabitants. Our challenge is not to create it, it has been created and it is waiting for those who can come out of the desert and enter the Promised Land. Our challenge is to be willing to let go of our golden idols, and our selfish ways. The future is by any description – Heaven. Mankind will reach it, perhaps not us, but the human race will. Even the worst case scenario ends in the knowledge that only through cooperation, understanding, acceptance, compassion, equality and peaceful co-existence can we, as the human race, hope to survive through this millennium.

We have knowledge. We have information. What we lack are wisdom and foresight. We are a “crossed fingers society”. We react to the inevitable crisis that we will face with our heads in the sand and our fingers crossed. Katrina is an example of how we handle everything. It was well known that the levies in New Orleans and Mississippi would not withstand that eventual category 5 hurricane. But instead of building levies that would, we crossed our fingers and hoped that they would not come down on our watch. When it was very possible that they would fall, there was still no forced evacuation – there were, however, many fingers crossed. It was known that the levies were not in the best shape, and nothing was being done about it. Had we been prevention oriented would we not have made sure that there was a plan in place to evacuate all of the surrounding areas. But as usual, our plan was more cost efficient – we crossed our fingers.

The Bush Administration entered into a war in Iraq with no exit strategy – no strategy at all, except of course – crossed fingers. I have recently read articles by economists at the beginning of the sub-prime boom promising that it would bring us to where we are today. So, many knew what the likely outcome of what we were doing was. Instead of forcing a change in course – we crossed our fingers. We have become a society that has an enormous aversion to the cost of prevention. We know in our hearts that one day our actions will have severe consequences, we just prefer to cross our fingers and hope that they come when we are gone. This crossed fingers thing, it isn’t working well for us lately. But we still cross our fingers in hopes that this is just a glitch and not a new paradigm.

I believe that life is like dominoes. There are moments in our lives when the road that we have been traveling on reaches a fork. On each path of the fork are rows of dominoes. This is as much free will as we are going to get. Once we push down one domino, we are on that path until the next fork and whatever lies in front of us cannot be changed. There are destiny points in our lives that we will reach regardless of what we do. These are where we either learn the lessons our collective and individual journeys were meant to teach us – or – we begin new journeys.

There are these moments in which we have choices to make. What we choose, which domino we push, will be based upon what, if anything, we have learned thus far on our journey. It is like a train station with many trains leaving, trains that will each take different tracks, yet all end up at the same station where we either leave, and end our journey, or get on a different train. Once we get on a train, we are on it until it stops, and whatever happens, happens from that point on. No more choices. We get on the train, or push down the domino – we have created the point of no return.

We know that every species plays a role in the balance of our ecosystem. We have no way of knowing the effect of the mass extinctions that we are causing. We can guess, what the outcome could be if we continue to lose our bee populations. It is clear that our plants don’t pollinate themselves. One of the reasons that I find the prophesies of these ancient peoples such as the Maya so valuable is because they did have access to the history that preceded them. When Christianity spread throughout the world, so did the mass destruction of any records that preceded its existence. We have scant information to piece together; however, I believe that we have been left with enough.

There is no way of knowing which straw will break the camel’s back. I remember a few months before September 11^th I wrote an article for a local magazine in which I stated that I felt that the feelings of anger, inequity and hatred in the atmosphere (emotional atmosphere) had reached critical mass and something had to happen – somewhere it had to blow. There is always a point when everything reaches critical mass, like a storm cloud hanging in the air waiting for that last molecule of moisture to hit it and the water pours out.

The moment that patient zero contracted AIDS was a point of no return for an epidemic that continues to kill millions of people. There is one ash, one spark that floats into the brush and smolders for hours before turning into a fire that wipes out thousands of homes and kills countless people. The moment that the ash touched the dry brush was a point of no return even though no one saw it or its results for hours or perhaps days. Perhaps it was the day a butterfly flapped its wings in South America, leading to hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. It could be an election.

The world is not going to end. We will plunge ourselves into a period of painful darkness, death, and suffering. In the end, we will understand that hatred is the most dangerous terrorist and as long as hatred exists – no one will ever be safe. We will understand that greed is the one greatest toxin in our environment, and so long as we cling to it, we doom ourselves and our children to inevitable disease and starvation. In revelation the Bible talks about 144,000 souls. The Mayan long count of 144,000 days is coming to an end. In numerology that number equals 9. Nine is the number of endings, but more of seeding the future with itself. Something is happening – now. Something bigger is going to happen soon, but if we look for it with narrow lenses we will miss it. It is in the big picture. When we focus all of our attention on one hole in the dam, we can become too sure that we don’t really have to worry. But if we look up and see all of the holes in the dam, we will act now. The action that we need now is to become wise. We need to evolve into the people able to do what must be done. And we need to do this now. I found this in an essay written by Ervin Laszlo and it best describes how we must transform our living now.

TEN BENCHMARKS OF AN EVOLVED CONSCIOUSNESS

1. Live in ways that enable all other people to live as well, satisfying your needs without detracting from the chances of other people to satisfy theirs.

2. Live in ways that respect the right to life and to economic and cultural development of all people, wherever they live and whatever their ethnic origin, sex, citizenship, station in life, and belief system.

3. Live in ways that safeguard the intrinsic right to life and to an environment supportive of life for all the things that live and grow on Earth.

4. Pursue happiness, freedom, and personal fulfillment in harmony with the integrity of nature and with consideration for the similar pursuits of others in society.

5. Require that your government relate to other nations and peoples peacefully and in a spirit of cooperation recognizing the legitimate aspirations for a better life and a healthy environment of all the people in the human family.

6. Require business enterprises to accept responsibility for all their stakeholders as well as for the sustainability of their environment, demanding that they produce goods and offer services that satisfy legitimate demand without impairing nature and reducing the opportunities of smaller and less-privileged entrants to compete in the marketplace.

7. Require public media to provide a constant stream of reliable information on basic trends and crucial processes to enable you and other citizens and consumers to reach informed decisions on issues that affect your and their lives and well-being.

8. Make room in your life to help those less privileged than you to live a life of dignity, free from the struggles

9. Encourage young people and open-minded people of all ages to evolve the spirit that could empower them to make ethical decisions of their own on issues that decide their future and the future of their children.

10. Work with like-minded people to preserve or restore the essential balances of the environment, with attention to your neighborhood, your country or region, and the whole of the biosphere.

It is my belief that December 21, 2012 will be an important date for the future of mankind – but I don’t think that anything noticeably dramatic will occur on it. I believe that it is simply the point of no return – the quiet falling of the first domino. It could come in any form, such as, a bill that does or does not pass Congress. It could be a new disease – or new form of an old one. It could be a high school chemistry major who could not take being bullied one more day and creates an airborne chemical weapon which he unleashes in an airport. It could be an act of war, or the last pollutant entering the atmosphere which will cause, at a later date, the natural disaster that changes everything. We know what we have to do. But, then again, we can just cross our fingers.