We are so inundated with so much information on a daily bases. We get this through news feeds from regular news stations, in our emails, magazines, newspapers, Twitter, Facebook and all these other platforms. Yet, how many of them are bias? How many of them are pushing an agenda? What is being left out? How many of them are true? What parts are true? Do they tell both sides? If not, why not? I have seen videos without sound when sound is so important. I have been told it is 2/3 of the story. I have read and seen stories and it has been edited to promote a certain response. We are able to see so many kinds of videos now. If something is left out, what is really going on? Is this really about divide and conquer? If it is, that stuff has been going on for a long, long time. I had a great Humanities teacher at American River Jr. College. It was in the 1980’s, she stated often in class that we must ask the questions about things. She often stated,” It is not that you get the answers, but that you ask the questions”. I’d gathered by the time I took her class she had been teaching a long time. She challenged people’s beliefs.

It seems to me that people aren’t asking the questions. I see so many people are just storming out the door with one thought. A knee jerk reaction to something that came on some news channel? Could it be one direction that someone gave them. I have wanted to speak up for some time now, but I held myself back. One of my excuses was that I didn’t know how to use the software on Word Press. I could give you other reasons, but they aren’t all that important. My intention here is to speak up. To lend a voice to let cooler heads prevail and that we come to middle and not to either extreme. It seems as a society were aren’t very balanced. I see that parties on both sides are at fault here. When I think of extremism I think of the Taliban, Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram and many others in the Middle East. To me we seem very divided by religion and political lines. I mention religion only because it seems to be a the driver behind some much in politics.

First, a little bit about me. I spent some time in England as a missionary. It was actually in the East Midlands. It was a wonderful place. I talked to lots of people there. For the most part they often were mostly friendly. I didn’t get yelled at too often. It was a time of reflection and spiritual growth. It was while in this time of reflection and talking to people. I think I was siting on a bench having lunch of crisps (potato chips), biscuits (cookies) and some fruit. I realized that “people are people”. The only real differences are our language, geography and customs. We want similar things, we have similar desires and similar problems. The only thing that has really changed is technology. I always wondered why people don’t want to talk about politics and religion? The two very things that guide our lives. My intention of this blog is to bring balance and critical thinking to the narrative. My ultimate goal would be to unite the people to follow the US constitution and follow the rule of law. I know that we can accomplish so much more being united and working together.

“United we stand, divided we fall”.

Aesop and his fables (6th century B.C.)