The media, of which I am a part, are motivated by one thing only, what sells. If the public will buy it, they will publish it. IT's as simple as that. If you don't like what they are doing, get rid of your cable, discontinue the newspaper, turn of your radio, start your own. Start a boycott; talk to your neighbours and friends about it.

The media is panning to the majority of the masses which, I believe, mostly has its head up its ass.

Cara is right. If we truly want change we must exercise our right to vote and to use free speech. Voting numbers are pathetic; something like 20% of the elgible voters in this country actually voted. The rest either complain that their one vote won't matter or would rather posture, complain, load up and prepare for Big Government's seige. Guess what? Big Government is us! Americans with families, mortgages, and other things just like the rest of us.

Arming ourselves against each other is a throwback mentality of fear of the unknown, of change, of anything different; of trying to talk it out, come to a compromise and find real solutions for why people feel the need for violence. It is a construct leftover from pioneering days and the patriarchal Picean Age, in which the solution to almost any conflict, has been violence.

This is the Aquarian Age, an age of balance and equality. The death throes of the old age are causing the anxiety and extremes of violence and reactions. Answering violence with violence will never solve the problem.

You shoot an intruder, an extremist neighbor who assaulted your family. You stand trial and get off on self-defense. His family,being the extremists he taught them to be, vow revenge and come after you. You are under seige, again, and it could become an all out war with the "feds" coming in. So, was arming yourself the solution? Did it result in anything positive?

Was there a third solution, maybe even a fourth? Could you arm yourself with non-lethal means which police are starting to use, including gobs of gluey stuff which shoots long range then hardens on the person so that they cannot move? Or any of a number of other non-lethal methods coming out?

When we keep our consciousness on a level of fear and expectation of violence, we can attract such happenings. Using the power of our mind to create a "bubble" of protection powered by whatver god you might believe in can help, as well as keeping your thoughts in a positive vein; and using practical knowledge which keeps you aware of what is going on around you.

I know there are arguments against such a "pollyanna" statement, but there are also anecdotal stories which prove the protection can work, according to our individual beliefs.

Race consciousness, by which I mean the common, cleective consciousness of humankind, may claim that we are threatened and no place is safe. We can rise above that to the Truth, or to what could be if we keep our consciousness focussed on the positiveness we would like to manifest in our lives. This can have a ripple effect every bit as powerful, if not more powerful than the negative vibrations of the masses, thus passing on the more positive effects to others, much as we pass on the beauty and care of music here.

We do not have to buy into the negativity of race consciousness. If one-by-one we were to refuse to believe it, then pass that positiveness on to the next person, it could have a snowball effect, just as the first person who decided not to throw away a soda bottle, started the recycling movement which may save out planet from ourselves.

In the Big Picture, of course, it doesn't matter. We are a miniscule part of the Earth's history and She will go on with or without us. And, regardless of any measures we may take to tune-in and stay safe with or without lethal means, it is my belief that karma plays an equally important role which sometimes cannot be overcome. Also, that when it does come our time to "go", there is nothing which will circumvent that event.

Sorry, Penny, I don't think that's very squidgy, today. Dai, I don't understand some of us over here, either. It's as though America is a teenage hoodlum who just hasn't matured enough to see the harmfullness and non-efficacy of its ways.

kat, where'd those worms come from, I just opened this can!