Happy to see all of you still at it here. I just got back from a trip to see my brother who's involved in a losing fight against cancer. He's a very sweet guy and it's very hard, even though we have bitter battles over politics (his idea of a vacation is to go on a cruise with Rush Limbaugh). Anyway, I'm back.

There was a time during the late sixties and early seventies when it seemed possible that some of the promises of our hallowed national rhetoric might come to pass: "all men are created equal" and a government established in order "to provide for the general welfare." It was by no means a sure thing, obviously, but we had reason for confidence that things might work out: the supreme court throwing out Jim Crow laws and defining the constitutional protections against self incrimination and illegal search and seizure, the president pushing for civil rights legislation and leading us into a "war on poverty," the congress battling over it, but actually passing laws which supported the court and the president, the people called upon to see themselves as part of a common humanity, at least within national borders, and for a growing mass of the population, in the whole world.

Of course at the same time an awful lot of nasty crap was being done, some supposedly in defense of our liberty. But there was reason to believe that things were actually getting better in the country. But at the same time there was a movement gathering strength--a movement which equated wealth with virtue, greed with creative force, concern with weakness, love with blindness. The leaders of this movement claimed they were on the side of someone whose most notable messages were on the order of "Sell everything you have and give it to the poor" and who instructed one of his followers who asked how many times should he forgive someone who has harmed him--seven? the follower asked--and the teacher said seven times seven times seven....

--seed