Thank you.  To all 16 of you wrote.  Not just wrote, but actually wrote something of worth.  Something with intelligence.  You took time.  Instead of clicking, reading, getting a little amusement and moving on.  You cared enough about what is happening, and you wrote. 

That is really important... because THAT is America.  For you all to be engaged; to interact and let each know and get involved in the exchange.  To be informed, and to inform each other.

Everyone wrote such excellent perspectives.  I truly enjoyed everyone of them.  Reading your thoughts and ideas gave me a new hope in the future of our country.  I just hope that you all value what you did as much as I do.  Your writing and engagement let others know (people you guys don’t know) that there are others like them.  People that agree that government has lost it’s focus and become greedy.

To see Keith leave a comment shows that even the busiest person, can take a second to let others know, (the ones of you who do have time to write) that no matter how busy you are, there is always time to talk to each other and interact with each other about important issues.  To engage.

Jerry, you are so absolutely right.  What you wrote is the fundamental point isn’t it?  How many people actually write their local congressmen, or visit them?  That is why America is slipping through the cracks of time folks, because WE aren’t paying attention!  THIS is what we all need to be talking about.  Not American Idol.  Not the Lakers.  Not tonight’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy.  We need to be writing to our EMPLOYEES... our ELECTED officials, and EXPECT of them to perform and to DO what they were HIRED to do.

Apathy.  Yes Loris.  Apathy.  I agree.  We sit there and hope someone else will do it.  It’s funny.  It’s a human condition actually.  A disease.  I live in a condominium complex with only 12 units.  A small building so we don’t have the association funds for services that a lot of the other places do.  But almost everyone in the building acts as if someone else will pick up after them.  Just because there is a communal garage it doesn’t mean you are not responsible for your area of it.  And how different is America?  We treat it as if someone else will handle it for us... laws, government, legislation and stuff... you know.

Narges... I was surprised to see you post... human nature...  that makes me sad.  Is that our nature?  To be self serving beasts?  Is that what our beautiful evolution has gotten us to?  The most advanced creation of nature, the human brain, is only capable of an exaggeration of a simple animal instinct?  It’s sad that we are not using this incredible tool of understanding to connect with the world around us and each other.  Instead, we use it to out smart each other and continue to take... human nature?  How sad?

2009 guys.  It’s right around the corner.  Can you believe in a week I will be able to tell you “next year... in 2010”.  Can you even BELIEVE that this sentence is going to come out of my mouth in a few days? 

Just take a second please.  Think back to when you where a kid... remember back then, and remember thinking about 2010 back then.  What did you imagine back then?  Did you imagine our world as it is today?  I’m willing to bet most of you didn’t.

Most of us imagined a future that was advanced.  And ironically clean.  A modern sustainable future... you know solar panels and minimalist stuff everywhere.  But we actually live in a world, with government greed, with corporatocracy ruling the world.  With war.  With disease, and with climate change.  With consumerism gone mad and profit being our only motive to do anything.

Please everyone, spread the words you took the time to put down on this site so eloquently. 

I am extending a formal and sincere invitation to you all.  If you would like, you can write, and I will post your writing under a cameo.  Soon, I will be upgrading this site to a more advanced version for 2009.  It will support sections, and more complex browsing abilities to make your reading experience better. 

As always... NO ADVERTISING.  EVER.   But I want you all to have place on the internet... a connection to the WORLD to speak and be heard.  This is our new revolution people.  Where people everywhere can read what your thoughts are.  I am going to have the site optimized to pop up on searches for key terms so people everywhere in American and the world will stumble upon our articles when they search for a buzz word.

Submit your writing, and I will post it for you.  With your name, or a cameo.  You guys know me, and know that I am not in this for profit or self gain.  This is bigger than me.  Thus, I am going to be true to the purpose and always keep it non-profit, advertising free, and private (for those writers who do not want to be known publicly).

A magazine for humanity.  A real editorial site.

Welcome to 2009.  233 years after the beginning of this great country.  How much longer before we make it live up to what it was created for?

** About the Photo: Picasso, Dying Bull. 1934