Does Cold Disprove Global Warming?

                                                                                      written 1 February, 2026

                                                                                   published 8 February, 2026

                                                                                            

            Last week, winter storm Fern impacted half of the US with bitter cold, heavy snow, and ice.  Records were broken, dozens have died, more than a million people lost power, and damage estimates are already above $115B.  Like a broken record, the administration claimed this proves global warming is a hoax.

            The climate crisis was first called "global warming", because the overall temperature of the planet is slowly increasing, the result of changing atmospheric chemistry due to combustion of fossil fuels.  In preindustrial times, the average planetary temperature was 13.6°C (56.5°F), which is now confirmed to be 1.5°C (2.7°F) higher, and increasing.  But it is simplistic, and misleading, to think this means everywhere will be just a little warmer than before.  

            Climate is a dynamic atmospheric system, distributing tropical heating to the higher latitudes.  Although the Arctic is much colder than the tropics, Coriolis forces create and sustain the jet stream, a fast flowing, highly constrained band of high-altitude wind, which restricts cold air to the polar region.  However, the Arctic region has warmed 3-4 times faster than the rest of the planet, reducing the Arctic/tropic temperature contrast.  Consequently, the jet stream is now less constrained, and wanders more than previously.  It often dips south enough to include most of North America, expanding Arctic cold to areas where it is not normally experienced.  The damage inflicted by storm Fern is demonstration of the growing climate crisis, not disproof.

            The fossil fuel industry, generating trillions of dollars each year, routinely funds self-serving climate denial lies.  But the industry has known about the climate problem since the 50's, political leaders have known since the 70's, and the general public has known since the late 80's.  However, wide spread societal lack of whole systems thinking has kept the industry climate lies popular.  But the issue has gotten worse each year, with ever increasing economic costs, so popular opinion is shifting.  

            The current administration, subservient to the fossil fuel industry, is profoundly retarded on this issue, making climate denial federal policy, eliminating any mention or research, and defunding efforts to deal with reality.  However, it now claims Greenland is necessary for national security because Russia and China are developing shorter trade routes to Europe using the Arctic Ocean.  These routes are now possible because there is less sea ice during the Arctic summer months.  There is less sea ice because the Arctic is rapidly warming.  Yet the administration denies warming is happening.  This refusal to consider the whole system is insane.

            Such limited thinking is wide spread in our economy.  PG&E recently reported their investment in advanced systems to monitor and predict where fire storms are likely, an important achievement, because fires are larger, more expensive, and more numerous each year due to climate change.  But this ignores that part of PG&E's business is natural gas, which creates carbon dioxide when burned, increasing the climate problem.  Additionally, any natural gas leaked into the atmosphere accelerates climate warming 100 times more than carbon dioxide, in the short run.  They are making money while creating the problem they are proudly spending money to prevent.  More insanity.

            Fire insurance is becoming a victim of the growing climate crisis impact.  In other states, flood insurance is having the same problem.  The insurance industry has been paying out more than it collects for years, and can't remain in business.  Not only are prices increasing, but complete cancelations are increasing as well.  This threatens the economy of the real estate industry, mortgage lending, and the tax base of local governments.  Yet the insurance industry invests heavily in the fossil fuel industry, making short term money off of the system that is killing them long term.  Suicidal insanity.

            While the current Republican administration is rapidly losing popularity, and will soon be dumped onto the trash heap of history, the climate crisis is not going away.  It represents the deeper social challenge to remake our entire economy with recognition of whole systems, if we are to have long term sustainability.  This global issue demands something new from humans: real, sustained, coordinated global response, not performative blathering.  Reality doesn't care about your race, nationality, gender, political orientation, wealth, or religious affiliation.  We are either with it, or we become extinct, like most of the species that have ever lived.  We may still have time to choose, but that window is rapidly closing.

 

 

 

 

Who Benefits?

                                                                                      written 25 January, 2026

                                                                                  published 1 February, 2026

 

            Two divisions of airborne troops are preparing to put "boots on the ground" in the US.  ICE tactics grow more erratic, killing another observer, and now expanding into Maine, while the administration gives them complete immunity.  The president gave a rambling, fact free televised speech on his accomplishments.  A day later he gave a similar performance at the Davos Economic Forum, insulting NATO, claiming we deserve to be given Greenland (or Iceland), displaying his growing disconnection from reality.  The whole world sees the Republican leader of America is an incompetent, corrupt, demented bully.

            The stock market dipped, but recovered after another TACO move, where he backed away from threatening to take Greenland by force (this week).  But the damage has been done.  The world sees that America is no longer a trusted partner.  If your friend just tried to bully you with tariffs and threats of invasion, your trust has been broken.  The prime minister of Canada recently stated the global power structure that has dominated for the last 80 years has come apart, and everyone needs to take actions accordingly.

            After WW2, the US was the only major industrial country with an intact manufacturing infrastructure and vast domestic reserves of oil, the dominant energy source.  We led the world, formed agreements beneficial to the US that stabilized the global financial system, helped rebuild much of the planet, with enough wealth left over to create a booming domestic middle class.   

            Eight decades later, we have burned up most of our domestic oil, there is an energy alternative to fossil fuels, we have sent manufacturing to countries with cheaper labor, there is another currency as strong as the dollar, and we have a trillionaire while a hundred million Americans struggle to survive.  These forces have been building for decades, but the general world order has endured.  Until now.

            China has begun valuing liquified natural gas purchases in yuan, their own currency, rather than dollars.  Countries are shedding US financial investments as increasingly risky, and hoarding gold instead.  NATO no longer sees the US as trustworthy.  Canada, our long-standing trading partner, is planning to resist an attack by the US, and opened trade negotiations with China.  The EU announced a South American trade agreement, excluding the US, and is negotiating another with Southeast Asia.  

            The stock market is financially fragile.  The market's steady rise results from just a few AI stocks, while the rest of the economy has stagnated.  This AI frenzy, with hundreds of billions invested, has almost no economic return.  It requires huge increases in electrical power, supposedly from installation of new natural gas and nuclear power systems.  But new natural gas production is limited by supply chain constipation and increasing fuel prices.  Building traditional nuclear takes at least a decade, and small modular reactor development, at the scale needed, may take as long, since none currently exist.  The entire market is poised for a serious correction from reality, which could be triggered by the unhinged element in the White House.

            So, who benefits from this presidency?  In the short run, Republican leadership has power and has been dismantling the progressive agenda assembled over decades.  But I can't imagine any of them anticipated the destruction now being wrought on America's economy or world standing.  They may have known the president is crazy, but mistakenly assumed he could be controlled.  

            American billionaires have done very well in the last year, but their wealth depends on the post war global order and rule of law, which is now crumbling.  The other global autocrats stand to gain from America's fall from grace, as democracy has always been a thorn in their plans.  

            With NATO distracted by defending against the US, Russia is freer to push their domination in Ukraine.  But corruption has hollowed out the Russian economy, and their only trade good is oil, which suffers from decreasing demand as global renewable investment continues to grow exponentially.

            China is the only clear winner, already the leader in producing the renewable energy systems of the future, while the US foolishly tries to return to the past.  

            Thank Republican leadership, which used to have principles and revere the rule of law, yet they continue to support this destructive administration.  Reality is whole, and cooperation, between individuals as well as nations, produces sustainable results.  Selfish bullies may appear to thrive in the short run, but reality eventually prevails.  The saying goes: nature bats last.

 

 

 

 

Free Market Myth

                                                                                      written 18 January, 2026

                                                                                  published 25 January, 2026

 

            You are reading this more than a week since I wrote it.  The chaos manifesting at the top of our government is accelerating, so anything I say here may have been completely overwhelmed by unfolding events.  The president's dementia is becoming increasingly apparent.  In the last week, more people were shot in Minnesota, as he floods additional ICE thugs into the situation.  NATO countries, normally our allies, sent military units to Greenland, to counter US threats of aggression there.  The president wants to politicize the Federal Reserve, threatening the stability of the dollar, and cap credit card interest rates, disrupting the entire financial community.  He acutely believes he is successful, and "joked" that elections may no longer be necessary.  Literally nobody, perhaps not even the president himself, knows what he will say or do next.  Is Maine at risk? or Cuba? or the entire American way of life?

            This is not happening in a vacuum, but is a culmination.  Adam Smith's 1776 book, "The Wealth of Nations", postulated that an unregulated capitalist economy, allocating resources by the hidden hand of the "free market", is the best for the country.  This has been used to justify the expansion of capitalism ever since.  

            But Smith listed several key assumptions necessary to validate his conclusion.  Among them are equal access to information and capital, which never happens in reality.  Because insider trading and limited access to funds are part of the real economy, greed and exclusive gain are amplified, distorting the market at the expense of the whole society.   

            Smith also assumed that all costs are included in the market price: another fiction, as many costs are externalized, not included in the price, often by design to make an item seem cheaper than it really is.  This also distorts the economy, enriching a few and impoverishing the many, as all costs are eventually paid by someone, but rarely by the original seller who made the financial gain in the first place.  

            An example of an externalized cost was adding lead to gasoline.  It did solve a problem in high compression gasoline engines, but caused lead poisoning and lasting health damage in the larger community.  The gasoline and auto companies made money, but health care costs fall on the individual, who may not have realized the cause, or gained anything economically from the transaction.  If the companies knew they were poisoning the people, they didn't advertise that fact, because it would have scared people away from their product.  Over time, the body of evidence grew to the point that governmental regulation forced the elimination of lead in gasoline.

            This is one of the functions of government, acting for the good of society, against damages caused by the unrestrained economic gain of business.  As capitalism has matured, entering the late-stage form of concentrating into massive industries, the government is the only agency with comparable clout to force an equitable resolution.  An individual has neither the funds, time, nor expertise to fight an issue in court against a massive corporation.

            As the post war economy boomed in America, public awareness of the adverse impact business makes on the world began to grow.  Unrestrained capitalism kills people and the planet for profit.  Rachel Carson published "Silent Spring" in 1962, launching the environmental movement, which was amplified by the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was formed in 1970 to modify that negative impact.

            Of course, the business community, which has always been championed by Republicans, fought back, denying reality to preserve maximum profitability.  Over the decades, the same playbook has been used by the tobacco, pesticide, and nuclear industries, among others.  With sufficient money, it is possible to sell any lie.  The planet is considered the ultimate land fill, and the value of people is diminished, to make the case against effective regulation of any kind. 

            Being rich his whole life, this Republican president personifies the myth of the "free market", unrestrained by morals, ethics, or laws: a metaphor for the supreme individual, acting as if he is isolated from any collective context.  Last week his EPA decided to limit concern to only the costs to businesses, totally ignoring the costs to society.

            But being at war with a fact, at odds with reality, is the definition of insanity.  Failure is inevitable.  The only questions are: how soon, and what will survive his demented tantrums?

 

 

 

 

Insanity

                                                                                      written 11 January, 2026

                                                                                  published 18 January, 2026

  

            Sanity can be defined as being in harmony with reality, while insanity is not.  Sanity in terms of culture, means "fitting in".  This cultural fitting can be flexible, allowing for creativity, or rigid, which leads to oppression.  However, sanity in terms of physical reality has more clearly defined consequences.

            For example, gravity is a physical reality.  If a person jumps off the top of a tall building, believing he can ignore that reality, the result is a lethal mess on the pavement.  However, jumping off the same building with a para glider, which harmonizes with reality, results in an exhilarating experience.

            Although reality is a given, our reaction to it is modified by our ego, that portion of our being that defines our sense of "self".  It is said that we all need enough ego to avoid stepping in front of a bus.  But the ego controls what information we allow into our awareness.  When that ego barrier is too rigidly defined, we exclude vital information, and become out of touch, in conflict with reality.  

            Our president's life is dominated by his ego.  Being wealthy from birth has shielded him from responsibility, and amplified his limitations to the point of delusion.  His niece, a psychologist, wrote a book about him titled "Too Much and Never Enough".  He denies any information that contradicts what he already believes.  However, his ego is so fragile he needs constant reassurance, requiring an assistant by his side, printing out news stories that flatter him.  Therefore, when criticized, he attacks, making him a bully.  By ignoring social rules and laws, expecting immunity from the consequences of his actions, he is a cultural misfit.

            The recent attack on Venezuela exemplifies his operational delusions.  The original "reason" was controlling drugs, yet he pardoned a man tried and convicted of bringing 400 tons of cocaine into the US.  The "reason" now is control of oil.  But he believes claiming control means he really has control, ignoring the will of the 28 million Venezuelans living there.  

            His disconnection from physical reality is apparent.  He states US oil companies will now run the oil resource, rapidly bringing 50 million barrels to market.  Yet those companies say it will take more than $100B, and a decade, to make that happen, and Venezuela is too unstable for such an investment.  Undeterred, and lacking any plan for Venezuela, the president's attention has already moved on to threatening invasion of Greenland, Mexico, Panama, and Cuba.

            Meanwhile, back at home, prices are rising due to tariffs, health care cost have spiked, and employment is down, all of which he claims is "fake news".  He denies the climate crisis, as fire insurance becomes unaffordable, and supports the most expensive electrical power source (nuclear), which won't come online for a decade, while killing investment in the cheapest electrical production (renewables), which the rest of the world is already installing.  Now his ICE thugs are killing white people.  As his popularity tanks, even Republicans are beginning to resist.  Our president is insane.     

            Fear is his currency and chaos his strategy.  While this hasn't often happened in the US, it is not new in the world.  People have dealt with this before, and left wisdom relevant to our time.

            "Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief.  Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now.  You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are free to abandon it."  The Talmud.

            "To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.  It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.  What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.  If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something."  Howard Zinn.

            “Whatever happens, stay alive.  Don't die before you're dead.  Don't lose yourself, don't lose hope, don't lose direction.  Stay alive, learn, study, think, read, build, invent, create, speak, write, dream, design.  Stay alive with joy."  Virginia Woolf

            Authoritarians want you to believe what you are told, that you are powerless to resist.  But we have the power to choose.  Just because our leaders are insane, we don't have to be.  Being calm radiates into the world.  Meditate.  Speak your truth.  Gather with others.  Contact your representatives.  Vote!  This too shall pass and the tide is turning. 

  

 

 

A Loose Cannon

                                                                                        written 4 January, 2026

                                                                                            for 11 January, 2026

  

            The president has been in office for almost a year now, and I was preparing to summarize the various assaults we have endured during that time.  Then I woke up Saturday morning to discover he had unilaterally attacked Venezuela, and kidnapped their leader.

            As a candidate, he claimed he would put America first, foregoing foreign adventures.  “We have to straighten out our own house. We cannot go around to every country that we’re not exactly happy with and say we’re going to recreate [them].  We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn't be involved with.  This destructive cycle of intervention and chaos must finally come to an end.”  However, the president has a history of bait and switch lies, and people who believe him are surprised as he betrays them whenever it serves his narrow self-interest.

            For months, the story was we needed to blow up Venezuelan fishing boats (committing possible war crimes) because they were "trafficking fentanyl into the US" (which actually comes from Mexico).  Now the story is "they stole our oil".  But the real reason is probably more traditional, an autocrat distracting attention away for unpleasant news resulting from his activities at home.

            One of his first acts made permeant the tax cuts for the 813 US billionaires, who need it the least, while added several trillions to the national debt we all will pay.  He then accused other nations of taking advantage of the US, and applied massive, chaotic, tariffs, which he claimed "others" would pay, but in reality, added hundreds of billions to domestic prices.  Consumer confidence has dropped, consumption is down, companies are downsizing with 400,000 laid off, and corporate bankruptcies have spiked.

            In addition to assaulting allies with tariffs, the president has threatened to annex Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Greenland.  He then added intrusive entry requirements on tourists, sharply reducing the international tourism economy. 

            His focus on illegal immigration has almost totally closed the border.  Aggressive ICE raids have deported tens of thousands, including some US citizens, and many more left voluntarily.  The resulting shortage of agricultural and construction workers has increased food and housing prices.

            The administration eliminated 200,000 federal employees (7 percent of the total) with DOGE.  But the process was chaotic, and many of the people laid off were rehired, when their work was recognized as critical.  Firings at the Center for Disease Control, and Department of Health, have weakened US public health.

            Federal funding was reduced for national parks, university research, and foreign aid for the hungry.  Now subsidies for health care and child care have been cut, adding to the cost of living for tens of millions at the lower end of the economic spectrum.  The health care cuts hurt small rural hospitals and clinics, reducing services, or forcing complete closure in some cases.

            He labeled the climate crisis as "fake news", and any federal mention has been eradicated.  Departments working on climate have been eliminated, including even the collection of data.  Billions in funding for electric vehicles, solar, wind, and batteries have been canceled.  But the reinsurance industry announced that the global economy is at risk, because costs from climate impacts are advancing faster than the funds to repair the damage.  Ignoring this, US programs and funding to help citizens recover from disasters have been slashed.

            China is the global leader in producing EV's, solar panels, and batteries.  Globally, 600 gigawatts of solar were installed just last year, while the US is investing hundreds of billions in modular nuclear reactors that don't exist yet, a financial bubble ready to burst.

            Alarmed by all this self-inflicted economic damage, the US credit rating has been downgraded and foreign investment has decreased, raising interest rates.  

            These increased domestic costs, in a declining labor market, make affordability a pressing issue, but the president calls this "fake news".  Since he was given $400M dollar while still in school, he has probably never bought groceries in his life, so the basics of life have never been unaffordable to him.  His complete lack of empathy prevents him from believing anyone else's reality.

            With no real solutions, popularity dropping, and the never-ending threat of the Epstein files, it is no wonder that he started an illegal war in South America.  As bad as this first year was, the second looks to be worse.  But we still live in a democracy and can do better.

 

 

 

 

 

What If?

                                                                                  written 28 December, 2025

                                                                                    published 4 January, 2026

            The beginning of a new year is a time to consider new stories, redefining our perspective, which changes our experience and expands possibilities.  Looking at the edge of a piece of paper, it seems vanishingly thin and useless, yet from another perspective, the page is vast enough to write a complete story.  What if we consider new perspectives?

            Our culture deifies the rugged individual as separate, locked in eternal competition.  Yet the world is actually whole, interconnected at a level well below our material senses.  To realize we live in constant relationship with other lives, just try to hold your breath.  Our individuality, which is essential to being a person, is only relative, not absolute.  What if cooperation is more important than competition? 

            Capitalist theory believes the "free market" inexorably balances resources for the greatest good.  But the historic track record shows this is a fairy tale, like Santa Claus, designed to comfort children and keep them behaving nicely. Capitalism is an essential transformative force, like fire, which has made the world a better place for humans.  But unregulated fire storms can destroy decades of work in minutes, so to, unregulated capitalism eventually consumes everything ever built.  What if we treat capitalism with respect, like adults, and regulate it, so life can flourish?

            Elon Musk, the first trillionaire, with a paper wealth beyond imagination, lives oblivious to the tens of millions struggling to find affordable health care, housing, or even sufficient food.  Despite being a technological genius, he is a disturbed individual, addicted to horse tranquilizers, who thinks the world is underpopulated, and has stated that empathy is the downfall of civilization.  What if our culture viewed such massive wealth as a sign of mental disorder, like a hoarder, oblivious to the filth and decay that surrounds them?  These people need help, for all our sake.

            Western religions teach life is "one and done", with a single chance to learn to live a moral life.  What if we have many lives, as believed by more than 3 billion people?  What if we have all been both men and women many times already?  What if misogyny is form of self-hatred?

            Nobody likes having a selfish bully cut ahead in line.  Does such bluster endear them to you?  Our president, the poster child for the selfish bully, has created a national policy of "America First", becoming a world class bully.  However, America, only 4 percent of the global population, already consumes 24 percent of the global energy and resources.  Will America taking even more endear us to our previous allies?  Will this impress the other autocratic bullies in the world?  

            Like it or not, all individuals, and all countries, live on the same planet.  At some point, the fact of this common reality will prevail, either by global cooperation or global collapse.  What if our national policy decided to honor this connection, rather than flaunt our apparent separation?  What if we cooperated such that that all life flourished?  What if we worked to "Make Earth Great Again"?  

            Imagine working to insure every person, domestically as well as globally, had access to clean drinking water, safe sewage disposal, affordable electricity, healthy food, energy efficient housing, sufficient health care, and education up to their ability.  Is this any more insane than the idea we can continue killing the planet for profit?

            Our culture teaches that individuals are small, insignificant, and powerless.  Looking at the stars in the night sky seems to support this, and most of us have internalized this story.  What if that is incomplete?  As Joni Mitchell said, we are "billion-year-old star dust", arising from the same energy and material as the rest of the universe.  What if we have access to more power than we can imagine, held back only by the old stories of limitation we have been taught?

            Have you ever watched your body heal a skin wound?  Do you notice that most of what you eat is gracefully digested?  Our bodies are continually recycled, on timeframes ranging from a few days to a decade, while our sense of self endures.  All this happens without our conscious mind being involved.  What if that innate wisdom has even greater capacity in life?

            What if the chaos we are now experiencing is just the falling away of an old order, defined by exclusive gain, limitation, and separation?  What if we are the ones we have been waiting for?

 

 

 

Incompetent, Corrupt, and Demented

                                                                                  written 18 December, 2025

                                                                              published 28 December, 2025

  

            The end of the year is time for reflection, assessment, and determination of what changes to make in the future.  Sometimes, identifying what I don't want is a good foundation for deciding what I do want.

            Wikipedia defines incompetence as "the inability to perform expected tasks, the opposite of competence".  We are all incompetent in some arenas, at some times.  Whenever we take on a totally new task, there is a learning curve involved.  In the best of worlds, the mistakes we make become the foundation for learning, building our competence.  

            This is why successful ventures have people at the decision making level with relevant experience, and a track record of previous accomplishments in their field.  Competent people have pride and integrity in their work.  Ideally, promotion is given to those who have demonstrated competence, without regard to personality issues, like gender, race, or religion.

            Personally, I desire to be competent, and work with competent people.  I look for social and political leaders who are competent.

            Wikipedia defines corruption as "a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense".  Corruption is an abuse of trust in a position of power.  Corruption happens in every part of society, as it often involves money.  Financial corruption usually has help from professional enablers, such as bankers, lawyers, and agents at every level.  Corruption flourishes with lack of transparency, using opaque or complex financial systems and multiple levels of shell companies, all designed to hide the true nature of the transactions.

            Lies are the corruption of truth.  The debasement of any value is corruption.  The unfair exchange of value, such as delivering lesser quality or quantity of any material promised, is corruption.

            Long ago, I decided that living my life honestly was not only good morally, but is actually much simpler.  A life of lying requires constant attention, and memory, keeping track of what I have said to whom.  One slip, telling the "wrong" person the "wrong" story, can destroy trust, relationship, and integrity.  Whereas, striving to always tell the truth, means never having to remember who knows what.

            It is easier to work with honest people.  Everyone is more relaxed and projects are more likely to succeed.  I look for honesty in social and political leaders.

            Britannica defines demented as "crazy, mentally ill, unable to think clearly or understand what is real".  Speaking becomes rambling and incoherent.  Facts get lost, and the imaginary becomes real.  Simple tasks become impossible.

            Almost 7 million Americans older than 65 (1 in 9), have some form of dementia.  I have several friends dealing with this for themselves or their partners.  It is a sad and demanding situation.  

            I will be 79 in a few weeks, and already notice my memory isn't as reliable as it used to be.  In particular, remembering names seems more difficult.  This may just be natural, for I still seem to be functional (I think!), but the issue of dementia is on my mind from time to time.

            People can live comfortably as they decline mentally.  But certain tasks can become too much, and then families and society need to step in, and set limits.  Driving a car, living alone, cooking, running power tools, all may become unsafe for the demented person, or the people around them. 

            In politics, people who have held office for a long time are often reluctant to leave, even as their real capacity falls off a cliff.  As the power of the position increases, the adverse impact of dementia increases as well.  Society needs to remove such people for their protection, as well as our own.

            Which brings me to my resolutions for the New Year.  I resolve to strive to be competent and honest in all my activities and conversations, and to be attuned to my own state of mind.  As a corollary, I expect competence, honesty, and sanity from the people in leadership positions, as a reflection of what I value, before I can support them.

            Our commander in chief appears to be incompetent, corrupt, and demented, therefore, I can't support him.  He is destroying our planet, our economy, and our relations with other countries.  A few Republicans are beginning to recognize this reality, but not enough yet.  How bad must it get?  Each person must ask themselves, beyond partisan affiliation, does this man represent the best in me?  If not, speak up, and give our "leaders" courage to act.