The happiest day and the happiest moment of my life.

I am trying to figure out what was so different. They were big events, but we have a ton of big events in our lives.  The happiest moment that I can remember was when my daughter Alice was born. It was a home birth in the boy's dorm at a Waldorf boarding school, High Mowing in New Hampshire. Alice was my third baby and she was more than 20 days overdue.I had tried everything to get the birth coming including riding at fast speeds over frost heaves on country roads with my friend Joanne in her old VW bug. Nothing, nothing, and nothing helped.

Laura Abbott had come to help me with the other kids and she had been with us for a good while. No action. Then, on Sunday afternoon I had gone to bed for a nap and slept until Tuesday morning. Thank you Laura and Patrick and whomever kept things going. Tuesday I awake feeling great. I ate like a pig. I visited with friends, I went to a movie in the evening and came home and the water broke.

Our house was an extension of the boy's dorm. Our room was the highest point, I think, on the hilltop that over the hills and mountains..The full moon illuminated our room. No lights necessary. The birth was remarkably easy and Alice was born asleep and stayed that way for hours and hours. I slept with her. When I awoke, our room was absolutely filled with spring flowers. All the boys in the dorm had brought offerings. It was April 14th and that year we went, with that full moon, from winter to summer.

I was happy. I mean, we are always happy when we give birth to a healthy child. But, as I am saying, that was a different level of happiness. Maybe it had to do with everything being in a perfect alignment for a moment in time.

My happiest day I can remember was in Cuba. I was living with friends in MA and awoke one day with this overwhelming urge to go to Cuba. This was a constant theme in my life, but that day was it. It was the middle of the summer, a time when I almost never went to the Caribbean. I called the travel agent  (remember them?) and had her start finding tickets. I called my friend Randie who was in AZ, I think. I asked her to join me and she said "sure". We met in Texas a few days later and went to Cuba.

I hadn't known what was going on in Cuba because I hadn't planned anything, but we got there on the 30th anniversary of Che's death , when his remains were being brought to Cuba for burial. Holy Shit! Delegations from hundreds of countries were there for the festivities. It was hot, but there was a fantastic sea breeze in Havana. I read later that over a million people were there for the party. We started with a walk to the Plaza of the Revolution and then the endless speeches including a minor marathon by Fidel. We met great Cuban friends, were invited to a nearby house for lunch, went swimming off the rocky shore and then the party began. There were the best bands I have ever heard under the moonlight, next to the beach, and we danced with everybody from little kids to ancient ones, from countries we couldn't even find on the map...until I couldn't stand up another minute. I just remember being so very happy. It was a day when many people's dreams came true.

Lama Marut teaches that every second of our lives can be just exactly at the level of my high points. There is no time when everything isn't coming together in absolute perfection. 'Absolute perfection ', what a concept. There is no second where the stars aren't aligned perfectly.  If we could grasp this, we would be in Nirvana. Meaning we already are except for our amnesia. It is for this reason that I periodically remember the best day and the best moment of my life so far.

It is so hard being a Buddhist.

I just killed two giant house flies that were driving me crazy. And then I had to feel badly. Now I have to pray for them. That's OK, but I have never suffered much in the guilt department, and now even swearing at other drivers makes me pause. Where is the fun in this program? I wouldn't continue my practice, I don't think, if the fun didn't far outweigh the lack thereof.

For instance, the other day, because God is a great jokester, I had what turned out to be a good Buddhist experience. I had had a very difficult week with a friend who is very sick. I had, for the time being, given up on all my brilliant ideas about what he needed to do to get better. So, I had spent the week taking care of him. I bathed him, fed him, rubbed his feet, and vibed my love. It felt good for both of us. I took away my fear and consequently the pressure I was putting on him to get better.

After I had said farewell and was leaving California on Shawn's Rideshare, I was sad and pretty worn out. Early in the morning , the van picked me up. There were only 13 people on board and out of the millions of possible riders leaving town at that exact moment, seated in front of me was the mother of a guy who had gone to jail for trying to strangle the very friend I had just been with. When I saw her, I almost threw up. I pretty much never throw up, but this was just like a punch in the gut. Then I almost fainted. (ditto about fainting, only twice in my whole life).

I nodded at her and took my seat and shut my eyes and started, like a frantic maniac, saying my favorite Buddhist mantra. (I can't spell to save my life especially in Sanskrit, but it goes something like this: gate, gate, paragate,parasamgate, bodhi swaha.) I did that for about twenty minutes until I calmed down. Then, I tapped her on the shoulder and greeted her and told her I was preoccupied but not to take it as rudeness, it wasn't about her.

We were in that van for 7 hours and I felt fine the whole time. I had been afraid of running into her for a few years. I had thought about what I might say. I wanted to share my hurt with her. Gone. All that was gone. And the gift that I got in that van has kept on giving all week. I have had at least three very healing encounters with people from whom I would never expect such a thing. I have been blessed over and over again just in this very short time. Go Buddha!

And if I really think about it, I wasn't really annoyed at the house flies. I was pissed off at myself because I can't find my window fan. I can't remember where I stowed it. Sorry flies.

Who are our enemies?

In the last few days I have read and listened to comments from politicians at the highest levels saying that Snowden has fed dangerous information to our enemies. They have listed China, Russia, Ecuador, Cuba, as our enemies who have been aided and abetted by the information that has come out. Firstly, who possibly could be shocked to find out what the NSA is doing? It is simply a no brainer. Will we be shocked to learn that other countries are doing the same? I hope not. What do we think?

But it is the easy assumption and careless verbiage about these countries being our enemies that shocks the shit out of me. Are we trying to make trouble? It would seem so. It would also seem that any nation or group that chooses to say anything that gives us pause is our enemy, I guess that Bush 11 said it all when he said "If you are not with us, you are against us." But do we have to fall in line with that simplistic idiocy? What are diplomats for?  Hillary was a particularly grim example of a diplomat when she would wag her finger, like a mean school teacher, at the Chinese government and lecture them about human rights abuses while we kept Guantanamo open and were making kill lists.

Now we are doing it again. I was shocked when Bush told us over and over that the people of Iraq were our enemies. I didn't even know more than a couple of people from there and they were really nice. I don't even like the thought that I have enemies, let alone billions of them. It disturbs me. I think common ground can be found with almost anyone. We all all suffering humans with human aspirations and dreams.

I know there are people who don't like me. But enemies? I hope not. The only enemy that can make me really unhappy resides inside me. My thoughts can cause me great misery. My thoughts can cause me great joy. Keeping the balance, keeping my eyes on the light takes a lot of grace and practice. Christ said to love your enemies. It is the most simple teaching. The second you start to love, your enemy vanishes. You can't love and hate or love and fear in the same moment. Not possible. I have found that in certain desperate moments, when I can't love a person, just loving a tree or a flower or a dog, brings about the shift that is needed. You can't love and hate at the same time. You can't love and fear at the same time. You can't dominate the entire planet and feed your own people at the same time. Oops, that just kind of slipped in.

I wish I understood this web thing...Hello Latvia!

I get very slight but very instantaneous feedback about who reads my blog. I know how many readers drop in, what countries they live in and what system (if that is the right word) they use...Windows, mac and so on. Oh yes, and what time of day each person reads it. This sounds hum-drum and mostly is because I would love to know more. I love telling stories, but I also very much enjoy hearing them.  Sometimes I make up readers and talk to them. If I can't know you, I can create you. Once in a while there comes a real surprise. For instance,  this week I have more readers in Latvia than in the USA. This is a bit of a thrill, for some reason, but who are they? I sort of picture reindeer and bright people with rosy cheeks. But aside from that, nothing much else comes to mind.

No matter how different we are, I think there are only a few stories; birth, death, love, war, friendship, how to buy a new car, (only kidding), and the other absolutely universal experiences of life on this earth. So, in spite of what real estate people say, I am making a guess that location doesn't matter all that much. Latvia? USA? No big deal.

I had a kind of severe emotional reaction this morning waiting in line in Starbucks and glancing at the New York Times. I kind of blocked out much of what I read because my coffee was ready and I didn't want to read what I was reading. The article was about Buddhist monks in Burma inciting hatred against Muslims. I can't cope with the concept. I am a strait down the line Dalai Lama kind of Buddhist. I want to believe that the way of compassion has no room for hatred and bigotry. I will just stay with the Buddhism I know and love. I was, however, shocked at how visceral my reaction the the article was. I felt like I had been sucker punched.

I don't know the story and I don't know whether it is even true. (Sometimes the Times has been known to print gross untruths. Never forget the proof of WMDs in Iraq. Big untruth.) I try not to be a blind enthusiast. But I can't reconcile Buddhists sowing racism any more than I can Christ encouraging Holy Wars.

Right now I am filled with love for my Latvian friends and am going to ignore the article about the angry Buddhists and go for a walk in the warm California sun. I can, after all, chose what I think about. Sometimes.

Retlling the bad story.

I am feeling confused about the wisdom of retelling bad experiences. Sometimes they make a great story. I think a great story is always a good idea. For one thing, I am Irish. Enough said. Well, half Irish. Stories are in my blood line. But being half Irish doesn't require the story to be a bad one.

Then there is the business of the therapeutic benefits of bringing the bad shit up to the surface. We know that is always a good idea. Hidden or repressed experiences are not good for anything after the initial shock has passed. That appears to be self-evident.

My father's generation, the ones I knew, never talked about WW11. Never. I don't know whether that was a good thing or a problem. When people I knew talked about Vietnam, they seemed to be reliving their nightmares. We who never went wanted to know what went on there, but many of the guys seemed to be stuck there. Their memories became their present experience. That didn't seem to serve them well.

I know that after the shock of my divorce, I talked about the betrayal and the shock over and over to whomever would listen. One day, I got bored with the story and stopped. Then one day I had the perception that I was free and it felt good. At that moment the old story was no longer relevant and I started to remember the good times. They made better stories. So, I am going to conclude that in my case, the rehashing served a purpose until it didn't.

In AA meetings, people tell their drunk stories over and over. I think there are several purposes to this. One is so they don't forget. Lama Marut says it is wise to forgive, but dumb to forget. Another significant purpose of retelling the nightmares in AA is to help other people. This is huge in my opinion. There is nothing that beats the feeling of helping others. Nothing.

I am currently watching a friend, who has been through a difficult experience at her job, tell the story to all her friends. She is in the shock and trauma part. She also needs some validation for her ego which has been battered. I understand that. But I worry that she will inadvertently plant doubt in the minds of others about what in the story was coming from her side. Was it her fault? I watched the unfolding of the drama. She held up her side with class and amazing restraint. My guess is that in her case, she still has to be politic about telling her story. At the same time she needs the catharsis of unloading. I suspect she will soon move on. But in her case I think she should write it so that others can benefit from her experience.That is never a bad idea.

What strikes me is that when we are no longer caught in the emotions that ripped through us when we had a horrible experience, then any story can be healthy and serve us or others. At that moment we are free to tell or not to tell. Any ideas abut what mechanism liberates some and binds others? Perhaps that is the moment when our story changes from the personal to the universal. After all every divorce story is different, yet, in many ways exactly the same. Every drunk story is different, yet the same. There aren't that many plots out there if you think about it.

One of the greatest aadvantages prep school gave me......

Looking at kids today, I can't help thinking that one of the greatest advantages prep school gave me was our requirement to have our lights out by 10:00. Sounds pretty basic and terribly old fashioned. We had chapel, classes, sports, rehearsal time, dinner, study hall from 7:30 to 9:30 then lights out.

We had very full and active social lives. Kids got into good colleges, got a great education, completed homework..all that kind of stuff. The fact is that we got enough sleep and quality homework that was expected to average 2 hours a night. I am a reader so I was never faced with the problem of not having read the book before a test or a paper. I think we all were. Obviously, there were no parents around to nag and cajole. We had support from teachers when we needed extra help.

There are a few things that might be helpful today as this is a world wide debate. How much homework? As much as can be done in a reasonable time. We do want our kids to be well rounded, happy, healthy, don't we? The quality of the homework should be interesting, adding to the classroom stuff, not just repeat it. But the big gift which we never recognized was that we got enough sleep. To this day I find that I am sharper, brighter, much more beautiful, and happier when I get a good night's sleep. Why, I ask you would it be any different for a child of 5, 10, or 18?

When I Googled this subject, there were over 8,000,000 entries. It must be an important question. I am a very simple and practical thinker. My thought is that we all know what is healthy. Kids need food, sleep, warmth, some dependability and regularity and interesting challenges. No one learns to deal with stress as an adult by being stressed out as a kid. It doesn't make sense. Nor do the 50 pound backpacks. Give me a break. Give the kids a break. Only do what works well for everyone. I am pretty happy that I have all the answers to all of life's problems. Yes, I am.

In What Exact Way is China Our Enemy?

On the heels of the outing of the so called 'new' information that our government is spying on us, various pundits have said that we shouldn't make this public because we are giving information to our enemies. I would assume that any American who has given a thought to this subject would not be surprised in the slightest about the mining of information. Of course this is happening and, of course, it has been happening for a long time. But what strikes me as slightly alarming is that in the course of building the case about the crimes of the whistle blower, Edward Snowden, one of his worst potential crimes is letting our enemy China know what we are doing.

China? When did China become 'the enemy'? And this situation comes off completely matter-of-factly as if we all knew this and agreed upon this. I, for one, did not know that China was our enemy. What I did know is the strange looks given to Hillary Clinton and Obama when they scold China about human rights abuses and cyper-piracy respectively.  It is almost as if the Chinese were thinking, "Is this the pot calling the kettle black?" I also suspect that the US and China are each others biggest trading partners. Some enemies! I worry about this kind of assumption of agreement. It is often a first volley of a new game plan.

Can we assume that if we continue our policies against countries like Iran that China will have to support them and therefore  be against us. Is this the next big move? I hate to think this might even be a possibility. We have a very lousy history with wars and occupations. If we even 'won' a war against China how would we fare overseeing the feeding and care of three billion people when we can't even seem to feed three million here at home? Oye.

I, for one, am very grateful to the poor Chinese for working shit jobs in deplorable conditions so I can buy my iphone cheaply and Apple share holders can make so much money. I can't consider the people of China to be my enemies just because they suffered greatly under a communist government. Many people of the world suffer greatly under capitalist regimes.

The Buddha said that life is suffering. That was not a doomsday statement. It was followed by a path to get rid of suffering so we could help our fellow men. One of the great laws of karma is "If you want something, give it away." Take a second to reflect on instances in your life when this might have worked for you. It has always worked for me. Almost.

The Slippery Slope of Morality

The Bhagavad Gita states, "No action in this world goes for naught, or brings about a contrary result." Actions of selflessness and altruism toward others can bring nothing other than goodness to you, and actions of selfishness and harm to others can bring nothing other than harm. Although these laws do not always seem evident, if we fail to assume the basic principles of karma our whole moral code begins to crumble.

 My BLOG about the virtues was about morality. The word 'morality' is a hard one for me. It implies being judged. Hate that. I have to try so hard not to judge myself, let alone others. As with most spiritual factors, I fail more often than I succeed.

I take pride in the idea that my generation had a pretty ubiquitous bullshit Geiger counter. I will always remember the day when I was in a little house in Drain, Oregon. It was a wonderful/horrible time. Drain was a dying logging town with pretty much no trees left. There was a story that the town had been founded by a pioneer woman named Anna Drain. We knew that was a myth. The town lay in a small valley. When the rains came the water rushed down the denuded hills bringing slag, topsoil, and junk sliding down until the soil and the river got so clogged up that the town flooded.

One day, when the rain was killing me, I turned on the radio which sometimes worked. We had no TV. That didn't matter. We wouldn't have been able to get any reception in any case. I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes when the voice of Richard Nixon came on. He was giving the brilliant speech in which he absolutely denied that America had no military involvement in Laos and Cambodia.

You have to understand that I had almost no media in Drain Oregon. I could read the Oregonian at the library a few days late. The librarian wouldn't carry the New York Times or even Time Magazine because her membership in the John Birch Society impressed upon her that the were owned by the Communist Party. Once in a while I took the baby and drove the car that sometimes worked to Eugene and read underground newspapers which had articles from Liberation News Service lying around the hippie coffee houses.

But that morning, hearing Nixon, with no solid knowledge, every cell in my mind started screaming "He's lying!" All across the country, in isolated room after room, thousands of people had the same reaction. And tens of thousands of people did exactly what I did. We got dressed and got ourselves to college campuses and shut down the schools. They were mostly invested in the war machine. They all had ROTC courses. This great moment ,when the tide turned in for the Vietnam Occupation, came because we knew we were being lied to. We knew without doubt.  And we turned our knowledge into action.

Now, we are being lied to all the time by our government. Apparently it is in our best interest. Reading Jeremy Scahill's book, "Dirty Wars" and reading Wikileaks documents, we discover absolute confirmed facts the even the different branches of our intelligence community are lying to each other and to Congress and, of course, to us. Of course Hillary is lying about Benghazi. But she is probably covering up some secret act by JSOC that even the CIA and the diplomatic service hadn't been informed of. She is lying for her higher purpose.

If we take the opening statement at face value, and I can not see that it could be anything but perfectly true, we can expect some very heavy blow back from our actions all over the planet. We are making certain that our country is less safe every minute of every day. Where is our outrage? Do we, for one second really think that the great, universal laws of morality are saying, "except for the actions of the US corporations and the US government." Impossible.

We Need Better Education and We Need it Now!

I would vote for Waldorf Education I think. My reason is that education without hands and heart, focusing only on 'book learning' has to create unbalanced people. I guess I could even drop the 'Waldorf' part and simply promote education that equally involves the mind, the feelings and the body. I would promote much more of the humanities and much less of anything to do with electronics. I know trade schools are important, but without band or plays or dance, where will the imagination find its power? If we don't learn something about history, the history of world affairs, the history of religions, the history of art, how can we ever see our place in the great scheme of things?

The testing we might measure success by could be: Is my child happy? Does he play well? Are her cheeks rosy? Does he/she sleep well? Laugh a lot? Is she kind to others? Does she take care of her pets? Does he take initiative? Have a rich imagination?

I am an idealist in many ways. I have this notion that if we honored our teachers by giving them opportunities to learn more, mentors, great equipment, really good salaries, we would be making one fantastic investment in our country and in our future. If our schools are failing, we all are failing. That means I am failing and I don't like that feeling.

The night before my son's first day at a predominantly black High School in a fairly affluent Connecticut suburb, there was a meeting of the students and their parents. The white principal came out and basically started yelling at the kids. "I'm not going to put up with any of your crap this year. You obey the rules or you are out on your ass so fast you won't know what hit you. You are nothing in my eyes. You come in with the attitude that you are running this show and you will learn fast." That kind of thing. It actually turned out to be a pretty nice school but what was that about?

Contrast that with the Headmistress welcoming tea for new students and their parents at the boarding school he went to in Western Massachusetts two years later. "We welcome you ladies and gentlemen to the two hundredth garden tea party for opening day. I expect you have found your rooms and greeted your room mates. Mingling among us are the various heads of departments and they will answer any questions you might have about the programs we are offering this semester. It is such a great pleasure to see all your bright eager faces today. We will have a wonderful year."

Now, I am not saying that everything was rosy at Northfield- Mt. Hermon. Any school dealing with teenagers has huge issues arising. But they are not failing and their dropout rate is practically nil. An environment of mutual respect is important anywhere.

I have a sneaking suspicion that given good teachers, good exercise, engaging cultural opportunities, healthy diet, and so on, most any kid could be an excellent student. I also have the suspicion that we are really blowing our future by not nurturing the respect between students and teachers and giving everyone the best shot possible. We reward with fabulous salaries people who own companies that make plastic bags and cut down rainforests and develop drones and nuclear weapons. Maybe we could do a little better with teachers. I think so.

Rank Yourself. Will You Go to Heaven?

Oh man, this is tough. I like to think of myself as virtuous. But, there are a few grey areas. Maybe some black areas show up under intense scrutiny. My daughter and I were looking up 'virtue' for the class she is teaching a sixth grade about Medieval Games. It was interesting to see that almost every religion has come to pretty much the same description of virtues for thousands of years. There must be something in us that recognizes what is right and wrong.  These virtues described by Dante (who walked the Camino, I have heard) are in language which sounds a bit archaic. But the ideas are pretty clear. (list follows)

I am going to rank myself in sins and virtues. Oh man...

1. I don't think of myself as very Lusty. Chastity is a bit above my reach.
2. Gluttony is a bit of a problem. I am pretty capable over over-indulgence on a lot of fronts. Chocolate, cigarettes, books are a few areas that come to mind. Self-restraint. I can manage sometimes, but it is most certainly working against my natural inclinations.
3. Greed is not my issue. I am good at Giving.
4. I can be very Slothful. I can be very Diligent. I need some kind of fire under me (a cause, a passion, a need) to crank up my zeal.
5. I am working on Forgiveness all the time. I have become much better at not saying mean things and am working on not thinking them. (this may not pan out in this lifetime)
6. I don't have the Envy gene. Envy has never been much of a problem for me. Kindness, I have a lot of, but I think it needs to go a lot deeper. I am not always kind.
7. If Humility is the highest virtue and Vanity the deadliest sin, I am in real trouble. I have this thing, let's call it 'ego'. It makes for a lot of trouble in my quest for sainthood. Enough said.

This is a quick survey of my holiness and lack thereof. It could be depressing to delve too far into these matters. But, I am grateful for the chance to evaluate myself. Give yourself a report card.

"The Roman Catholic church recognized the seven capital virtues as opposites to the Seven Capital Sins or the Seven Deadly Sins. According to Dante's The Divine Comedy the sins have an order of greatness, and the virtues a respective order of greatness as well. This order is shown below from the lowest to the highest."

Sin	Virtue
Lust (excessive sexual appetites)	Chastity (purity)
Gluttony (over-indulgence)	Temperance (self-restraint)
Greed (avarice)	Charity (giving)
Sloth (laziness/idleness)	Diligence (zeal/integrity/Labor)
Wrath (anger)	Forgiveness (composure)
Envy (jealousy)	Kindness (admiration)
Pride (vanity)	Humility (humbleness)

Is the Tea Party the Klan Revisited?

If you hang with Tea Party people, as I had the good fortune to in Nicaragua, you end up coming around to a lot of old resentments. The Confederacy quickly pops up, still fighting that war. Yup. Anti-American subversives come up: They include Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, the Japanese, for God's sake, mostly anyone who has a different racial trait, anyone who speaks with a foreign accent, anyone who voted for Obama. Many of the conversations I overheard were long on the Constitution, short on any amendments that have been added in the last hundred years.

Even the US military is filled with chickens. We shouldn't have lost in Vietnam, we should have nuked Iran already. Blacks should go back to Africa. Muslims are all terrorists. Obama is a Muslim. We still resent all the abolitionists, the effete East Coast intellectuals. Sissies. Don't even get into the Civil Rights times. Everyone involved was a communist. Especially Bobby Kennedy. He was a communist and anti-American. Where was the death penalty when it was needed? He and Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and Bobby Seale, they all got what they deserved.

Nearly all this came out in the first five minutes of any conversation. Their enemies also included abortion clinics, black churches, Muslin gathering places. As I would run away from these hate sessions I always had an inner picture of white robed men burning crosses in yards and bombing churches. They were (are) righteous and Christian and strong supporters of the American way. I think their transformation into the Tea Party is mostly about wearing different clothes, and arriving on a far bigger stage. I still hear nothing but hatred, bullying, racism and a sick kind of righteousness.

I was happy to hear parts of the Young Republican's critique of the party today. They think many of these attitudes are archaic. The young don't understand why the elders hate homosexuals so much, for instance. This is good news. We need a lot more good news in the direction of recognizing our mutual humanity and saying "No" to the ideas of the new, Walmart version of the Klu Klux Klan.

The Great American Dream...How's It Going?

I heard a mother the other day say that she didn't really like her kid to play soccer because she had to experience losing sometimes. This was a middle class mother who's child has it all. She is smart, attractive, has a full belly of healthy foods every day, goes to a good school, and has two loving parents. The child is 10. Her parents are trying to protect her from the devastation of her soccer team losing a game. This brings up a lot of issues for me. The point of the game, aside from exercise and working together is to win. It seems to me that most kids I see like to strive for something. If a child doesn't experience failure, will they end up being afraid to take chances, go out of the box? Since when does not winning a game count as losing? "It doesn't matter whether you win or lose, it is how you play the game?"

I think the bigger problem is how to level the playing field. Except for the most rare instances, kids who come from across the tracks are lucky if they can get a shot at anything these days. Consider the 21,000,000 kids in our country who don't have enough food each day. Consider the number of kids who have a parent in jail. Think about schools where kids have to go through metal detectors looking for guns and knives just to walk into an overcrowded classroom with overworked and underpaid teachers.

Many of these kids would outshine and out play the middle class kids if they had a level playing field. In Cuba, after the Revolution, children who's life trajectory had been semi-slave labor in the Barcardi sugar fields, chained to their beds at night, underfed and illiterate, suddenly, with a fair shot, a level playing field, became doctors, inventors, ballet dancers.

I am not a socialist or a communist or a libertarian or any of those labels. I have watched the failures and misuse of these 'isms' in my lifetime. But I do believe that we have rights and responsibilities as human beings, as brothers and sisters, as spiritual beings inhabiting bodies. So, I get confused when I see parents keeping their kids from the ordinary challenges of life. I understand protecting children from the horrors of life before they are developmentally prepared to face them. I really understand the need to offer physical safety to our kids, but I don't get the idea of doing homework for kids and feeding their dog, and picking up the room of a teenager and telling them what courses to take in college or letting them think that everybody should get a medal for everything.

So, I guess one question that comes from this line of thinking is how can we prepare the kids and protect them at the same time? And how can we work towards leveling the playing field so that the majority of our kids have a shot at a good life?  I think we really need to address these questions if we want a future for our country.