Symbols are powerful entities - they are the stuff of visions and dreams, things that stoke the inner fires that lift the human spirit. Symbols are a necessary part of the human experience for their powers to fill the heart in times of trial - Times like now with our flag....However, let us not mistake the symbol for the idea behind it...

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The winds that blow over the meadows and across the gilded plains, are the same winds that blow down the canyons of our metropolitan centers and along stretches of freeways. They are the same winds that blow over the battlefields of our current wars - Listen, and hear the song of the buffalo on the wind...

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In the early morning just before the awakening sun rises from below the horizon, it paints the eastern skies with touches of lavendar and pink, and casts a coat of amber and gold to the steel and glass of our cities and towns. Listen as the earth awakens to a new day - there is a lesson here...

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There is a path we as a nation have walked to get to this place. It is one rich in history, full with the exploits of those who rose to the challenge to meet each new day, yet who did so without undue taxing of the path they chose. There are, too, those individuals and episodes in our collective past of a darker hint, with repercussions of nightmarish extent as the future unfolds becoming today's events. Listen, listen, hear...

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Symbols - essential sign posts along those country roads of our inner journey as humankind - they touch the heart, the essential, the beyond, and point to what brings out the best in us...

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It is somewhat amazing, though a mixed blessing, that so many people are now in the throes of renewed patriotism. In many ways that is a good thing. But it is a mixed blessing, for while it is for some deeply felt, thoughtfully considered, and heart-felt, it is for others knee-jerk reactionism in the heat of the moment, a testosterone-laced macho answer to a perceived threat. I think the sadder and scarier part is that many haven't the foggiest notion what waving the flag truly means. So, why should one be thoughtful about waving the flag? For starters, the threat is real - September 11th did happen, and the terrorists who perpetrated it are very real. A response is needed, yes. The issue equally critical here is what kind of response fits the need? One that is in-kind is no different than the act of the terrorist. Then, consider the thinking of our leaders - in the face of a so-called new kind of war of the new millenium, they continue to think in terms of the weapons and strategies of all our previous wars, the high-tech nature of our weaponry notwithstanding. It is folly to think that bigger is better or more is better in this day and age. It is nonsense to deem the mentality of a two year old as diplomacy. And, it is further folly and self-defeating to perpetrate friendly fire against our own women, children, our elderly, and the disabled, through cutting and eliminating necessary safety nets, while at the same time pouring billions into so-called homeland security. And, tragically, even after so long a time as now, there has been no thought given to root-cause for the actions of the perpetrators of the disasters of September 11th, as though that doesn't matter in the face of the scope of horror they brought down. Not knowing why they did what they did, how can we know how to respond appropriately...?

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Vengence, as in an eye for an eye, makes it sorely difficult to one day come together to see eye to eye...

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An eye for an eye is short-sighted...

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Today, let us turn the corner as if our lives depended upon our each and every move, as though our future begins today. Let our hearts be our compass to insure our choices, and to hold to that which is true - let us not return like for ills caused us, for then, darkness will have won, and more importantly, we will have forfeited our souls...

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