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New Years Resolve, Binge or Be

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org Another year has come and gone.  Everywhere she goes she hears people speak of New Years resolutions.  They all say this time will be different.  I will decide to do as I had not done previously or at least had not done well.  Countless commit to a life of calorie counting.  Others merely muse that they will exercise more.  Drugs, drinking, there are also discussions of these concerns.  People are confident.  This year I will deliver myself from what I think evil.  A few philosophize as to their personal career path.  Change is the objective.  A greater goal is thought to be golden.  As Author Mary Anne Radmacher reflected and now millions whisper as their mantra, "Live with intention . . .  Choose with no regret. . . . Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is."  Therein lies the problem.

Consumer Confidence Rises; Democracy Declines

March 21, 2007: Benjamin Barber explains why consumer culture is bad for humanity copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org Great News!  The good life will soon return to America.  Auspiciously, months before the holiday shopping season began, Americans were told that after more than a year of fiscal recession, or what some have characterized as akin to an economic depression, consumers were optimistic.  The confidence  index and other indicators were much improved.  Manufacturing executives assured the public, the engine that drives the free enterprise system was in a "sustainable recovery mode." In the very near future, products, and people's sense of need, would be fabricated again. Everything will be right with the world, economically.  Few feared the threat that, long ago, Americans had come to accept.   The foundation of a democratic system had eroded in favor of consumption.

Thanksgiving; Time with Family. No Thanks

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org As Americans ponder the Thanksgiving Day holiday expectations are high. Young children look forward to all the activities loved ones plan. School age individuals are told tales of the Pilgrims and the Indians that befriended early settlers.  Most imagine that on this November day, people come together peaceably.  That, for the little ones is a welcome thought.  Too often, tension exists in the parent child relationship.  Some say angst increases as the offspring age.  Whilst many wish to believe the strain occurs over time, as a child becomes more autonomous, indeed, recent research shows early interactions give rise to the relationship that will be. Toddlers and tots rarely have opportunities to quietly, calmly, and genuinely converse with parents or the caregivers they are fond of.   Hence, lads and lasses feel a sense of loss.  By the teen years, the thought of another Thanksgiving celebration with relatives evokes an almost automatic response, "No thanks."

Glenn Beck; Race Relationships or Health Care Reform

Glenn Beck calls Obama racist

Americans may recall, it began with a Sweet aside and grew into a [Glenn Beck] beckon.  Now, the stage is set.  The audience is explosive.  Words of woe are shouted from every hall.  For more than a month the media has given rise to the troublesome message.  The reason for health care reform; the Obama Administration yearns to provide a platform for "stealth reparations."

Polls; Panoply of America's Age of Unreason

American Failure in Education, Reason- Moyers, Susan Jacoby

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org He is up.  He is down!  Thankfully, the opposition says, "Soon he will be out of favor and ultimately out of office!" If voters do not remove the renegade from his prestigious position, term limits certainly will do him in.  Liberal loyalists assert; President Obama is not the problem.  Congress is the cruel joke. It seems no matter the political persuasion, citizens of this country find someone to fault.  Surely, societal ills are thrust upon the public by an outside force.  Regardless, of whether the electorate places the onus on an individual, an industry, the nation's Chief Executive, or other government officials, the oft-heard battle cry in the Age of America's Unreason. is someone else is to blame.  The American people do not imagine themselves responsible for inertia.

Capitalism; Dead, Alive, and Broken

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org For but a moment, whilst the Group of 20 [G20] met in London's ancient financial capital, ,"The City," the roars of remorse, could be heard.  Words of woe had been whispered in hushed tones for quite some time.  Scholars spoke of various possibilities on occasion.  Whether Senior Economic Fellows from various think-tanks thought a system to be dead, alive, or near doomed, there was perhaps a bit of agreement.  "I see what you mean.  It is broken," Economist Mark Thoma mused more than a year ago.

A Weighty Issue

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org On February 15th, Barry boarded the plane.  He was deep in thought and noticed few of the people around him.  The prior evening had been exceptional.  This sensitive man celebrated Valentine's Day with friends, with family, and best of all with himself, a person he had grown to love and respect, an individual he barely knew for all of his life, himself.   More recently, Barry had become a more balanced individual.  He is now constantly on the move, not merely in a physical sense, but in a more real manner.  The successful businessman, the sensational father, the phenomenal friend, the scholar who climbed the career ladder well, in the not so distant past, never felt truly fulfilled.  Now, he thought of himself as a work in progress, a being who has transitioned beyond his wildest dreams.  Yet, he trusted there were still many roads to travel.  He wondered; would he make it.  On this day, unbeknownst to him, Barry would find his answer.  Yet, he would also be prompted to ask more questions.

Somewhere in America

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org Somewhere in America, a man loses the job he has held for more than thirty years.  Somewhere in America, a woman cleans out the office she had occupied for close to a decade.  Elsewhere in the United States, a teen unsuccessfully tries to find work.  He knows he needs to help his Mom and Dad; each toiled in the factory that closed just down the street.  A young woman searches for a professional position, just as she has for the two years since she graduated form the University.  Each of these individuals is not startled by the headline, Economy Shed 598,000 Jobs in January.    All ask, where have the "experts," Economists, and elected officials been?

Sex and the Super Bowl

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org Citizens in the United States are complicated, complex, and mostly they act in ways that are contrary to what they profess to believe in.  No matter a person's race, religion, or creed, people point to what they think right.  Then, especially on Super Bowl Sunday they engage in all, that were someone else to do the same, they would say, that is wrong.   Indeed, on the Monday through Saturday, before the final event the sanctity of sex, only after marriage, is subject to interpretation.  Voyeurism is at times defined as an involuntary response.  Adultery is but a betrayal advocated as merely a reason for divorce.  The deed doers surmise the divine, will understand.  Humans are flawed.  They are frail when faced with animal lust.  When stimulated, an uncontrollable desire for sex seethes from every pore.  Even the threat of a police sweep cannot assuage the palpable passion.

Praise Song For the Day

Elizabeth Alexander 2009 Inauguration Poem

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org As Americans go about their day, they chortle, croon, and chatter.  Conversations are constant.  Hymns are hummed.  People sing even when there is no tune.  There is much said, and little heard.  Cries may strike a chord; yet, these too may be perceived as silence.  People talk.  They wail; and no one listens  to the lovely lyrics are sung.

Everyone is hurried.  Most are worried.  They fear the mundane that threatens their very existence.  Moms, Dads, even teens who must help provide for the family anxiously ask, will I have a job tomorrow.  Singles are not exempt.  Children too are concerned for they feel the disquiet amidst the noise.  The murmur that moves us might be summed up in a sentence.  'Will there be money in my pocket today?'   Society, it seems, is engaged in selfish pursuits.  Personal survival is a more significant motivator than service.  There is no harmony in the hullabaloo that surrounds us.  The hum of reverence remains hidden. The butcher, the baker, and the candlestick-maker move through the day with one song in mind.  How might I provide food for the family, and find shelter from all the storms? What of schools for my children, and an education for myself?  In the pandemonium, the only sound that echoes is a irksome song, Most citizens of this country know not what will come.  Nor do individuals recognize the love that was and is.  Thus, they do as was done before them. Just as their parents did, the tired, the hungry, the poor and downtrodden, talk of a secure future.  They walk towards what they want, or try to.   Heads are held high.  People work in factories.  They stitch finery.   Some drive trucks or taxis.  Others teach.  Builders construct edifices that will be too expensive for them to occupy. Countless serve .  As they do so many deeds, they sing the customary song. Farmers plant crops for a country starved for nourishment.  Field-workers pick the harvest.  Waiters and waitresses dish out the chow.  Chefs cook.  The rewards are paltry.  The reality is stark. All have hope for a better day.  Each looks out on the horizon. Everyone strives to see the grass that certainly must be greener on the other side of the street. Few realize that today was tomorrow.  All that they have was given to them with thanks to yesterday.  Ancestral devotion, dedication to the Seventh Generation has served society well.. The blood, sweat, and tears of persons who toiled in the past, gave birth to a nation that believes in love, liberty, and the light that everyone seeks.  The truth is, the sound often muffled by expressions of personal misery were lovely songs. Today, as citizens consider the crisis that has become common in American lives, they hope for change.  No one noticed within the noise, was transformation.  Fondness for a shared future originated a renaissance that, as a country, we celebrate today.   Collectively, we, the people have inaugurated a President that taught Americas, "Yes they can; Yes we can!"  A Poet, Elizabeth Alexander, who stood on the stage with the nation's newly installed leader helped the country to understand, that no one man could, or would do what the populace had already done.  In the name of love, on this very significant day, the American people could chant "Yes we have, and tomorrow we will again!" Please peruse the poem, Praise Song for the Day.  Ponder what the American people have accomplished.  Imagine what we can achieve.  Inaugural Poem  By Elizabeth Alexander  January 20, 2009 The following is a transcript of the inaugural poem recited by Elizabeth Alexander, as provided by CQ transcriptions. Praise song for the day. Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair. Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice. A woman and her son wait for the bus. A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin." We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider. We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road." We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see. Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of. Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables. Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self." Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need. What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance. In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun. On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.  Inaugural Poem; Transcript. By Elizabeth Alexander.  provided by the New York Times. January 20, 2008 Inaugural Poem; Transcript. By Elizabeth Alexander.  provided by the New York Times. January 20, 2008 pdf Inaugural Poem; Transcript. By Elizabeth Alexander.  provided by the New York Times. January 20, 2008