A brighter future

Letter to the Telegraph Editors,

We have moved beyond the model of relying upon traditional foreign aid and rich philanthropists to fight the world’s human problems to one where thousands of people like us can and should contribute in a great variety of ways. The organization “Our Voices Together” (www.OurVoicesTogether.org ) is sponsoring a series of events around the country on the topic “A Safer, More Compassionate World.” The purpose of these forums is to highlight ways we can engage constructively in what the 9/11 Commission termed the “Agenda of Opportunity” – education, employment and the possibility for a brighter tomorrow – and contribute, person-to-person, to help build a future without the threat of terrorism.

In partnership with the 2007 Fort Lewis College Common Reading Experience Program, and sponsored by Our Voices Together and several local organizations, the League of Women Voters of La Plata County is presenting an extraordinary forum on Nov.10. The major message will be the ways in which small groups of people, working together, can make a difference by creating a better future for the very poorest among us. Our keynote speakers will include Diane Wilson, activist and author of An Unreasonable Woman; Tom Grams, dentist to the Afghans; and John Mahan, pedal-power social entrepreneur in Nepal and Haiti, along with a panel of local individuals who have found a way to connect with the world. Become enlightened, be empowered. Call 247-8116 or e-mail lwvlpc@aol.com before Nov. 7 to reserve your free lunch and plan to join us on Sat., Nov. 10, in the Fort Lewis College Union Building Ballroom from 9:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Click on www.lwvlpc.com, then “flyers and publications,” for a flyer and agenda.

– Ellen Park, president, League of Women Voters of La Plata County

All salaried out

Just a quick note to the editors, I am so f***** sick of seeing articles regarding overpaid superintendents. Thank you for not printing any articles regarding Mary Barter’s salary. I think I have seen at least 700 of them in your competing daily publication (and they are all virtually identical). There has got to be something more entertaining to write about!

Glad to get that off my chest.

– Your local wrap artist, Jarrod Regan, Durango

Of god and global warming

Dear Eds,

The constant bombardment of quotes from tree-huggers blaming global warming on human beings leads me to ask the obvious question: what caused the glacial melting in the Animas Valley a bazillion years ago? As close as I can tell, there were no coal-fired power plants at Mesa Verde back in the day that may have caused the glacier to recede and eventually disappear. Perhaps it was a normal weather cycle covering a time span that reaches beyond the comprehension of most liberals seeking to blame the human race for the acts of a Deity that is hard for them to define or accept.

Just asking.

– Dennis Pierce, via e-mail

An experts’ game

Dear Editors,

What matters in war is pragmatism, in all its lucid glory. Right and wrong, being totally arbitrary, subjective and malleable depending on the propagandist, become ultimately subordinate-ultimately, expedience is the only “right.”

Precision and economy are indispensable. Once a military campaign dispenses with either of these, it is doomed to failure. Sun Tzu said it; so did Clausewitz, Musashi and a host of other great thinkers.

Countries engaging in “diplomacy by other means” will win only by the foresight and practicality of their analysts and the cold, hard logic employed by their strategists and policymakers.

War is the quintessential technical arena. It is an experts’ game, and thus must only be prosecuted by engineers, of a sort. Neither the fanaticism of the rabble, the whimsy of politicians, the pap of idealists, nor the keening of girls bring about victory, or any conclusive result, for that matter.

We have seen the results of populist rhetoric run rampant … allegories, seamy demagoguery, transparent attempts to slander and dehumanize the enemy…He is as human as we are – subject to the same lusts, the same vices, the same strengths, the same weaknesses, and he is neither more brave, more cowardly, more evil, or more good than we ourselves.

He is ultimately an algorithm that need only be worked.

– A Fabis Abstinetes, M.K. Swinderman, via e-mail

Life in the relative world

Dear Editors,

After years of observing life with my new perception, I came to realize that it is not about what others are doing, but about what I am being as others are doing what they are doing. Am I being compassionate about what they are doing? I came to believe that I DO change the world with being compassionate for what THEY are doing. I choose to be compassionate as they are doing what they are doing. For I understand that they are doing what they have chosen for themselves to experience. I remember my choices – they were not always to the liking of others, or myself, but nonetheless they were my choice, that I chose to have at that time to experience what I needed to experience. Choices that are conscious and subconscious.

For I understand that I came to experience the relativity in my experiences for the purpose to remember who I really am. Every day I tell myself to remember not to judge my experiences, but to be wholeheartedly grateful and thankful for what I have experienced – this way of perceiving helps me not to personalize and internalize my experiences, not to criticize myself. It is work in progress, a process that is not done in one day, as I came to realize.

I understand how easy it is in this relative world to judge, to blame, to condemn, to criticize. I have been there, and now with my new, remembered perception, I am at peace. Being compassionate for myself and therefore others gave me that. And that is what I am sharing.

What I am saying is that – it is what it is – and I came to remember, see that, for me being compassionate, is who I want to be. For you, or you, might be different but it is OK, because, as I came to believe – NOTHING is wrong or right unless you or somebody else makes it so.

Paradoxically, “wrong” is not “wrong,” “bad” is not “bad,” but that does not mean you have to tolerate unloving, mean, hurtful actions of others. For the purpose of evolving if you find yourself ready to choose to be compassionate for yourself and the other person, people – you do so – that is your business, that is your choice. That is your life. That is your journey.

That is the beauty of living in the relative world.

This is a quote from A. Einstein “When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute – and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity.”

– Thank you for your time, Halina Koperniak, Vallecito