Peace on Earth

My last Blog included a list of some of the events and holidays taking place this month. Tomorrow is a very big holiday for millions of Christians – Christmas. If you are interested in some history on this holiday, the folks at How Stuff Works have an article on How Christmas Works .

Personally I’m a secular humanist. Never heard of one of us? I’m not surprised, there aren’t a lot of us around – at least compared to those who follow the major religions. Interested in what a secular humanist is? Wikipedia has a pretty good description of who we are, what we believe, and links to more info here .

Regardless of what religion you do or do not follow I want to wish each and every one of you a happy holidays. There is a line from a song that many sing this time of year: “Peace on Earth, good will towards everyone” [I changed that last word!]. My wish is that ‘peace on Earth’ could truly happen. Imagine how much we (I’m talking of humanity here) could do without wasting so much energy, time, money, lives, etc. on War? Do you think we can every ‘grow up’, open our eyes and realize that we all live on the same small, blue planet? Carl Sagan called our home a “pale, blue dot”. In case you missed my earlier post, go here to read an article about just how small our home is .

I wish you all life, love, happiness, friendship, and hope. This life is what we make of it. I hope we can all try a little harder to make this a better world.

Peace

Tis the Season

My goodness, but December is a busy month. Just look at this list:

• December 5th – 1st day of Hanukkah
• December 22nd – Winter Solstice
• December 23rd – Full moon
• December 25th – Christmas Day
• December 26th – Kwanzaa begins
• December 31st – New Years Eve

Depending upon your religion, or lack there of, you are probably quite busy now: shopping, mailing holiday cards, traveling to see family or friends, etc. Then too, many businesses have some type of holiday celebration (pot-luck luncheon, formal dinner, or the like) for their employees. Hope you’ve had a chance to enjoy some type of happy gathering.

Many people get upset this time of year too. Lately (last several years anyway), many people get mad if you say “Merry Christmas”, then there are those that get mad if you say “Happy Holidays”. I generally stick with “Happy Holidays” myself simply because not everyone celebrates the same event this time of year (see list above), so I stick with something generic to try and cover all the possibilities. “Happy New Year” is quite benign, so that’s another phrase I feel safe with.

I wish that this could be a happy time of year for everyone, but the reality is anything but. There is so much negativity in the world right now (and I see no reason to add to the misery by including an extensive list – you know what’s going on). Then there are so many people who find this a very difficult time of year [for many reasons]. If I could, I would wave a magic wand and make “peace on Earth, good will towards everyone” a reality.

So, try to find some happiness for yourself, where ever you can. Besides, what other time of the year do you get to say “tis”?!

Space Exploration is Important

I’m mad, not as in crazy but rather angry, upset, and quite disappointed. An elderly gentleman that I respect greatly for his wisdom and knowledge said that he felt all the money that the government spent on the space program was an absolute waste. He feels that “all that money could have been put to better use solving problems here in our country”.

This is not the first time I’ve heard someone say this. I know that many people feel this way. However, have any of them actually taken the time to look in to the issue? How much money does NASA get every year? What is that money used for? How much money does the Federal Government put to other programs? How much money have we spent on our latest “war”?

OK, let’s tackle these questions:

Has anybody really checked out the facts? In my opinion, no. If they had, they would see how little goes to NASA, how much the space program benefits EVERYONE, how much useful technology we’ve gotten as a spin-off, and how much more money the Federal Government manages to waste (ever heard of ‘pork-barrel’ spending?) in other areas.

How much money does NASA get every year? Not much, especially compared with the overall budget. Wikipedia has a very interesting article on this. NASA has received an average of $12.681 billion dollars (adjusted for inflation) per year over its forty-nine year history. That’s barely a drop in the budgetary bucket. For comparison, lets look at what the Federal budget spent on other things in 2007:

• $586.1 billion for Social Security
• $548.8 billion for Defense (not including the “war”)
• $394.5 billion for Medicare
• $367 billion for Unemployment and Welfare
• $76.9 billion for Veterans’ benefits
• $33.1 billion for natural resources and the environment
• $26.8 billion for community and regional development

Check out this other Wikipedia article for a full breakdown plus links for additional information. And here’s one fact for you: Americans spent over 19 times as much at restaurants in 1997 as the federal government spent on NASA that year.

What does NASA spend ‘all that money’ on? Well, among other things, NASA has procurements, grants, and awards that go to businesses, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations throughout all 50 United States. Millions of dollars are spread throughout the country. Check out this map showing the disbursements. As for all their space exploration programs, research centers, aeronautical programs, etc., you should check out this site by NASA.

I’ve already addressed the issue of how much money the Federal Government puts to other programs, so let’s look at our “war” spending. Much of the money for the war does not come out of the annual Federal budget, instead it is done as ‘Supplemental Funding’. For example, in FY 2006 $153 billion in Supplemental Funding was added to the base budget of which the War on Terror received $120 billion and a massive $33 billion went to events such as Hurricane Katrina. My source for this information is here. Total estimates for our “War on Terror” go as high as $2.4 trillion. TRILLION. Check out this CNN Money article and be sure to follow their link in the middle of the article.

Right now this lovely little planet is our only home. The environment is not in the best shape right now and many feel the future is only going to deteriorate. Personally, I’d like to see humanity expand beyond Earth. Our future, if we have one, is in space. Check out these folks.

Scotty, where are you when I need you?

Inspiration

What inspires you: people, places, things? For myself, among other things, it’s quotations that other people have said over the centuries that inspire me. So, lacking inspiration for a topic this week, I’ve decided to list some of my favorite ones here. They are in no particular order, mostly just as I find them from where they are stashed – my bulletin board, stuck to the side of the fridge, taped to the filing cabinet, or filed in my PalmPilot.

This one might seem wrong at first, but you need to think about it:
"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right." - Isaac Asimov

Now here is one that you might have seen, it certainly fits the United States now [unfortunately]:
"Those who would give up essential liberty for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin

Here’s a couple I wish the entire planet would follow:
"Treat the Earth well: is was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children" - Indian proverb
"Fear less, hope more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours." - Swedish proverb

The source of this one may surprise you:
"A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest-- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." - Albert Einstein

Here are some very timely ones:
"Unfortunately, prejudice comes from education and family life and all the things that are praised by religious orthodoxy." - Sir Peter Ustinov
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B Anthony
"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself." - Richard Francis Burton
"The biggest cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid people are so sure about things and the intelligent folks are so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell

Here’s one that I try hard to follow:
"I have made peace with myself somewhere between my ambitions and my limitations." - from the movie, Tea House of the August Moon

I’d like to think that this one is a good description of me:
"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed." - Theodore Roosevelt

Lastly, since I just quit my job, I guess this one is really me:
"I'd rather be a failure at something I enjoy than a success at something I hate." - George Burns

Do you have any favorite quotations or sayings?