Thinking Citizen Blog — Three Questions for the New Year

Thinking Citizen Blog — Saturday is Justice, Freedom, Law, and Values Day

Today’s Topic — Three Questions for the New Year

Have you made your New Year’s resolutions yet? Well, let me make a suggestion. How about committing to a “Justice Journal”? That is assuming “justice” is of any importance to you. If something matters more, commit to, say, a “freedom journal.” Then, with a regular periodicity, say once a week, return to that theme. The point would be to deepen your understanding of what to you is the most important challenge facing the world by doing research and writing about it on a regular basis. Today, three questions to consider. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST GAP BETWEEN THE WORLD (OR THE USA) AS IT IS AND THE WORLD (OR THE USA) AT IT SHOULD BE?

1. Take the USA. Is the biggest gap what I have called the “Daily Katrina.” That is the fact there are roughly ten million children in America living a “Daily Katrina” of unsafe streets, second rate schools, and unstable homes?

2. Take the world. Is the biggest gap the mistreatment of women?

3. Or is the number one issue, nationally or globally, climate change?

NB: The religious might call that gap “sin.”

WHAT ARE THE GREATEST OBSTACLES IN THE WAY OF CLOSING THAT GAP?

1. Is the biggest obstacle inertia? A natural resistance to change.

2. Is it “freedom”? Don’t tell me what to do. Don’t impose your values on us. Variations on this theme: parental liberty, religious liberty, economic liberty, federalism, self-determination.

3. Is it “racism, sexism, class bias”?

NB: Or is it just ignorance. with respect to the magnitude, nature, and consequences of climate change?

WHAT IS THE BEST STRATEGY FOR OVERCOMING THOSE OBSTACLES?

1. Political action within the system

2. Political action outside the system

3. Non-political action. The traditional answer of the religious is: prayer and good works.

NB: What have you tried in the past? Have you changed your mind and your course? How did it work out? What are you doing now?

FINAL WORD — my three New Year’s resolutions

1. The gap that obsesses me most at the moment is the failure to recognize the primacy of gratitude among the virtues. My goal for the year is to finally get a book out on this topic. The title is “The Gratitude Project.”

2. The second very specific gap is the failure to appreciate the beauty and metaphoric power of the seven stars at the heart of the Orion constellation. A second book is planned with a title of “The Orion Game.”

3. My third resolution is to add an Indonesian and a Vietnamese song to my list of “Keys to the hearts of seven billion people.”

Happy New Year!

John

The Thinking Citizen

http://www.educationfirstparty.com

http://www.muresianuforsenate.com

http://www.liberalartsacademy.com

For the last four years of posts organized by theme:

PDF with headlines — Google Drive

YOUR TURN

Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to justice, freedom, the law or basic values. Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to justice, freedom, the law, or basic values. Or just some random justice-related fact that blew you away.

This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart.