I hereby declare peace

I wrote this in July, intending to include it in the second edition of my book that I recently renamed A Declaration of Peace. Well, that edition is about to be released — find it here — but I forgot to add this. I guess it’ll have to stand alone for a while longer.

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When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to step back and ask, “What in the world are we doing?” and consider a different approach, it behooves us to explain what in the world we are doing, and why.

These truths ought to be self-evident — that all humans are created equal, endowed by our Creator with rights that are certain and unalienable, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — but then governments are created to tinker with those rights, to abridge those rights, and eventually to trample those rights.

Ostensibly governments are created to do those things that individuals cannot do, but there are many acts that individuals will not do and should not do, and they are no less heinous when committed in the name of government, and among these are theft, extortion, blackmail, and murder.

As a free and independent human, therefore, I declare that I am at peace with my fellow humans and that I will not initiate violence against them. This I pledge by my life, my fortune (such as it is) and my sacred honor, so help me God.

Stop and start

Oh, just stop.

Stop and start.

Stop wishing you would do, and just do.

Stop standing on the diving board, and dive in.

Stop waiting to live, and just live.

You know what needs to be done,

And who knows why you haven’t,

But today,

This very moment,

You can.

Go, and do.

Why I Give Thanks

Thanks.

You know who you are, and you know why I’m thanking you.

Have a happy day, wherever you are.

Meanwhile, I wrote a little something for the paper’s annual “Why I Give Thanks” section.

It starts like this:

Four days before I graduated from Ripon College, I drove down Tower Road in Waupaca and walked into the offices of WDUX Radio.

I sat down with Morgan Marti, the station manager, and told him I was looking for my first job in the “real world” and thought I might be able to help WDUX.

“That depends,” Marti said with an enigmatic smile. “What can you do?”

I talked about my experience as program director for the student radio station at Ripon and my love for music and —

“Nope, we don’t need another disk jockey,” he said. “What else you got?”

Read the rest.