Things for Americans to do in 2008...

Seek out and elect skilled statesmen and not hack politicians...

America's collective judgment is sound. We should work to rebuild our democracy. Our representatives should advocate the common people's best interests. The people are the leaders. The President and Congress are our servants. The people should seek out those with competence and vision, and reject those who are critical or who contradict or who are corrupt.

Take full responsibility to lead in the right direction...

Take full personal responsibility for your own lives and the lives of all those around you. Take full responsibility for the future. Take full responsibility for the planet on which you live. Then look beyond your life for those in need that you would not normally notice.

Open your eyes, see the world for what it is, not what you want it to be...

There is no mortal human being -- certainly no politician -- who speaks for God. To believe that some media evangelist speaks with God's voice may bring you some comfort but it is delusion. Get over it. Stop enriching the charlatan evangelicals and false prophets -- because that is what they are and they do very little good with the money you give them. Mostly they spend it to enhance their own grand reputations.

Stop blaming God for your antics...

God does not want you to be or to do anything. It is the ultimate conceit and arrogance to believe that mankind is anywhere near God's place in this universe. Our species has a long way to climb to begin to approach God's place. God is only diminished by our lofty notions of how close we are to that place. It is in your own interest and the interests of others around you that you are good and decent. That basic state of knowing and acting on good and decent human instincts is what brings happiness to each of us.

Practice compassion, mercy, and forgiveness -- Seek resolution...

Whenever there is safety and opportunity, always begin with compassion. Compassion is opening to others so that they, in turn, may be open in response. The key to any progress in human relations is seeing and responding to need. Need is common to all of us. Understanding need requires curiosity, a revelation of objective truth and circumstance, and a careful examination of feelings and motives. Why is it that we so conveniently ignore what Jesus, Mohammed, and the Buddha wanted us to understand and practice?

Be generous but do not impose your generosity. ..

Not everyone wants what you have to give, just as you may not want what others have to offer. Respond to their needs. Speak honestly of your own. It is important that we do not deceive others but it is more important that we do not deceive ourselves. The truth will always reveal itself in the end, anyway, not by our spoken or secret intentions but by our acts.

Know and appreciate that what goes around, comes around -- always...

If you speak ill of others or do violence upon them, you should not be surprised to receive the same from them. Unjust coercion and submission will not yield lasting peace but will swirl to new levels. Retaliation that festers over years will return but will be worse because its root causes will be forgotten. Remember that the other side is like us in every respect. Their dreams and their burdens are no different than our own.

Avoid those who seek to poison the discourse...

Truth cannot be seen when it has been isolated from all other information and perspectives. Truth only reveals itself in the broad understanding of all perspectives. Beware the voice that is critical of other voices and that fails to offer its own sound and sage advice. Our dysfunctional divisiveness does not come from our difference of opinion but, rather, from our contempt -- often quite ridiculous, arrogant, misrepresentative, and dismissive contempt -- for the thoughts and opinions of others.

Don't be a sucker for propaganda...

The next time you listen to your favorite commentator or pundit, honestly ask yourself whether it makes sense that the folks on the other side he or she describes are really as stupid or as irrational or as evil as they are made to seem. And if you parrot this gibberish, don't be surprised if you aren't taken very seriously or fail to make converts. High audience ratings do not point to the truth but, rather, point only to the message that a lot of folks want to hear. The truth often has a place somewhere between the extremes and therefore contradict both. The smartest among us know that...

Think of the world beyond your time and beyond your children...

Just because we have bought into the notion that it is "natural" to operate in our self-interest does not mean that such is good or necessary. In excess, self-interest is little more than greed and gluttony leading to our own sloth and exploitation of others. It is time to think about our future. It is time to stop being selfish. It is time to stop reducing our existence to either matters of our salvation or our consumption, and justifying our self-indulgences by pointing to our redemption. It is time to find a new path. It is time to think about our children's children's children...