Who has influenced you and how?

Who was your first-grade school teacher? What kind of influence did he or

she have on your life?

Who is the CEO of the largest Fortune 500 company in America today? What

kind of influence does that person have on your life? By the way, does anybody

know how much money is tied up in America creating "spin?" Are

there any PR firms among the Fortune 500?

Who was the most influential next door neighbor you ever had? What did he

or she do to endear himself or herself to you? What smells do you still associate

with their home? What activities took place there?

Who was president of the United States the year you were born? How did he

perform while in office? How did the country as a whole feel about him when

he left office?

What pastor, rabbi or priest has been there for you in the past? How did

he or she minister to you? How has your life changed because of the preachings,

teachings, or actions of this person?

From what country in Africa did most of today's African Americans originate?

From what European country did most of today's European Americans come? How

many Chinese Americans are there in America? How many Japanese Americans?

How many Native American Indians are left?

What person of a different color or nationality has most influenced your

life? Who has personally demonstrated for you that real communication, real

love, real influence comes from the heart and that all our hearts are the

same color?

Are you wondering where I am coming from this week? Me, too.

I am so saddened over the beheadings of Americans in Iraq that I have been

inundated with thoughts that I do not know what to do with.

I reckon I am wondering how any person or group of persons can be so influenced

to become what they become. To perform the actions they perform.

And my thoughts are taking me into uncomfortable places. I am wondering

how any American soldier can be influenced to behave like some of ours did

at Abu Ghraib prison.

Do people not know that light eventually falls on all our actions or lack

of action? I am absolutely convinced that nothing done in secret ever stays

there. All things eventually come to light to some degree or another, in

some realm or another.

At some level we must all take responsibility for our actions or lack of

action.

Who would ever have thought that an American presidential race in 2004 could

be so much about Vietnam?

Well ... too much got swept under the rug in that war, now, didn't it? And

it's being dragged back out into the open daily. Even though many of us wish

there would be an end to it, there will be no end. Not even when the last

veteran of the Vietnam "conflict" is dead. It will not end because

there will always be those individuals who will want to shake that rug until

every particle of dirt and grime has been released.

They may call themselves historians or war buffs or just descendants of

those fifty-thousand plus Americans who died or went missing in that southeast

Asian country.

How will history record the events of the past three years? Will Iraq be

the first of many countries America seeks to set "free?" What is

freedom?

Why can't both of our presidential candidates sign on the bottom line and

release all their military records now, once and for all, so we can see for

ourselves what the truth was perceived to be forty years ago when two young

soldiers were doing their duty for this country, or seeking to avoid doing

it?

I mean, we all know that the two of them could access any smidgen of information

(truth?) they wanted to gain about any one of us right now. Fair is fair.

I want to know all.

For the most part, I am disgusted with the performance of the "news

media" in America and around the world. The best we can do, it seems,

is to try to be informed enough to know who is more liberal, and who is more

conservative, and then, if we want to waste the time, we can tune in to see

how the liberal and conservative commentators think or feel.

I am starting to think it is all about ratings for everybody, and what the

news professionals know about the facts is seldom shared, and the truth,

well, the truth be damned.