Brockporter Health Care Sunday - Generic drug prices vary widely according to Consumer reports

Same generic drug, many prices -We found big price differences at drug stores on the generic versions of Lipitor, Plavix, and other common drugs.

Consumer Reports magazine: May 2013 

 

Click on image to enlarge for easier reading.

 

 

 

For more click here.

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The Brockporter Sunday Sermon - What or who is God?

People struggle with the question of whether there is a God. People have believed forever that there are supernatural powers and they have named these supernatural powers all kinds of names. Gods are a part of human history and human cultures since human beings have existed and become conscious of their own consciousness.

So when people ask if you believe in God the first question should be “What kind of a God are you asking about?” John Buehrens said one time that when people tell him they don’t believe in God he asks them “What God don’t you believe in?”

Personally, if you ask me, and nobody has asked me in a long time, I answer that my sense is that God is not a noun but a verb. God, like Luke Skywalker says in Star Wars, is The Force. God is the power behind the universe.

Is this force a personal deity that cares personally about me? No. I am simply the manifestation of this force and perhaps there are other manifestations of this force that care about me, which in a way may be representative of this higher power, but the higher power itself is not personal and doesn’t care one way or the other particularly.

But my ego cares. My ego wants to be loved and taken care of by what it conceives as its creator and yet my ego isn’t real. My ego is simply a temporary illusion that allows me to function with a degree of autonomy temporarily until I see through it and realize that my ego is a social construction, something which I can also call my identity.

We have several identities throughout our lives. I am not the same person now I was 20 years ago. I am not the person now whose behavior is recorded in my academic records, my driving record, my credit history, my employment history, my family history, my legal history, my medical history. These histories all describe different roles I have played and different behaviors I have engaged it, but these descriptions do not come close to describing the essence of who and what I am.

So, if I could figure out, in essence, who and what I am, then maybe I would have a better understanding of what God is, because I sense that I and you and all of us are part of God and I have no idea in heaven what that is.

Jesus says that the kingdom of god is within us. I think Jesus meant that God is our heart and soul. And in the end, when all else is subtracted, that is all that is left, and that’s God as far as I know.

 

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Reading the minutes - Fences for garden squares around trees in business district

From the Village of Brockport board meeting minutes of 03/12/13

PUBLIC COMMENT:

 Pam Ketchum of Park Avenue read the following prepared statement into the record:

Fences for the Garden Squares on Main and Market Streets

I have come to talk about beautification of our Downtown Business District. Approximately 30 years
ago, when Jim Stull was mayor, trees were planted on Main and Market Streets. There were metal grills at the base of each tree. As the trees grew the metal grills were removed and the resulting garden squares were created.

Over the years, merchants, building owners and various organizations have spent thousands of dollars and hours cultivating, augmenting the soil and planting annuals and perennials. Many merchants have stated that a month or so later, by mid-summer, the garden squares were ruined because of people and dogs.

In May 2012, author James Howard Kunstler visited and talked about downtown development and
beautification. He said that the space between the store fronts and the streets is an essential area that
should be developed and maintained in a fashion such as a garden room or a transition space that is
welcoming to pedestrians and shoppers. Mark Fenton, public health, planning and transportation
consultant, echoed these same ideas when he spoke last October 2012 about our walkable community.

Both stressed the importance of an attractive and compelling downtown area that draws people from
near and far to visit, invest in goods and services and ultimately perhaps buy a house and put down
roots in such a quaint and caring community.

A little over a year ago, members of Pro-Brockport started to brainstorm about how to beautify the Main and Market St. area. What could be done to enclose the garden spaces and cultivate them in a lasting and appealing fashion? Many ideas were discussed.

Last September, Ted and Patty Hawley created and installed a model fence enclosure in front of Fountain of Youth Organics at 46 Main St. Ted had a conversation with DPW and during the snow season he installed corner markers to help with snow removal as requested. The enclosure he made sits on the surface and has some flexibility. It was filled with dirt, cultivated and planted with attractive mums. It has held up well over the winter season and continues to add an attractive architectural flair to that block.

Pro-Brockport has interviewed a number of welding and metal specialists and we have put together a
PowerPoint including an inventory of trees on Main and Market, list of contractors and quotes. The
Brockport Merchants Association has been informed about the project over the past year and is
enthusiastic about making the streetscape more inviting and attractive. We hope to interview welders,
review bids and ultimately fund raise to successfully carry out the project.

We don’t anticipate there will be a cost to the village except for perhaps taking more time and finesse in snow removal. Instead of buying new plants every year, money would be saved by protecting hardy perennials with attractive fence surrounds in place.

 

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Soldier's Monument in Brockport, NY

Paige Doerner has a wonderful article on her blog Imponderabilia about the Soldier's Memorial Tower up by Mt. Olivet Cemetery. You can access it by clicking here.

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The Brockporter Book Of The Week - Wild by Cheryl Strayed

From Amazon web site:

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

Wild works on multiple levels. First, it is the story of the hike itself and what Cheyrl encounters along the trail.  Second, Cheyrl tests herself and learns what she is capable of in terms of physical and emotional endurance. Third, it is a story of a spiritual quest in which she comes to terms with the demons of grief, addiction, and narcissism, and must create a more satisfying and fulfilling life of peace and love.

I loved this book and think it is one of the more important books I have read in the last 10 years. It is one of those books I find myself mentioning and recommending to people I care about and even buying copies and giving them away. What makes the story so interesting and inspiring is how with this self imposed purification, Cheyrl finds herself. She was lost and during this arduous, self imposed journey, finds herself.

The Brockporter Book of the week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Fridays. Wild is available from the Lift Bridge Book Shop in downtown Brockport, or you can support the Brockporter by buying it through the Brockporter/ Amazon widget bellow.

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The Brockporter Climate Change Watch - Are we educating our children for what they are in for?

From NPR web site on 03/27/13:

"National Public Radio highlighted climate change education in a segment of its Morning Edition show broadcast on March 27, 2013, featuring NCSE's Mark McCaffrey. "By the time today's K-12 students grow up, the challenges posed by climate change are expected to be severe and sweeping," the segment began. "Now, for the first time, new nationwide science standards due out this month [i.e., the Next Generation Science Standards, now expected in April 2013] will recommend that U.S. public school students learn about this climatic shift taking place."

McCaffrey told NPR, "the state of climate change education in the U.S. is abysmal," citing survey data indicating that only one in five students "feel like they've got a good handle on climate change from what they've learned in school" and that two in three students feel that they're not learning much about it at all in their schools. NCSE's recent report "Toward a Climate & Energy Literate Society" (PDF) was cited as offering recommendations for improving climate and energy literacy in the United States over the course of the next decade."

For more click here

To listen to the NPR segment click here

Editor's note: Climate change watch is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine which appears most Thursdays. If you appreciate this feature, please make a donation to the Brockporter today by using the PayPal button in the right hand column. Thank you.

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Canal clean-ups scheduled second half of April, 2013

From the Village of Brockport Board meeting minutes of 02/26/13:

Canal Clean Sweep - Mayor Castañeda shared that she is again organizing participation in the annual Canal Clean Sweep of New York State Parks and Trails. 

Village and College volunteers should meet at the Welcome Center on Sunday, 4/21 at 11am. 

Other clean ups include Saturday 4/20 where SUNY students will hold a cleanup event in a yet to be determined location and Monday, 4/22 where Healthy You, Healthy Earth students will be cleaning along the canal by the SUNY campus and the Cloverleaf Square Dance Club on the canal way trail north of the canal. 

Click on image of interesting book below of images of Erie Canal

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Dear Ms. Emily - Parents ashamed of gay son

Dear Ms. Emily:

I’m a 21 year old college student and I just came out and told my parents that I am gay. I knew this would be difficult for them because of their religious beliefs. Having a gay son will bring a great deal of shame and awkwardness for them at church. Their friends at church have tried to console them telling them they would pray with them over it. I know they want me to change, and I have prayed on it and tried too, but I know what I am and no amount of praying and wishing things were different will help. At times I feel very bad and guilty for putting them in this situation of having a gay son, and at other times I feel very angry and want to never have anything to do with them again. What should I do?

Sincerely,

Kevin

Dear Kevin,

I am so sorry that you live in a society where you can’t be openly who you are without it being a problem for other people. You do realize, don’t you, that it is their problem and not yours? Gay people have been around since human beings existed, and in many cultures and societies it was not the problem that it is today. 

The current problem you are struggling with has been created by the norms of our society which have been influenced and reinforced by toxic religious beliefs which strangely, Jesus never taught. Jesus taught about many other things such as how to treat the poor, and divorce, which people who claim to be religious, ignore, but they focus on things he never taught like homosexuality. It is the beliefs of your parents and their friends in the church which are the problem. The suffering these beliefs cause are of their own making. Nothing can hurt you unless you give it the power to, and your parents have given same sex orientation that power, unfortunately, but you need not allow it to hurt you. In fact knowing who you are, and celebrating your ability to be a loving human being can bring you great joy.

It is very important that you be true to yourself, and this isn’t an easy thing. It takes courage, and compassion for yourself and others, and great forgiveness for those who would judge you, shun you, and treat you with disdain and contempt. To stay true to yourself, as God made you, is living with integrity. 

There are people who will understand and support you and accept you and love you even if your parents and their church friends won’t. It gets better as you get older and learn how to handle the hurt of the exclusion and stigma some people place on your sexual orientation. I am guessing, if your parents truly love you, they will come around and accept and respect you for who you are. You are more important to them than their unhealthy religious beliefs. Things have a way of working out if you take them slowly, in stride, and learn the lessons which life teaches us which we were born here to learn.

If your parents continue to be hurtful avoid them. Maintain some sort of connection with them, but it can be minimal, a card on their birthdays and Father’s day and Mother’s day. Otherwise, get on with your life and create a satisfying, fulfilling life of your own. You will develop a “family” of your own friends who will be there for you when your parents’ beliefs prevent them from doing so. You might even find a church which welcomes and accepts gay people for who they are: children of God.

Parents raise their children and then have to let them go. You are at that stage in your life where you have to leave them and make a life of your own. It will be a life quite different, in some ways, from your parents and their friends, but it will be wonderful nonetheless.

I love you. 

All the best,

Emily

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The time has come for immigration reform in Brockport, NY

by Monica Beck

This past Friday, March 22,2013, in the below freezing temperatures, supporters of comprehensive immigration reform and the media congregated in front of the Federal Building in Rochester.  The rally was organized by local social justice, civil liberties, and workers rights organizations to bring attention and encouragement legislators in the upcoming debate regarding widespread immigration reform.   

The bipartisan group of legislators or  (The Gang of Eight) led by Senator Chuck Schumer of N.Y. are spearheading an inclusive immigration reform initiative.  Over 11 million undocumented workers here in the U.S. are not protected or afforded basic civil rights because if their immigration status. 

Undocumented laborers here in Western New York especially, play an important role in the local economy: they grow and pick our produce keeping prices down.  Let’s not forget our ancestors were all immigrants once.  You can contact metrojustice.orgfor more information and to show your support you can sign an online petition.

Editor's note: The Unitarian Univeralist Association, of which the Brockport Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is a member, has chosen Immigration Reform as one of its Social Witness study topics. For more information click here.

To read more about the topic of immigration reform click on image below.

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The Brockporter House of the Week - 49 State Street

© Copyright by Carol L. Hannan – March 2013. All rights reserved.

Pelatiah and Mary Tall Wells Rogers
Owners/builders: 1824 to 1835
Pelatiah Rogers built what is arguably one of the most iconic symbols of Brockport, yet we associate this home with the more familiar name of Seymour. The Rogers family was, in fact, related to William H. Seymour, the second owner of this house, although what they built in the early 1820s reportedly bears little resemblance to the structure we see today.

Pelatiah and Mary Rogers came here with their family, which eventually included ten children, and John June Rogers, Pelatiah’s brother. Rogers was reportedly a descendant of a Mayflower passenger and the son of Samuel Rogers, an officer in the Revolutionary War. Mary’s ancestry is unknown. Sarah Maria, Sophia, Henry P. and James Towle Rogers were four of their ten children but the remainder of the children’s names is unknown. Also living with the family was Pelatiah’s niece, Narcissa “Nancy” Pixley, who eventually married William Seymour. Sarah Rogers married Amos Bartlett and moved west with him to Peoria, Illinois, where the family eventually relocated.

According to a historical account written by Helen M. Hastings, the structure that now houses the Brockport Village Hall and Emily Knapp Museum was built in the style of a Dutch row house, much like that of the former Presbyterian manse. Photos of that house survive and give us some idea of the look of the original Roger’s home, with tall chimneys flanking each side of the building. Red brick was the original color of the house, which was first painted light grey in the 1860s. Fireplaces grace the major rooms, ceilings are ten and nine feet tall on the first and second floors, respectively. The parlor woodwork was elaborate and always painted white in contrast to the faux grained doors. The house was built to impress, no doubt successfully.

Presbyterian Manse – west of the church; demolished late fall 1965. Built by Thomas Roby (1820s):
In addition to the house at 49 State Street, we know that Pelatiah built at least two other frame houses which survive. They’re located just to the east on State Street at the north 57 State Street) and southwest (58 State Street) corners of Park Avenue. Pelatiah’s family lived in one of the houses while construction was taking place on his brick home. In addition to building village homes, Pelatiah was also appointed by the state legislature to handle land sales near the canal. His compensation was 5% of the sale prices. As a relative by marriage to William Seymour, Pelatiah probably had some degree of influence with Seymour’s uncle, the canal commissioner.

By the late 1820s, the enticement to move westward became too much for the Rogers family to resist. To compensate William Seymour for his debts, Pelatiah relinquished ownership of his large brick home at some point and moved to Peoria, Illinois, with at least several of his children and his brother John June. There he took up farming on 160 acres of land, raising livestock and growing large amounts of oats, wheat and Indian corn. His sons James and Henry were very successful in the lumber business.

“Fell Asleep Age 66 Years … We Thank Our God Upon Every Remembrance of Thee” is the epitaph on Pelatiah Roger’s gravestone in Elmwood Township Cemetery, Peoria, Illinois. John June and Mary Rogers are buried there, as well.

William Henry and Narcissa “Nancy” Pixley Seymour
Owners: about 1830 to 1902
Much has been written documenting the long life and business success of William H. Seymour. He came to western New York as a young man to clerk for his brother James in a “mercantile” which opened in Clarkson and relocated to Brockport with the opening of the Erie Canal. He was appointed village postmaster in the 1830s. His partnership with Dayton Morgan and others in the business of manufacturing reapers made him a wealthy man.

Seymour, son of Revolutionary War veteran Samuel Seymour, was descended from early Connecticut colonists. His wife, Narcissa Pixley, our first village schoolteacher, was the daughter of Ephraim Pixley, an officer in the Revolutionary War from Columbia County, New York. The Seymours had five children, three of whom lived to adulthood: Henry William, Helen M. and James Horatio. Mary and John Seymour died as children. All three of the Seymour children joined Revolutionary War lineage societies based on the service record of their paternal grandfather.

Life for members of the Seymour household in some respects seemed to be almost ordinary, especially given the family’s wealth and social position within the village. They kept a cow in the barn next to their house and it was James’ responsibility to ‘drive’ her to the Seymour farm’s pasture in the morning and retrieve her in the evening. James, who enjoyed a lifetime of theatrical pursuits preformed childhood productions on a third floor raised platform which he used as a stage. Father William liked to read, play whist, a card game, and billiards. He traveled to Europe but preferred to stay home. A lifelong Democrat, he walked to the polls to cast his vote even in his ninety-eighth year, but he never served in public office. On the occasion of his one hundredth birthday, the village celebrated with and for him, his daughter served as his hostess for a party on his lawn and an orchestra provided music for all to enjoy.

Of William’s three children, only the oldest, Henry William, demonstrated business skills similar to those of his father. Henry graduated from Brockport Normal and Williams College. He became an attorney and assisted his father here but left Brockport for Michigan, where his father had bought timber acreage. He ran the timber operation and served in the Michigan legislature before being elected to Congress. He married three times and had one daughter. Henry died during a visit to Washington, D. C. in 1906. His body was returned to Brockport where his third wife, who died in 1951, rests besides him in the Seymour family plot.

In the mid-1860s, William engaged Rochester architect Henry Scarles to remodel his house. It was then that the mansard roof was added and the exterior was first painted light grey. There have been changes, of course. Once set on fire and burned to the ground, the family’s barn was apparently rebuilt but no longer exists. A large modern addition replaced the side porch and the glass conservatory has long been demolished. Still, the Seymours would recognize their family home, even today.

“Nancy” Seymour died of bronchitis at age 80. Her husband died in at age 101. They were both buried in the Brockport Cemetery. Ownership of the family home passed to William’s daughter Helen.

 William H. Seymour celebrating his 100th birthday riding in neighbor,
Wilson H. Moore’s horseless carriage on August 19, 1902.

Helen M. Seymour Sylvester
Owner: 1902 to 1921
Helen Seymour Sylvester, the surviving daughter of William and Nancy, was born and lived most of her life in her childhood home. No documentation could be found of her education, which apparently didn’t include college. She married William Bedell Sylvester, an employee of the Johnston Harvester Company. They had no children.

Helen was active in the DAR, and was elected first Regent of the Monroe Chapter. She hosted meetings at her home, although it was reportedly her older brother, Henry, who spent the most effort researching the family history. They must have been elaborate gatherings, indeed, with speakers, musical selections and flag ceremonies preformed while dressed in colonial costumes. She was also active in the Presbyterian Church.

It was Helen who built a summer cottage on “Point Seymour” located on 4th Lake near Old Forge, New York. Her husband had purchased the land for their summer home which had a dock and boat house plus several outbuildings – hardly a primitive seasonal camp. It was here that Helen passed away from heart disease at age 76. Her body was returned to Brockport and she was buried in the family plot with her parents. Husband William Sylvester retained life use of Camp Seymour but her younger brother, James became the next owner of the property, which still exists today.

James Horatio Seymour
Owner: 1921 to 1931
James Horatio, youngest of the Seymour children, also, like his sister, spent the majority of his life in the family home. He attended college for two years, apparently without graduating, and assisted in the family’s Michigan lumber business with his older brother Henry but had an otherwise unremarkable work record. He was, however, keenly interested in music and dramatics all his life, which was an immense benefit to the Brockport Opera Company, which James obviously had the funds to generously support. Gilbert and Sullivan operettas were especially popular during James’ lifetime and he played principal parts in many productions, always to good reviews. This was clearly his passion in life; not business.

James died at his California home in 1931. His body was returned to the village and the Seymour family plot in the Brockport Cemetery. It was James who willed ownership of the family home to the village, with a generous cash endowment, as well, for the purpose of establishing a library. Perhaps he recalled how much his father had enjoyed reading during his lifetime or perhaps he was aware of efforts to raise funds for a village library. In any case, his gift resulted in the creation of the Seymour Library located in his family home.

Epilogue 2013
The Seymour Library is now located in a newly built, larger building but the former Seymour home houses both the village offices and the Emily L. Knapp Museum of Local History, including its collection of historic books, artifacts and records.
History written by Carol L. Hannan, March 2013

Editor's Note: The Brockporter Historic House of the Week is a regular feature of the Brockporter Online News Magazine. It is made possible by the research and writing skills of Carol Hannan and the production services of Pam Ketchum. It appears on the Brockporter most Tuesdays. The Historic Houses of Brockport can also be viewed at www.probrockport.org.

Click the link below. 

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Holy Week in Brockport

Yesterday, Palm Sunday, was the first day of what, in the Christian calendar, is called Holy Week. The story of Holy Week includes Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the last Supper, His arrest, His Torture, crucifixion, and resurrection. It is a story which gave me nightmares as a child and still fills me with fear as a adult. What a terrible way to die.

It is a story of betrayal by one's closest friends, and the victimization by a cruel and brutal religious and political regime.

In A Course In Miracles T-6.I.9:1-9 Jesus says, "I elected, for your sake and mine, to demonstrate the most outrageous assault, as judged by the ego, does not matter. As the world judges these things, but not as God knows them, I was betrayed, abandoned, beaten, torn, and finally killed. It was clear that this was only because of the projection of others onto me, since I had not harmed anyone and had healed many."

To the cynical observer, it might occur to him, the old saying "Nice guys finish last." And to an enlightened observer, it might occur to her, as it says in ACIM, "Teach only love, for that is what you are."

It seems that the spiritually immature, hearing or reading this story, would see fear, sacrifice, and deceit, whereas the spiritually mature would see love, forgiveness, and truth.

We come to this earth to help our fellow human beings achieve the Atonement, At-one-ment, and it is the failure to master our fears that block our ability to enter into the Kingdom, to achieve enlightenment. The means to finding love and mastering our fear is forgiveness.

Can the slumlord dissolutionists forgive the Brockport Police and Pro-Brockport? Can the Brockport Police and Pro-Brockport forgive the slumlord dissolutionists? Jesus, our brother, says, as they are killing him on the cross, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." It takes a big person to rise above attack and forgive his/her attacker, but it is in this forgiveness that we arrive at a place of love and peace.

Jesus went through his torture and crucifixion to demonstrate that the physical body and the ego doesn't matter, because in the end, love is all there is. It is this insight, this awareness, that resurrects the human spirit and makes us whole, Holy.

May you have a blessed Holy Week in Brockport and around the world.

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Sunday Sermon - Having reflected on our sins, there is a better way

On this Palm Sunday we are reflecting on the 10^thanniversary of the start of the Iraq War which the U.S. government, in its hubris, titled “shock and awe”. Many of us were among those who protested the Iraq war as foolish and criminal and yet our assessment was overridden by a corrupt U.S. government and the majority of U.S. citizens at the time who wanted vengeance for 9/11. Those citizens, fanned by the  corporate media, didn’t care much about who the scapegoat would be for their loss and grief as long as somebody paid to make them feel better.

It is astounding to realize that the majority of Americans who supported the criminal pre-emptive attack on Iraq believed, based on the lies perpetuated by American media, that Iraq had something to do with the attacks on 9/11. This false belief is evidence of the psychotic delusions that fuel so much of U.S. policy and support for the corporate-military complex which has taken over the U.S. government which President Eisenhower warned us against back in 1960.

The problem is not so much the corporate-military complex which has taken over the United States government but the spiritual poverty of Americans who are so quick to believe what their corporate masters tell them. The Nuremberg trials demonstrated that the rationalization of “just following orders” does not exonerate culpability of those who perpetrate crimes against humanity. The Nuremberg position makes manifest the idea that there is a higher morality than the legalities of a particular nation. It raises the spiritual and moral question of one’s duty when one’s nation engages in activities that violate the human rights of others?

Here in Brockport we have seen public support for those who engaged in crimes against humanity branding them as “Hometown Heroes”. These “heroes” are aware of the crimes they have committed against other human beings and this awareness has lead to what is known as PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and suicide rates which now exceed the number of military causalities from combat.

In spite of some Brockporters attempts to assuage the guilt of military personnel and their families, the soldiers themselves know the moral truth of their activities for which they volunteered which leads to self loathing that leads to their self inflicted death to end their psychological torment.

Rarely, other than the Winter Soldier project and Bradley Manning's leak of documents through Wiki-leaks, are Americans told the truth about their support for their governments misguided policies and criminal behavior. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney cannot set foot outside of the United States because of the fear of their arrest for their war crimes. Will we  ever see justice done? Probably not because most Americans are just as guilty having supported their policies and actions.

On Palm Sunday we see Jesus ride into Jerusalem to popular acclaim only to be arrested, tortured, and executed by the same popular acclaim a week later.

Popular sentiment is a fickle phenomenon easily manipulated by the 1%, those in power. The ease with which the population is manipulated is explained by the spiritual poverty of that population who does not have a deep morality upon which to rely in making good judgments about human dignity and world wide justice.

The war in Iraq had the largest popular protests of any war to date around the world indicating that the population on the planet may be waking up and developing a higher sense of morality than has ever been witnessed before on the planet.

Some of us knew that the Iraq and Afghan wars were a big mistake. It turns out ten years later that we were right and the United States will be doing penance for our wrong doing long into the future. Our crimes will be placed on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren and they will wonder whatever possessed us to engage in such destructive behavior to assuage our grief?

This coming week, Jesus will be crucified and rise again, which demonstrates that the truth cannot be killed, goodness cannot die, and that attack and killing are all a bad dream from which we, as a species, have yet to awake.

Some of us knew the truth, increasing numbers of us, and we encourage the rest to move ahead and raise their levels of consciousness so that the Atonement can be achieved. If we learn anything this Easter may it be that war makers are not “hometown heroes” and that redemption does not come from violence. The lesson of Jesus death and resurrection is not that redemption comes from death and suffering as Mel Gibson would have you believe, but that redemption comes from rising above suffering and death and realizing that it flows from love for one another and the realization that we are One. Jesus words as he was crucified "Father forgive them for they know not what they do" stand out as a challenge to us to increase our awareness and understanding of what in the world we are doing. If we did, we would not be doing it, or having done it, we would repent the error of our ways and get ourselves on a new and better track. We should know, having reflected on our sins, that there is a better way.

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