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Happy New Year to everyone!
For the third straight year we were greeted here on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day with massive drone and missile attacks that took out critical civilian power plants and infrastructure, many hours in the cold with no electricity.
And we are the lucky ones. The warm winters make things more, not less difficult for the soldiers in the front lines who spend all day and night in muddy trenches getting soaked with 1 degree (33 F) water while constantly being pummeled by artillery, glide bombs and drones.
I want to take this moment while the year is still young and many still sorting out their goals for the year to thank my parents for my Jesuit education.
The Jesuits did not only teach me about math, science, literature, history… they did not just teach me about Christianity, they taught me about Life.
One of my teachers, Father Carrol, had us read all sorts of novels by existentialist writers, Camus, Shapiro, Beckett. I think all of them are atheists or at least not Christian.
He wanted us to think. He kept emphasizing that at the core of existentialism is the belief that life is about making choices.
He is right. Life is about making choices. In other words, we can just go with the flow and follow the flock and even that is a passive choice - but if we want to have Life to the fullest, we must decide what are the most important things, the most important causes, and make active choices, actions, to uphold and support what is important to us.
In the modern world where people treat their monetary assets as sort of a scoreboard and proxy for their success, it’s important to remember that success must be measured only by how much net good you are doing for what you have decided is most important to you.
Jonas Salk, a Jewish man who invented the polio vaccine could have become a billionaire if he saw through the patent process as most would have. He instead chose to save tens of thousands of lives by making the vaccine generic and pushing it out to the GP immediately and thereby making no money from what he invented.
That is success
Oligarchs and authoritarians only have as much power as we give them. Their money and power was given to them by us and can be taken from them by us. Every single one of them will be a rotting corpse or ashes exactly like the rest of us and Marcus Licinius Crassus, the richest man in the world, is remembered not by his wealth but by his defeat at the hands of the Parthians who killed him by pouring molten gold down his throat.
That is not success
There is nothing wrong with making money, but only if that is an agent toward contributing to a substantive goal.
Before the full scale invasion of Ukraine started, I chose the environment as my #1 focus for the world. The growing toxicity of our rivers lakes and seas and air. The related rise in cancer rates. And agricultural practices that result in unconscionable measures of suffering to animals.
Since the full scale invasion of Ukraine began, I have chosen combating the rise of authoritarian dictatorship as my #1 focus for the world.
Can anyone give me an example of an authoritarian dictator who pushed for pro-environmental policies?
My dear friends, life is about choices. Life is about taking action, about purpose.
Can anyone explain to me a more important purpose right now than fighting russia?
russia, who supports North Korea
russia, who supports Iran
russia who supports Cuba, Venezuela and many dictatorships in Africa
russia, who on Putin’s birthday, October 7th is Putin’s birthday, backed Hamas’ invasion of Israel.
Please don’t lie to yourselves… there IS hope for Democracy. Let’s view this beginning of the year as a time for hope. We shall save Democracy but it requires a choice, it requires action from me and from you. Ask yourself as the New Year begins what is most important to you. Make a choice and a plan of action on how to win. Remember what success is really all about.
God Bless all of you
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