Today in the New York Times is an article about the failure of social scientists to adequately explain the disconnect of millions of black youth from the american mainstream.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/opinion/26patterson.html

Also recently an article (March 20th--find it referenced in the above article) in the NY Times entitled "Plight Deepens For Black Men Studies Warn" These might shed some insight into the recent academic thinking about this tragedy.

This is why we have to fight for our right to learn Hunduism in the schools.

Why aren't these issues to be found in the main-stream press? I did find a mention in the NY Times round-up of blogs from March 29th. This has generated a great discussion in these pages. Lets see if it is picked up.

Come on you guys lets all bow down to the flag.

Lets have a little old-time civic religion and pretend that we are our own small proud selves and separate from others. With the short time we have left on this planet as we know it lets not contribute anymore to global warming!

Burning's the problem. It started with those poor unfortunate witch suspects in Europe...maybe before that...and has continued today. Jews were burned. The towers were burned. Japan was burned during the Second Wold War. Let's stop the burning!

Our politicians are our pet frogs. They are apt to do froggy things. The whole world is wondering if the US shouldn't be in recovery. Our egotism is a little embarrassing. The first step is to admit that we are powerless and our lives have become unmanageable. I have little faith that this government can solve a problem (from Iraq to prescription drugs to Katrina to immigration, you name it).

Lets move the agenda off US, US, US. Lets all try to wake up from this nightmare. It's getting too hot! Anything that divides us as a nation is not helpful right now. Cultural values evolve and chnage. Lets not get hung up on icons.

Time to wake up. Everyone is you!

I enjoyed reading the letters.

Instead of arguing about the existence of God, why not wonder about your own existence? Is it true you were really born? What is born? Poke a hole in that one and the whole 'death' problem dries up.

Once you step thru the looking glass you start to see things like 'others' and all the trouble starts. As they say in in Zen--'One cut, two pieces.'

"He who sees himself apart from Me; is there not in him an unwitting polytheism?"

--Al-Nifffari, a wanding sufi of the 10th century

Why not call God, All that is and the source of all?

itsallit-sohowtograspit ?

Going to Berkeley in the 60's I always thought there was something wrong down there on the farm.

Article seems to contain a lot of empty calories.

Trans-fats: the Repulbicans have had this issue in a slow crock pot for too long.

Why should big business take so long to get a known danger out of our food chain? Now, food manufacturers can put '0' transfats on the label and the product can actually contain some!! Who thought up that idea...let me guess? Now, per Glassner, we are supposed to ignore it because hunger in America is a bigger problem.

Try to get information from Cargill or ADM as Michael Pollan tied in Omnivore's Dilemma. His request was denied because of "food security." Geez...

Here's the best argument for vegeterianism.

It's more fun.

I'm just kind of sorry that the Republicans didn't exercise the Nuclear Option and do away with the ancient fillibuster rule when they had the chance because we certainly don't want a bunch of troglodytes stopping progress after 2008.

Young voters understand that the old guard is full of Rove. At least I hope so.

We are all trying to find our happiness. That is spiritual life at its best--the adventure of waking up.

The Casteneda books helped us imagine that there was something beyond the spell of our own minds.

Don Juan is as real as you are.

The review left a bad taste in my mouth. Yes, yes, Vollmann is long-winded but at least he tried to write about the subject. His personal pickadillos are not the point. The letters do remind me about how judgmental we can get about poverty and prostitution.

Did anyone notice that at the end of the debate when the candidates were asked what they'd do in their first 100 days that Bill Richardson said something about restoring civil rights or Constitutional Rights and it got the most applause? Did I remember that right? Seems like he is on to something. The audience certainly responded. Maybe restoring Habeas Corpus is a real issue among concerned Democrats. Anybody else notice this or was I dreaming?

If you really are just a body/mind you are in a kind of trouble that can't be helped-- no matter what your mental attitude. If the big terrorists don't get you the little microscopic ones will and they always win eventually.

So I ask your deepest intuition: Are you just a person? Your answer to this question might seem like thin gruel (your simple intuition in the face of a lot of hard evidence to the contrary) but you might acquire a taste for it. It's a main dish served by Zen masters.

Gary, keep wondering until things become wonderful.

Have we hit bottom yet?