Cliff Benoist

Taken from Matthew 5.3-12 New Revised Standard Edition

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

There is a great deal to learn from these simple lines. I wanted to post them for you to read and think about. I will not attempt to tell you what I think they mean. I leave it to you to read and form your own opinion about them. I would suggest that if these words spark your interest that you seek out a local religious leader to further discuss them.

Ran across an article¹ on what can be done with the tires we throw away. Of particular interest is the use of the recycled tires to make new tires. When your raw material comes from your product that is a huge deal. It means less need for the original raw material.

"We have a variety of customers, everyone from customers who manufacture tires, to customers who manufacture automotive parts like wheel wells, or bumpers, or paints and coatings, companies that are making rubberized flat bed inner liners, to companies that are using it for paints for home use, or backing to carpet underlayment," Cialone says.¹

We need more people to think just like this company has done. Lets find a way to take our trash and make it productive again.

References:
¹ Scrap tires tread new ground as powder

We find ourselves stuck in war, longing for peace. If we could imagine for one moment that we wanted to honestly make the world a better place, would we be fighting wars? I think not! We would be educating our children. Could you imagine if we just took 1% of what we spent on the war to date and put that into education? So we have spent ~$491 billion, yes that is with a B (Cost of War). One percent is ~$5 billion. Can you see the difference it would make in the lives of so many children who are crying out for a good education. So you have to ask yourself what you believe in, war or peace. If we really do want peace, we will stop making war and start educating our children. Through education our children CAN change the world.

If we look at our bill for FY2007 for the war (FY2007 Federal Budget Trade-Offs for PA), we can see two very interesting numbers pertaining to education. If we just built schools in Pennsylvania with the money it cost our state, we could have built 365 new elementary schools. Using that same money to pay for new elementary teachers, we could have payed for 86,779. Looking forward to FY2008 the numbers are staggering with 413 new elementary schools and 98,037 new elementary school teachers (FY2008 Federal Budget Trade-Offs for PA). We really have our priorities wrong when our children take a back burner to a war!

Anyone who attempts to say this type of thinking means I don't support our troops is out of their mind. I support our troops and want to see every one of them brought home safe to their families. What it means is that I don't support the current administration passing this war to the next president to clean up. They need to do the right thing by ending this war and focus on our future, the children!

There is a real problem coming. For the first time, the world will not be able to blame the United States. Well at least they will be as much to blame as we are. I have been reading many articles relating to very cheap cars being sold all over the world. The problem is the cars run on gas, pretty sure we all knew that already. Isn't the whole point to get off of gas and move into the utopia of green fuel or is that just a goal for the United States? Another question surfaces, what are we going to do when the demand for oil doubles, triples or quadruples because of so many people needing gas for their cars?

There is not much positive coming from a particular online forum of late. I will leave the details of this to those who actually visit it. I do see the value of what some people are actually saying. One of those people has posted articles, although briefly available, that put me on a quest for knowledge, you know who you are and I thank you for making some very intelligent posts.

I want to focus on a post that got me looking deeper into the history of Benjamin Franklin. There is much to learn from him both personally and as a society. The Junto, a club established by Mr. Franklin, is one of those ideas. It is something that, those of us willing to try, could benefit so many.