By stepping back 20,000 miles, our participation on Earth gains clarity. We see no borders to defend, no political districts to win, no homes to secure. Our manmade containers blend back into our planet’s resources. We see the sun warming Earth’s cold surface, lush forests fading into desolate deserts, prairies peacefully lifting into majestic mountains.

From the human’s perspective, we see signs explaining religious rhetoric, political rallies, state boundaries and private property. Bombs and bullets are tearing into villages. Law enforcement officers are chasing would-be migrants. Rush-hour commuters are tucked in mobile cages, hamming on horns. Activists are colliding between moral convictions. Continue reading →

It’s tough to talk politics. Company policies and family requests often forbid it. Recent surveys suggest most people ignore such discussions, while some disenfranchise friendships. In December 1774, American revolutionaries argued over the best reaction, or no reaction, to the East Indian Company receiving a royal monopoly for tea deliveries, along with a special tax. In April 1995, Timothy McVeigh, Michael Fortier and Terry Nichols argued the ethics of exploding a massive bomb near a federal building in downtown Oklahoma City — leaving McVeigh to light the fuse alone, igniting the worst act of homegrown terrorism in the nation’s history. People around the world continue to argue the moralities behind the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, especially when the original premise was never proven true; the nation wasn’t harboring weapons of mass destruction. Today, political opinions are more polarized than any other point in the past 25 years, according to a review of surveys last month by Pew Research Center. What’s happening? Continue reading →