Barbara Ferrell

To those people whom we love, but have never met.

I have a growing list of people whom my heart feels for who wouldn't know me if they saw me. This does not include celebrities, but others who risk themselves so that the world will be a better place. This list certainly omits most modern politicians, who are puppet slaves to greedy puppet masters doing their bidding for power, privilege, profit, prestige, and parties.

The list surely includes the young people countries send to wars. It also includes the nameless civilian victims like the teenage boy whose head was blown up like a dropped watermelon. It includes the young girl carried in her father's arms. Fire from bombs burned her foot to the bone. It dangled from tendons as she screamed in agony. These searing images were unforgettable.

When people in government sanitize wars, we are spared disturbing images that will pull us from the comfort of our lives. Why mention this now? This war has been going on for the past decade, and surely wars are nothing new.

At Christmas time many remember one individual, whom, no doubt, had the best of intentions. So many others risk themselves who are also deserving of light and love, not just on the days those in government designate it so.

The world is getting more screwy every day. If we sit back in silence, the world may get so out of hand that Soylent Green becomes reality rather than a fictional film. George Orwell's prophetic 1984, published in 1949 is already visible: the flat-screen televisions with built-in two-way monitors, perpetual wars, virtually no jobs other than government or military ones, monitoring of citizens' lives and bodies, etc. Much of the technology he prophesied was not invented in 1949.

Most did nothing when the Patriot Act was, oddly, so quickly enacted when it takes Congress forever to do anything as though it had already been prepared. We go through the scanners and pat-downs, mostly, without complaint. What dignities will we give up next? Will we allow strip searches as those in power exempt themselves or who are so rich that they have private planes and can bypass such indignities? Will lethal vaccinations be forced on the populace for another exaggerated pandemic akin to yelling 'wolf' when those passing the laws exempt themselves? As water becomes the next oil, what happens to average people when people like T.　Boone Pickens purchase the world's water rights as he is doing in Texas? Just as the Bush family has purchased approximately 100,000 acres in Paraguay between Bolivia and Brazil that sits on top of one of the world's largest aquifers. The reason for the purchase has been speculative, ranging from escaping war crimes prosecution to oil. These people are never behind the curve. They are well ahead of it.

This season of the year is a time when we can forget the stupidity coming from the people in Washington, D.C. who affect our lives to such a disturbing degree. We can come together in love. This does not mean we ignore what they are doing. Nevertheless, for a few days out of the year we can forget the nonsense by remembering those close to us whom we love.

Can we too, remember those whom we have never met, but love simply for being themselves? And, may love and light touch the hearts of those who could change their ways and find something bigger than their own insatiable appetites and need for control over others? Here is wishing they find true inner peace and happiness so that they will leave the rest of us alone.

... stay tuned ...