Values

On a Zoom discussion Thursday, one break-out group got onto discussing values – what, the question was, are truly your values? The group agreed that reflecting on and assessing one’s core values was a difficult and valuable regimen.

In follow-up to my catalog of my beliefs, developed in the same reflective and difficult process (Northwest Ruminations: Sept 11^th, below) here are what I regard as my values:

The Rghts to be Respected and to be Heard: everyone has value and deserves to be understood.

·          Facts, History and Science: information and perspective are necessary to dealing with the world.

·          Pragmatism: what works trumps ideology and theory.

W     Equity, Justice, and Fairness         

        Life: living beings are connected in a web of force, the origin of which is unknowable. Best bet: treat sensate beings as sacred.

·           Skepticism: a grain of salt is a required ingredient for effective citizenship.

·           Community: better to go slow by consensus and collaboration than fast alone; I’ll go further in the end.     

·           Accountability, i.e., accepting and acknowledging responsibility for one’s (my) acts.

·           Humility: nobody likes a know-it-all – and you don’t know it all.

·           Loving: healthier than hating – for everyone.

·           Empathy, the glue holding community together.

·           Compassion and Forgiveness.

·           Foresight.

F      Freedom, to be exercised and granted to others.

 

A Postscript to Elephants in the Room (re Nuclearization of the World's Hot Spots)

I just posted letters (real ones, with envelopes and stamps and addresses and all) to my Congressman Adam Smith and Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell in follow-up to my post about nuclear dangers.

Here is the text sent to each of them:

I recently posted on my blog a piece about the danger of potential nuclearization of hot spots in the world (The Elephants in the Room, at Northwest Ruminations.) I said there “. . . world leaders are acting as if they do not see these elephants, but they must. I cannot believe they do not. But what are they doing?”

The latest kindling being laid is Putin’s revocation of Russian Federation ratification of the test ban treaty. I see that Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Arms Control Association have raised the alarm. We need more voices doing so.

What we really need is a Nuclear Greta Thunberg to alarm, arouse and energize young people around the world to this second source of existential danger. And your voice and presence can help find her or him and encourage them.

Please weigh in publicly on nuclear risk – in Kashmir, in Zaporizhzhia, in Dimona and Natanz, in Pyongyang and Seoul, and now in possible resumption of testing by Russia, North Korea, China and who knows whom else. Please, make sure US testing does not resume. And please help ignite the youth of Washington and the US to rally and raise their voices about these elephants in the rooms.

Sincerely

Consider doing the same, please. Copy this if you want; no pride of authorship here. We need more voices about this existential threat, arguably one more immediately deadly than the progression of global warming. Whether you view nuclear arms exchange as #1 or #2 threat of extinction doesn't matter; we must address both. Send a letter or an e-mail to your Congressional representatives, please. Arise. 

They're Back

 I've sent something like this before, but they're back:

  

  

Yellow-orange leaves

blanket silent roots dreaming

of green springs to come.