Observations From the Spectrum

To err is human, to forgive divine. 

All people commit sins and make mistakes. God forgives them, and people are acting in a godlike (divine) way when they forgive. This saying is from “An Essay on Criticism,” by Alexander Pope.

I am human and I make mistakes.  I do my best at accepting them once I have uncovered them.  I like to keep my balance sheet even or in the green since time and time again I have been proven that Karma is a bitch.

Humans make mistakes. Unfortunately, we allow these mistakes to go by us unchecked and without consequence.  We sweep them or allow them to be swept under the proverbial rug so to speak. Like when you are a kid and you pit your parents against themselves or put the blame on someone else to avoid punishment.  As a kid this is normative behavior. This behavior in an adult is sociopathic and criminal.

Before I tackle the title, I will set the stage using the relatively modern example of Lance Armstrong and the sport of cycling.  Before the LA error, there was a sport of minimal interest at least on the American stage. The contracts were small so the desire to obtain those contracts was nominal. Think of it like the profession of teaching today.  Students are not lining up to be teachers because the payoff does not equal the work. Imagine a teachers salary was 100k, people would be lining up at the door and therefore pushing and fighting to make it through.

Did cheating exist in cycling before LA?  You betcha. Why? Because the persons who are willing to be honest in the face of imminent failure are far and few between.  Imagine this. You and a friend grow up riding bikes. You both race bikes in your teens and through high school. In college you are recruited to race in exchange for your tuition.  All of this is for the greater good of all. You are in love with your life and your future. It looks like your hobby will become your profession. The dream right?  

What happens when your physiological testing comes back and the data proves to you that your VO2 is not high enough to make cycling a career but your friend is offered a contract?  Would you give up or still try to persevere? Logic and truth would tell you to quit because the data would be showing you that pro-cycling would not be in the cards for you or would you try to make it against all odds no matter the path.  In other words, would you dope and cheat to win?

I don’t know the answer for myself.  I have never been put in the position to choose and as of today, I have not.  I can certainly see how someone would and how once that pin fell, all others would fall after.  In cycling that’s exactly what happened. Systemic doping and cheating across the board led primarily by LA and the US Postal Team.  The only way to win and to get the contract was to dope. This led to a bubble growth spurt of the cycling industry which is now deflating as we speak.  Not as many care about the sport anymore and the headlines continue with the story of cheaters being caught. It has gotten old and boring.

This is an example of one quick snapshot of one sport and how it evolved away from sport into a system of cheating and deception.  Let’s now look through the lens of politics and government.

One thing that I know to be true is that there is never an easy road plus the bumpy ones are more fun provided you have 4wd or the right shoes.

Communism broken down to its simplest and most corrupt form is government run corporations while capitalism broken down to its simplest and most corrupt form is corporations running the government.  Same same but different as they say in SE Asia. There is even a shirt.

Another thing that I know to be true is that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Power=money=power. Same same but different.  

The fox in the henhouse. 

“Like a fox guarding the henhouse” or “Don’t let the fox guard the henhouse” is an idiom that is used to point out to somebody that his/her action invite disaster

We, the people, made a mistake along the path of Democracy and let a fox into the henhouse.  I don’t know who the first fox was but I surely know one of the most dangerous, Donald Trump.  He is the Lance Armstrong of American Politics and he wants one thing and one thing only, Power.  Plain and simple. If you cannot see that at this point or at least can’t imagine that, you are blind.  He wanted to be President of the USA thinking it would lead him to the throne of King.

I don’t want a King, I would only be a mere servant and at this point, probably a conspiratorial one who may be headed for the gallows.  Not my dream ending but if my voice were to be heard and listened to so that others would have less pain and suffering, it would be a price I could bear.

hope springs eternal. 

People will keep on hoping, no matter what the odds. For example, I keep buying lottery tickets—hope springs eternal. This expression was coined by Alexander Pope (An Essay on Man, 1732) and quickly became proverbial.

But I have hope.  I am a teacher. I have an abundance of patience and the energy to teach the same lesson over and over until you get it.  We are on a precipice or the proverbial cliff. Donald Trump will lead us down the path of feudalism where he is king and we left fighting for the scraps.  The Democrats led by the DNC will lead us down the path of an Oligarchy, like in Russia, where the power is controlled by the Elite few. Or we can come together and unite behind in order to create an immovable wall that will force the Presidency into the arms of Senator Bernie Sanders.

I am about peace so I know the choice I would make.  I will not outline one without a peaceful outcome. I think that choice would be worse than any of the three I outline above.  So for the time being, put aside your differences and unite to bring Bernie Sanders and his policies to the White House and across the land.  Feel free to start squabbling over semantics after we have his policies in place and a team of legislatures who are willing to do the work to get them there.

• All works at Observations from the Spectrum written by Dylan Netter
• Observationsfromthespectrum.org
• OFTS.blog 
• On? a third point of view – book of Essays
• Marinehippie.com podcast w/ Docstodden.com – dialogue exploring politics and musings of life 
• Horizoncoaching.org – English Tutor and Guide
• BeeHIVeplus1.org