I Believe

This time of year, we're asked to believe in miracles. This got me thinking about what I DO believe. Here's the list:

I believe that the love of money (i.e. greed) is definitely the root of all evil. [Just think about what's wrong with our world for a minute and see if it doesn't come back to money or power, it's sidekick.] Money in and of itself is not evil - it is the lust for wealth that is evil.

I believe that we should all take care of each other - in our communities, in our state, in our country and in our world.

I believe Congress could do a much better job of representing the will of the people of this country if they were willing to listen to each other.

I believe the words liberal and conservative are perfectly good words and should not be demonized.

I believe that the best compromise, when diverse people are working on a problem, is the solution with which everyone is equally unhappy.

I believe the middle class is in danger of disappearing.

I believe family is the most important thing in my life.

I believe in God, but I don't always understand God's rationale. I also believe that trying to understand God is like trying to teach calculus to cats.

I believe good and evil abide in each of us and we need to be constantly on guard to make sure that good wins.

I believe that "Happy Holidays" is not an effort to destroy Christmas but a greeting said by those who are in doubt of what religion you are and wish not to offend you.

That's about it for today. I'm pretty certain most of these won't change much over the years, but there may be some new ones along the way.

So...what do you believe?

Got Community?

I live in southeastern Vermont, one of the areas recently hit by Hurricane Irene.

Brattleboro, the "city" closest to where we live - where we do our shopping, where we work - was deluged with water from a brook that runs through the downtown. One street flooded so badly it looked like a lake. Many stores on that street lost much of their inventory. Most of them did not have flood insurance.

Brattleboro is an artsy town. There are galleries, several good restaurants and cafes, a music school, several churches. It's a medium-sized town and a good place to raise a family, though the kids probably think that it's boring.

The town has been through a lot recently. In April, a fire nearly destroyed the main downtown building, the historic Brooks Hotel, home of several businesses and about 50 families. All were displaced. The owner is rebuilding, but it's going to take a long time.

In August, a disgruntled employee of the Brattleboro Co-op, another central business for this community, walked into work and gunned down his supervisor. This happened only a couple of weeks after a young woman from a nearby town had been murdered, so people in the area were reeling. Things like this just didn't happen here.

And then the hurricane came.

The Saturday Farmers' Market on Route 9 is another big part of this community. The hurricane nearly destroyed it when the local brook overflowed and cut a new channel through the site. The market's Board vowed to be open today at the usual time. When I saw the post-hurricane video online, I could see no way they would be able to accomplish that goal.

On Thursday, about 100 people descended on the site with racks, shovels, barrels and other implements of construction and went to work.

This morning, we got to the Farmers' Market just as it was opening. Things looked a little different. There were brand new picnic tables, a brand new sandbox with one little girl seriously digging, and hay everywhere protecting grass seed.

At the entrance, someone had hung a sign that read "Got Community?"

I'd say the answer is yes.

Update on 9/11

When I first decided to write something today, this was going to be a completely different article. Then I happened to glance at my last post nearly a year ago and saw that it was about the proposed mosque near Ground Zero.

I'm guessing that that debate has died down now given the state of our economy and the recent shenanigans in Congress. Most people are more concerned about what's in their pockets than whether or not different religions should be granted the same guarantee of free speech and religion as the rest of us.

This morning, I watched a short video on the memorial at Ground Zero scheduled to open on the tenth anniversary of that tragedy.

I was not ready for the visceral reaction I had when I saw the memorial. The shot was from an airplane looking straight down at the two squares on the footprint of the Twin Towers. There was a sinking in my stomach, and a profound sense of sadness overcame me. The final waterfall splashing down into the hole in the center of each perfect square reminded me of the many people who lost their lives that day, who became part of an earthly void. Some were never found, and this memorial will serve as their final resting place as well as a reminder to the rest of us.

And I wondered, have we really learned anything?