A Side Trip for a Change

Connie's cousin Jana in New Mexico is married to a pretty special guy. Paul writes a weekly column in their local newspaper that I always look forward to reading. It is always informative, witty, and thought provoking. Below is his article for this week. I happened to watch a similar program on the Mayan calendar a few months ago (back in Washington State) and I thought similarly as Paul. However, I lacked the eloquence to put the thoughts to paper (or cyberspace as the case may be). And, you will recognize that Paul and I share similar views on our system of government (but again, can't put to paper). So, many thanks to Jana for sharing. And, kudos to Paul for your writing. FROM PAUL: "I was watching a special on T. V. the other evening, about the Mayan calendar, and how, many scholars are saying that the world as we now know it, will cease to exist by the year 2012. As I watched, they explained that there has never been a calendar made, in all of recorded time, that is as accurate as that of the Mayans. In fact, their calendar covers thousands of years, but, ends suddenly, at the year 2012. The point that the producers of the program were trying to get across was that just maybe, there was a sinister reason the days stopped in 2012. Maybe, the Mayan's were trying to say that the world will end at the end of their calendar. "Or", I began to think, "maybe it was as simple as we haven't discovered the second page, or scroll, or tablet, that the remainder of the calendar is written on." Granted, I had been out in my backyard digging that day, so that I could keep our puppies in the yard, and I had stumbled across a strange looking rock deep in the ground, (O. K., it was actually only about eleven inches under ground.) Truth is, (besides the fact that I have a vivid imagination), none of us really know the truth about the Mayan calendar, or the reason why it stops in 2012. The reason that I bring this up is that many of our citizens are terrified about the state of our country. I was discussing the events of the past few months with a young man recently, and he told me he is planning on moving to Europe just to get away from the uncertainties of our future. He was convinced that our government is on the verge of total collapse. He is convinced that there are a handful of sinister individuals in our country that are so greedy that they want to have total power over everything. And, he had a lot of facts that backed up his arguments. The one thing that I was sure of, and tried to conveyed to him, was that throughout all of recorded time, our system of government is the best that has ever been tried. For all of it's failures, and the problems that we have come up against, it is really the only one that allows the people, the ordinary citizen, the ability to work towards changing the failures in our system. I speak with a lot of people every day, and my prediction for this election is that it will be participated in by more people than have ever voted in our country. (I know, I know, I haven't picked a winner in the Super Bowl or World Series in the past ten years.) I also know that our country needs some serious changes, and this year's election is the best venue for that change. The only way that this will occur, though, is for all of us to go to the polls on November 4th, and vote. It is the one method for change that all of us can participate in. If we all take the time and make the effort to do this one act, then I honestly feel that we can approach the future without fear and we can begin to repair the things in our government that need fixing. And who knows, maybe sometime soon, they will find the rest of the Mayan calendar that shows our world continuing on beyond 2012." Paul R Ortiz y Pino