Heard the news? Beam me up

 BEAM ME UP?

This week’s news provides a playground  for thoughts about seeking peace and joy and we’ll go there in a moment or two, however, first there’s a focus on going where no person has gone before. Okay purists would scream it’s where no “man” has gone before…well the heck with that if there aren’t women most men aren’t going there unless it’s golfing.  A couple days ago marked what would have been the 100th birthday of Gene Roddenberry the creator of Star Trek.  Now thinking back on it here’s a ship that’s going out to explore and learn.  It’s not going out to conquer places or to prove  Vulcans are a superior  life form.   Wow what if we could go out to explore our universe without worrying  all about how we compared to the other life forms we might come across?  What if we could leave our comfort places and travel some mental distances in order to learn. Well we have zoom and FaceTime and we have moved beyond those flip phone communicators yet we haven’t quite manifested the transporter device.  On the other hand we are working on Euronext so we might be able to move our “mind” between locations quickly.  So who knows?  What if we view the transporter as an effort to be with someone in the present moment?  Maybe it’s a  high tech empathy device?  If this is true maybe we can work a little on being with. The people we know in the present moment?  Anyway as Spoc would say “it appears to be a logical alternative Captain.” 

Okay the news… 

The big news is getting out of Afghanistan.  I’m really tempted ot editorialize  about the diplomacy that got us there and  about the politics that demonstrate  a clear misunderstanding  of the cultural factors at play  around the world.  All I will say is this…. Think of one tank….

We will not be building or sending  any more tanks  and while many might think ‘so what’s the difference?  One battle ready modern tank costs an estimated 6.21 million dollars.  Oh in other news… American faces a dramatic  shortage in childcare. Workers.  —-finish the tank story?  Okay…

Given the average salary of a childcare worker and the average cost of a tank….. well you guessed it…

We could choose to pay full time salaries to over 200 childcare workers for a year  instead of deploying. One tank somewhere.  So the next time you see a tank in a parade or in a video clip  of US troops somewhere consider that  we might be providing help for 200 workers and families. .  Oh and a modern bomber?  Well a couple years ago a contract with a well known defense contractor  placed the price of a single completed plane going from start to finish at  just shy of a cool Billion with a B.  So conservatively  speaking we are talking about 32,000  childcare workers.  How many teachers? How many child psychologists?  How many seniors could get the in-home care needed to keep them home instead of nursing facilities?  Well  get out your calculators and hop on google.  Oh and at $5.00 a gallon we could give away 200 million gallons for each plane…. 

So to sum up the news for the week…. 

We could go warp speed toward  being with each other and we can choose to solve our childcare challenges  or we can complain about not conquering  a culture through violence.  Maybe we should  buy a couple planes  and bomb  folks with credit cards. And smart phones and let basic human evolution  do its job then use apple and amazon to bring  our way of life to the world?   

Oh well….  Live long and prosper