“We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world - its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is and not be afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it. The whole conception of God is a conception derived from the ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men. When you hear people in church debasing themselves and saying that they are miserable sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems contemptible and not worthy of self-respecting human beings. We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages. A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It needs a fearless outlook and free intelligence. It needs hope for the future, not looking back all the time toward a past that is dead, which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence can create.” ― Bertrand Russell (Thanks to John Harrington for forwarding.)

from Deborah Fields Perez: "I'll tell you a little tid bit about my Cozmo. My sweet dog follows me everywhere I go. I don't mean to the store, etc. I mean he stays at my heels from room to room and even if I move only ten feet. He's following right along. If I'm drying my hair, he lays at my feet and even sometimes puts his paw on my foot and just leaves it there. If I'm in the kitchen, he's right there with me...on the sofa....in the mirror putting my make-up on. It doesn't matter, he wants to be right beside me. I can reach over and pet him at any given time when I am home because he is always that close, yet he's never in my way. If I sit down, he will gently lick my hand once or twice and look up at me with the most loving eyes. Life doesn't get any better than that."

now, here's the deal from the blue blue sky...arghhh. when we accept the finality of death, then we work to treasure our lives and the lives of others! no meeting in heaven when it is more convenient...no assuming we are so damned good that we'll all have more time to visit when we graduate and ascend. nope. this is as good as it gets...gotta be there for each other TODAY. and gotta call killing what it is...dead is dead. no rainbow bridges. the end.i have tried to get this concept across every which way from sunday...and people just stare and blink. DEAD IS DEAD...the tranquilizers we are supposed to swallow to avoid that fact are bullsh*t to keep the masses in line. arghhhhh.I AM NOT SUPERSTITIOUS...but whatever helps us while we live, to cope, i approve of if it involves reaching out to others in real time. and heaven would only be heaven because NO ONE has a lot to lose. equal opportunity...heaven only for some sounds too club-like to me. too exclusive like a country club. and entrance to heaven or not sounds pretty threatening and not sweet and kind. people have made the entire concept up out of whole cloth.animals i completely relate to, people are more of a challenge...and don't always have "eyes of Angels"!IF i had been raised on a farm, NO WAY would i have put up with the slaughter...not for one nano-second! we gotta be their guardian angels, no matter what it takes.i am surrounded by stuff from my columns and advocacy and bought file folders JUST to get myself to slow down so i can file all of this information...actually i am thinking i have facebooked (primarily for animals) for 4 years? is that possible? i am my own secretary...to work on all of this and then stop to organize is a herculean effort...and i am exhausted just thinking about it let alone getting something accomplished! we do have fun, though, don't we? we are on this earth to do what we are doing!I LOVE THE ANIMALS SO MUCH...and the people who help them! i totally believe in this social network...if only to find folks who are "on the same page" on this trip called LIFE in real time! no sense in waiting until we get to "heaven"...gotta be productive while we live...heaven on earth! yeah, yeah, yeah!ANIMALS = HEAVEN! RIGHT IN FRONT OF US IN REAL TIME...SOME OF US KNOW THAT, AND WE ARE THE LUCKY ONES!but some people (like some of my precious facebook friends) give me faith in human beings...cuz, to be truthful, i do not understand most human beings, so it's a bonus to find neat ones who know what's important!i see the promise of heaven after croaking as a giant tranquilizer for humanity...and also a "santa's watching" threat? a great concept to control the masses, however...that means death is meaningless and will be more thoughtlessly frequent with hateful slaughter of animals and occasionally people...no consequences...no accountability for the perpetrators or those who wish to be apathetic. no reason to become involved to curb and prevent the violence and the cruelty WHILE PEOPLE AND ANIMALS ARE PRESENTLY ALIVE.WHILE PEOPLE AND ANIMALS ARE PRESENTLY ALIVE, manufactured tranquilizers such as 'rainbow bridges' and 'RIP' and 'promises of angels with harps in heaven' are placebos and prevent the solving of horrid real-life problems. and furthermore, how anyone is so vain to believe they'll arrive there because of "goodness" and will catch up with those they ignored on earth is absolutely a disastrous daydream and quite rude. and that kind of attitude is not deserving of a heavenly situation. and i do not wish to discuss this further...geesh almighty!LeeAnn Lewis: "I'm with you all the way, Susie - God bless!"_________________Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available (click the title to order from publisher Open Books' website). Also available in both formats at Amazon.com , or download from iTunes Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't