Environment means people and the natural world The word environment usually refers to what is around us: air, water, house, trees, grass, town. However, with the broadening of human understanding about the effects of pollution and industry on human health and wildlife, environment received the philosophical and legal definition of human responsibility of protecting both human health and the health of the natural world.  That new responsibility brought into being the US Environmental Protection Agency in December 1970. The mission of the EPA is to protect human and environmental health from pollution or any other violent attacks.  The Trump factor To our misfortunes, since 2017, the United States has been governed by Donald Trump, an irresponsible president who dares suggest climate change is a hoax. Such audacious falsehood undermines the environment and sets the EPA under threatening convulsions. Trump made his reputation on sleaze: indulging in the mole...

Odysseus and the Sirens: Mosaic, Bardo National Museum, Tunis, Tunisia, 2nd century CE. Public Domain.   When I first started reading to my young daughter Corinna in the late 1970s, I said to her, “I am the first cousin of Odysseus.” Homer and Odysseus This was more than bragging to a little girl. I love Homer and Odysseus. They have been my heroes. They speak to me and they speak to all humans about the meaning and purposes of life and civilization. They are relevant today as much as they were in the age of Pericles and Alexander the Great.  Reading the  Iliad  and the  Odyssey  is reading Greek history at its most intimate: brutal wars, victories over enemies, triumph of free speech, democracy and reason -- and terrible weaknesses.  Odysseus was the peasant, the soldier, the hero, the faithful and unfaithful husband, the Greek who loved his home more than anything in the world, including becoming a god.  More tha...

  Japanese whaling Japan is hosting the July 24 – August 9, 2020 Olympics. However, Japan is, once again, hunting and killing whales in “Japanese waters.” Japan used to hunt whales for years under the masks of culture and scientific research. Now, in 2019, Japan dropped those fraudulent claims and it is sending its fleets against whales. This Japanese whaling is unnecessary and wrong. Japan is no longer the post-WWII defeated and hungry country. It’s a wealthy nation that does not need whales for survival.  Moreover, whaling is a slap in the face of the International Whaling Commission representing nations that used to kill whales but no longer do. The persistence of Japan in killing whales might convince other countries doing the same thing. This would be catastrophic for whales and the planet. The ecological state of the world is so fragile that all bets are off. Killing the largest sea animals might just bring the Earth closer to ecological collapse. T...

The benefits of the federal government  The federal government is by no means a perfect organization. It mirrors society. Yet it is the only saving grace that prevents the collapse of society under the stress of capitalism. It funds the military establishment and provides socialist medical care to its veteran soldiers – and members of Congress. The federal government also employs thousands of outstanding scientists, engineers, medical doctors, economists and analysts of all kinds of specializations. These talented people work for federal departments, national laboratories, or institutes.  Altogether, government scientists and institutions form a matchless infrastructure for the production of knowledge for the good of society. This socialist federal government is an asset of great import. It invents new knowledge and technology, which it spreads to private institutions and businesses, giving them seed, funds and purpose. They, in turn, hire workers for the pro...

Campaign poster depicting William McKinley on a gold coin proposing prosperity at home and prestige abroad. Courtesy Library of Congress. Solon In early sixth century BCE Athens, a few rich landowners enslaved those of the rural people who could not pay back their debts. In fact, they went further. They started selling their fellow indebted Greeks to foreigners. Athens and rural Attica were on the verge of civil war. Cooler heads prevailed and powerful Athenian politicians invited Solon back to rule. He had served as  archon , chief political leader of Athens. He was a poet who praised  eunomia, good order and government. He had the reputation for honesty and justice. Once an  archon for the second time in 594-593 BCE, Solon forgave the farmers’ debts and mortgages, bringing an end to serfdom  and slavery. He purchased back those Athenians who had been sold to foreigners.  In his  Constitution of Athens (12.4-5) , Aristotle quotes...