I think you have put your fingers on the very things that are eroding our society today. Well done.
However, I do have one comment. You wrote in this paragraph:

"Specifically, he does not need to join a gang or tribe whose members will help him battle others. In civilized society there is no need to ally oneself with members of one’s race or ethnicity (as do the Tutsi’s and Hutus in Rwanda; or the Serbs, Croats and Albanians in the Balkans), or of one’s religious sect (as do Sunni’s, Shiites, Jews and Christians throughout most of the Middle East..."

I would submit to you that Jews be left off this list. For they have formed a western government guided by the same principles you and I hold dear. BUT I also observe that they too are pandering, (yet perhaps slower) to the juggernaut of Islam, (Gush Katif).

It is now that we need great statesmen, and greater citizens to wake up to the peril our way of life is in.

Thank you for your lucid summary.

Now we need to get to work.

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Posted by David to Thrutch at 3/03/2006 12:22:16 PM