Editor:
We have artists conceptions of Jesus and his life history because he lived in recorded times. We have none of God himself, because, other than Moses on the Mount, there are no serious claims to have met and talked with Him. We each assign to Him character traits we think our deity would possess, and none can prove us wrong. The bible states that He created us in His image. One has to wonder why He chose so frail a vessel as the human body for His work, considering how much more grand His creations are than first believed. Originally the universe was thought to consist of one planet around which the sun, a light dusting of stars and a handful of wandering bodies orbited. Galileo was imprisoned for revealing the truth. We now know that the universe extends as far as we can see, some 14 billion light years, with hundreds of millions of galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In that unthinkable immensity, there would be trillions of planets. How many of those would support life as we know it? Is there other intelligent life out there? If not, what a tragic waste of space.

Humanity has always been curious about what is over the next hill. At one time, we were determined to go see, so we went to the moon. Then we stopped. The last shuttle was just placed in a museum, a disgraceful monument to Americas’ submission to greed. Let us tax the rich, rebuild our educational system to graduate mathematicians, scientists and engineers, instead of bankers to rob the poor. There is unlimited wealth for the taking out there, we need to decide to go out and take it. Could we travel to other stars? Could we exceed light speed? We will never know until we try. Would we meet God out there? Might we even become gods ourselves? Or do we stay dirt side, buy more guns and continue killing each other? What is more important in your mind, the Koch brothers increasing profits, or the future of your descendents? Do we vote for policies driven by deception, greed, hate, prejudice, oppression and rage (Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, anyone?) or do we vote to expand the human spirit, to spread our wings and fly?

Barrie Johnson, Exeland