Does humanity have a future? If so, how do we create and mold it to make a better, more just, and more human future?

As a starting point to understand the context of the Pope’s letter I asked Substack’s image generator to show me a picture of Pope Leo signing papers at his desk.

It was a simple request. What could go wrong?

So… here is Pope Francis on the left wearing green vestments that would be used only in worship (the liturgy) but even then they are not properly designed. He wouldn’t be wearing anything fancy anyway. On the right is another pope. He seems to be Pope John Paul I who was pope for 3 months in the summer of 1978 when he died unexpectedly. He was also informal and refused to be crowned when he was installed as pope. In any event, I don’t think that Pope John Paul I would be grading Pope Francis’ home work. The images in the background do not look too religious. :-)

Now here is our Peruvian pope from Chicago, Bishop Robert Prevost now known as Pope Leo XIV. He spent decades as a missionary in Peru, became a Peruvian citizen, and was made Bishop of Chiclayo. As most people know he is a Chicago White Sox fan. Below is a “real” digital image, if a digital image can be considered real.

In our second attempt to generate an image of Pope Leo signing the encyclical we find Pope Francis - of happy memory. It’s a nice picture but he wouldn’t be wearing an embroidered stole in his office since it is for church services (the liturgy). the skull cap or zucchetto is a nice touch. He wouldn’t be wearing more than one chain with a cross. He wouldn’t have worn papal bling because he preferred simplicity and took his name from the saint of the poor. The background painting appears to mix parts of Renaissance angels and unicorns. Maybe it’s an early Baroque Rorschach test. The oversized handle of the papal seal seems to be stuck into some time of wooden (?) box.

Of course, manipulating images is as old as Photoshop. However, these images are generated - not manipulated. The AI generated images above are not even “deep fakes” which make it hard to know which image and speech is actually the real image. It is now common knowledge that some one can take a snippet of you speech and say things in your exact voice which may or not be true. However for someone not familiar with Catholicism or popes they might not know that these images are false.

You can see the actual copyrighted images on the Vatican website.

These images above are an example of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) But the big bugaboo coming down the road is artificial general intelligence (AGI) that mimics the creation that occurs only in the human mind.

Here are the definitions according to Google Overview AI.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) refers to existing, task-specific systems designed to create new content (text, images, code, or music) based on learned patterns. In contrast, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is a hypothetical, future AI that can understand, learn, and apply human-level cognitive skills across any intellectual task.

This GenAI search cites answerrocket.com, coursera.org, YouTube.com, and others. But you don’t have to go to those sites. According to one estimate 58% of searches produce a Google Overview AI summary. Sites listed in the overview have lost 61% of their organic (non-paid for searches) traffic. Source: Forbes Small Business May 18, 2026. On the bright side the article encourages small businesses to deepen customer trust, develop unique messages and work with their own internal mailing lists

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Generative Artificial Intelligence is taking over routine and more complicated tasks. It is reducing or eliminating lower wage and lower skilled positions as well as entry level professional positions. Computer coding is becoming more automated. Chat bots such as Chat GPT, Claude, and Gemini allow people with little technical skill or experience to create code and to write and edit documents using verbal commands or instructions.

These tools have created a crisis in the classroom because it can be hard to figure out whether the assignment was done by the student or by a chat bot such as Chat GPT. Educators have responded by using other algorithms to look for AI. They have attempted unsuccessfully to prohibit it. Some have even resorted to the 20th century “blue book” in which students wrote their exams answers on paper. Some students have complained about the laboriousness of printing block letters by hand and have learned cursive writing which makes our return to the last millennium complete. Taking a jump into the future, schools in Finland which are rated as some of the best in the world are incorporating AI into teaching and learning processes.

Chat bots do not create knowledge or text per se. They are called predictors because they can string together words in their most frequent sequence applicable to the request or the task. Documenting these frequencies of word association is based on the millions of word relationships in thousands to millions of documents that they have been trained on. These huge data sets are called large language models (llms).

There is a bigger issue with artificial general intelligence. There is the hope by some and the fear by many that AGI may become its own intelligent sentient being or intelligent machine. There has been a focus on the “singularity” - the point at which general artificial intelligence meets and exceeds human cognition. This is the stuff of science fiction, neuroscience, and computer science. This will be the topic of our next post.

In my second post in this series, we will take a look at Pope Leo’s encyclical and his view of the risks to humanity and what it is to be human. More importantly, the Pope looks at what it means for human rights and social equality as well as the dignity of the human person.

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Author’s note: Although the people, events, and circumstances of this story have been fictionalized it is based on a true story.

Paula took 10-year-old Josefina by the hand as they ran to her parents’ home. Her father Marcelo and her mother Adelaida were diabetics and had respiratory problems. They had weathered the first wave of COVID, but they were now testing positive. News filtered that the cartels were moving to consolidate their territory and were moving in on the town. The federal troops had hunkered down in their garrison and were being resupplied by helicopter. Paula’s brothers and sisters had not been attacked, but they moved about uneasily in Santa Maravilla - a town that had been home to their family for over 150 years.

Over the last several months there had been a palpable fear that kept everyone at home at night. People did not go out and the rhythm of sitting outdoors on the veranda, having company, sharing the late evening cena were all gone.

The drug trade had been a part of the local economy for years, but it had not disrupted social life in such a long and perverse way. There was meth and now there was fentanyl. The basic ingredients for the drugs came from China and were openly imported at the Port of Lázaro Cardenas and made their way up the mountains.

Cocaine had been the staple for several decades. Ninety percent of the cocaine that comes to the US starts in Colombia and makes its way to El Norte through Central America and Mexico. It follows a complex network on the Pacific coast and much of it goes up the mountains through the labs and warehouses of Santa Maravilla and then moves on to Tijuana for distribution in California and the west coast.

The Placentero Valley had a strong farm economy in a beautiful setting of rolling fields surrounded by majestic mountains. The area had cattle ranches and grew wheat, barley and, of course, corn. There was an abundance of citrus, avocados, and tropical fruit orchards. Largely hidden were the meth labs. But now the cartels were taking over local farms and businesses. They were running their own candidates in local elections and had control of the police and the courts.

They charged taxes of 10% to 20% on local products at packing houses and wholesale distribution points. Many times they just seized the ranches and orchards and threw out the owners or shot them if they resisted. These narcotraficantes (drug traffickers) also supported local festivals and a few charities. The Placentero Valley, like one third of Mexico, an area about the size of Texas, was no longer under the control of the federal government in Mexico City. Isolated garrisons and military installations would often side with one cartel against another and then double-cross the first.

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Nuevo Jalisco was now moving into areas like Santa Maravilla to challenge Los Templares. Both sides had the latest in lethal arms, obtained legally in the United States and China. In addition to automatic weapons, they had handheld RPGs (rocket propelled grenades), mortars, and claymore mines. A staple of the US Army since the 1950s, claymore mines explode 700 steel balls in a 60-degree arc killing everything within 50 meters (164 feet).

In the last few days, the rival cartels had battled for control of the highways around Santa Maravilla. They hijacked large beer and soft drink trucks and buses to form massive roadblocks guarded by mortars and RPGs. They set the vehicles on fire, providing a more permanent barrier that stifled the transport of food, consumer goods, and medical supplies. The residents were now trapped in their own town. Priests and seminarians (those studying to be priests) attempting to fulfill their duties were killed on the roads.

Paula was a single mother. She and her partner Juan began their lives together when she was 14 and he was 15. She had Jose when she was 15. Carlos came two years later when she was 17, and Josefina was born when Paula was 22. At 32, pretty, slender, and petite and dashing around on her moped, Paula would normally be expecting grandchildren in a few years, but fate had intervened.

Paula had made it through second grade and Juan had been lucky enough to make it through middle school. Although free elementary and secondary education is the law in Mexico, educational attainment in poor rural or urban areas is limited. Paula and Juan began working at age 7 to support their families. Schools were limited and underfunded. Many could not afford school uniforms and school supplies. For many like Paula and Juan, education was not a family priority. For all intents and purposes Paula was illiterate and Juan was functionally illiterate. They had not lived together for years, and Juan was working in the US on a seasonal farm worker permit. They were not married and like many, they had no plans to do so. They were living apart and the relationship was tenuous at best.

Paula and her family waited for word of her sons and feared the worst. Many young men - mainly teenagers had simply disappeared. Others had been caught in the crossfire. Some had run across fields that had only been mined the day before. Paula was overjoyed and relieved when Jose and Carlos made it back. They had gone directly to their grandparents’ home knowing that their escape made it unsafe for them to return home.

As fate would have it, Paula’s father, Marcelo, had a friend Miguel who drove a taxi. Since people were desperate to get in and out of town Miguel had devised a route using a network of back country farm roads and some dirt tracks to get around the roadblocks at night. He did not use his headlights, and he made the run only on nights with moon light. Marcelo started making calls to arrange for sponsors, since the INS the (Immigration and Naturalization Service) under the Biden administration might release them to sponsors who were mainly family or friends. Even though attempting to get to the US through a port of entry was a more tenuous option, it was safer than hiring a smuggler – a coyote. They had the advantage of having relatives who were US citizens. Paula’s partner Juan had an aunt, Mercedes, in California, who was willing to sponsor them. Carlos was too traumatized to think of leaving the country and wanted to stay with his father’s family who lived in another city.

In the early morning Paula, Jose, and Josefina clutched a few personal items and got into Miguel’s taxi. They didn’t have Mexican passports, and they didn’t have any other identification documents. With luck, despite some close calls, they made it to the nearest major city and got on a plane for Tijuana. They were taken in by an older distant relative, Cristina, who lived in a small one-room house the size of a shed. It had a tin roof. They were received warmly but there simply was not enough room and they spent most of the day outside trying to figure out how to get an appointment for an interview. There was a new US government app to make appointments, but it had glitches and was easily overwhelmed a few minutes after it opened every morning. She couldn’t use it in any event because she could not really read. All her messages and texts were made through verbal recordings. A couple of days later, a woman told her to go to a particular gate since the line was shorter, but most people were being turned away. It was for asylum seekers.

The names and many of the details in this story have been changed to protect those involved.

The boys were cold in their thin jackets. Up on the mountain the air was clear and the stars were bright. There was no moon and it was incredibly dark. Jose and Carlos (not their real names) were teenagers. A couple of days ago they were working in their family’s orchards. A minivan pulled up and they were pulled inside by masked men. Bags were placed over their heads. The minivan spun its wheels racing out of the orchard and that’s how they were recruited by the Nuevo Jalisco Cartel.

This was their third night on the mountain in the forest. Their training had been haphazard. Their basic arms training was very simple. In a training identical to Russian training on the front lines in Ukraine, they were told that if they did not shoot as directed, they would be shot. If they tried to run away, they were told in a direct and menacing way that their families would be at risk. They mainly sat in the hot sun. Food and water were also in short supply. In the evening guitars played the corridos (ballads) telling the woes and victories of key drug traffickers. The boys and the other “recruits” were sent up the mountain to find a place to sleep. The only way down was through the camp, and they had no doubt that their captors and now superiors would not hesitate to shoot.

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They didn’t know exactly where they were. They had been in the van for about two and half hours mainly on the highways and then on dirt roads and then on no roads. There had been some rumors, and their guards had been a little on edge. There were whispers of Los Templares a rival cartel moving in their direction. But it brought no joy to the captive young men who knew that they would be caught in the crossfire.

It was about 2:00 AM when something like fireworks started. But the sounds were much clearer than fireworks. Their rapid thin and sharp sound made semi-automatic rifles seem slow. There was only starlight and the weapons produced only flashes in the forest and sharp echoes and ricochets that rebounded across the mountain range in a sharp waves of blast and recoil. The bullets came in waves like water from hoses. The bursts of silence were more terrifying. The combatants were changing positions in a haphazard way. The boys in their terror sensed both sides moving up the mountain toward them like a scythe.

Without thinking they began to move slowly from rock to rock and tree to tree down the back side of the mountain. The fighting became intense, but they managed to crouch down and sometimes crawl while the gunfire from the opposing sides went over their heads. Gradually, they moved away from the fighting. The fighting stopped closer to first light, and the boys knew that they would not have much time before their captors or Los Templares would know that they were gone.

They kept moving quickly and running when they could and soon found themselves on a road. But they didn’t know where they were. When they heard cars approaching, they dove into the bushes or slid down the culverts. They guessed that their home was generally toward the west and they began moving parallel to the road. They left the forest behind and its protective cover and came to a small rancho. It wasn’t more than a cabin with a tin roof and a small corral with an aging burro and some chickens. There were a couple of pigs and a small milpa of corn, beans, and chilis. An old woman peered out and then motioned them in quickly. She made them sit on the floor and gave them some tortillas and a few beans and told them to wait until she came back. When they asked where she was headed, she refused to tell them. She went down the road bent over with an unsteady gate.

They thought of running into the police station in the village, but they knew that the police would arrest them and notify the cartel which effectively ruled the area. There was no military presence but there was no shooting. A couple of hours later a battered Toyota pulled into the yard with the old woman and her middle aged nephew. He would take them to the nearest big city, but they would have to make their way from there. No names were exchanged. He gave them a little money as he left them and turned back warily. The roads were not safe. Parish priests and seminarians – those studying to be priests - had been killed in their cars.

Paula, her mother-in-law, and her daughter were at the store. A frantic little boy ran in to tell them that the boys had been taken in a minivan by Nuevo Jalisco. They raced back to the orchard. When they couldn’t find the boys, they went back to their home to get help. They were trying to make sense of what was going on and had only been home a short while before five men burst in, ransacked the house, and told them to leave and never come back. Within the space of an hour, Paula lost her home, her livelihood, and her two sons.

Usually I write about current events but I thought that it would be good to take a step back from our current turmoil at home and around the world to take a look from 30,000 Feet. Perhaps the most important and perplexing Christian belief is that Christ is truly human and the divine. He also faced the same temptations that all of us face. I haven’t published any of my homilies previously but this one was well received and I thought that I would share it with you.

First Sunday of Lent 2026

Take Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You have given all to me, I now return it. All is yours, dispose of it wholly according to your will.

Give me only your love and your grace, That’s enough for me.

- St. Ignatius Loyola

Introduction

Our Lord Jesus is not deceived. He does not deceive. He does not deceive himself. We are to live in hope and to use our gifts as God intended and not for our own gain. We live in the truth. Are we honest with ourselves and others - especially our loved ones? Are we honest about our feelings or are we confrontational? Does our hunger for recognition, success, or security try to turn the stones of falsity and vanity into something nourishing? Do we turn loneliness into bitterness? Do we turn physical or psychological pain into addiction? Do we turn our powerlessness into rage or passive aggression?

Stones / Bread – Turn these stones into bread. In our hunger we tire of waiting for God. We have power to convert stones into bread, but what kind of bread can we make from stones? What do we make of sand and gravel? We find a bitter harshness, a cold rigidity, a dreary loneliness. Living in God’s Word is the greatest nourishment. We hunger for bread from the finest wheat. Fresh out of the oven steaming warm and melting in our mouths. Can we trust God and wait for the bread?

Parapet of the Temple

God’s angels will save you lest you dash your foot against a stone.

How many times to we try to force God to do things the things we want through our own ego and self-centeredness? How do we misuse our gifts for an inflated sense of ourselves that really comes from a deep-seated insecurity? We try to hide our deficits and unhappiness by covering them up with a sham self-identity to hide our vulnerability. We become alienated from ourselves. We no longer know who we are. Addiction, infidelity, avarice greed consume us. Our spouses and children, and friends retreat from us as we look over the edge of the parapet of the temple.

We are told that if we leap at money, success, creature comforts, that our deep-seated yearnings will be satisfied. We think that we can buy happiness in the perfect young wife, in the perfect successful husband, in the latest cars, clothing, and gourmet food. We mistakenly believe these will spare us from the stones below.

All this will I give you.

The great deceiver shows us power, riches, and fame. All the world is ours if we but bow down and worship him. But these kingdoms, their wealth and power are not his to give. But … it would be nice – we think. No more worries about the mortgage. No more anxieties about those credit cards. No more feelings of powerlessness in our relationships and in our careers. People will do what we want them to do. Let’s see – a villa in the south of France would be nice. People fell down and worshipped Jeffrey Epstein – his power, influence, and the destruction of girls and young women. Riches and power are just over the border as one country invades another. Vengeance and wealth are at hand if there is a civil war. Hatred and violence against the weak, the poor, and those who are different will make us a Christian nation.

Christ who is like us in all things except sin was tempted just as we are. He chose faith and powerlessness, hope and suffering, love and rejection. He trusted.

“The old order is not coming back.” With these words Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the end of the post World War II rules-based global order. In Davos, Switzerland on January 20th, Carney succinctly summarized the situation of Canada and other “middle powers” such as individual European countries and the European Union itself.

Trump’s renewed efforts to annex Greenland promised to fulfill one of Putin’s great dreams - the dissolution of NATO. The crisis of the US attacking Danish territory - one NATO member attacking another - and the weakening or end of NATO itself would be sufficient. The way would be open for Russia to take the Baltic states and Eastern Europe and thereby achieve his goal of restoring the Russian Empire.

The crisis seems to have been avoided in part because of “soft” pressure from Congress. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Senator Rand Paul advised Trump that there was no real talk of invading Greenland among legislators. According to a CNN report conservative Senator Thomas Tillis (R-NC) said, “This is just not the way to keep the free world together.” Tillis also speculated that U.S. adversaries — including leaders of China and Russia — were taking great joy in the discord in the alliance caused by Trump’s efforts. “They’ve got to be cheering from the bleachers.” Tillis said.

Although NATO is still intact structurally, the cement of the alliance, trust in the United States as a reliable partner, has been badly damaged. Carney has called for the “middle powers” to de-risk themselves from US hegemony and that of the great powers. US allies around the world are no having second thoughts, particularly when the President of the United States tells Norway that since they did not give him the Nobel Peace Prize, he was not inclined to be peaceful. When Trump was informed that the government of Norway does not give the prize, he said, “I don’t care.”

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What is mind boggling about Trump’s obsession with Greenland is that it is baseless. Treaties are already in place that allow the US to expand or contract its military footprint easily. During the Cold War, the US had 17 military bases on the world’s largest island. Denmark has expressed its interest in expanding military cooperation and working on investments in resource extraction.

While we might think that Canada and Europe may be looking for the exits, it is probably better to say that they are renewing their gym memberships. Carney, the Prime Minister of what was until a year ago a calm and reliable neighbor to the north, is now advocating a move away from economic and financial integration. Canada is now working on a defensive strategy against its former friend to the south. According to the Finnish English language news outlet YLE, Canada is looking at Finland’s defense strategy in dealing with Russia since Canada may be in a similar position with the United States. Essentially, Finland’s strategy which worked in World War II was to shift to a guerilla war of attrition that made the territory to costly to hold.

Paradoxically, Trump’s obsession with Greenland as a means of controlling the Arctic has led to the alienation of US circumpolar allies Canada and Norway, which creates more opportunities for Russia and now China to assert themselves in the region. Within a few months, the US has badly damaged its own interests. It is one thing to be in a fox hole with a trusted ally. It is another when you are in a foxhole and wondering where you are going to point your gun.

US efforts to contain China have now been weakened as Canada, Australia, and the European “middle powers” look for more trade and diplomatic opportunities. Carney’s recent visit with China’s President Xi to “recalibrate” diplomatic and trade relations was far from symbolic.

Carney, in his address in Davos, said that the end of the old order provides an opportunity to begin a new one in which countries would no longer be subject to the risks of economic integration and international currency control. While Trump was working on military scenarios for the annexation of Greenland, it was not lost on the Europeans that the US effectively held them hostage economically and militarily.

Although this has been true since the end of World War II, no one saw it that way because there was an alignment of objectives and a reliance on US military protection and security. Trump’s “bromance” with Putin had already made the continent uneasy. Now, the global alliance of liberal democracies is thinking of life without US dominance.

This doesn’t mean that these allies won’t come together in a crisis caused by outsiders. However, the “middle powers” are beginning to look at the US as an outsider. Clearly, while the fabric may be stretched it has not broken. Never-the-less, it is held together by snaps that could snap and make Europe, Canada, and Australia free agents. As naive as Americans are about European history and geography, we are slow to realize that Carney’s vision could be a return to the entangled alliances that caused the carnage of the 20th century.

Certainly anti-,US feelings and even policies among our allies are not new but they have always been a minority view. The European far right which enjoyed Trump’s support has now turned against him. Trump’s callous disrespect for NATO has shown that perhaps negative feelings and reservations about the US were not so wrong after all.

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a fierce Trump supporter, is a relative newcomer to Congress. She is resigning after only 5 years. Greene’s banishment comes from her support of the MAGA agenda and Trump’s apparent willingness to walk away from his campaign pledges. Trump has called her a traitor and forced her from office by promising to support a candidate to oppose her in the 2026 primaries.

Green broke with Trump over the full release of the Epstein files. Trump had promised to release the papers during his campaign, but he became reluctant to fulfill his promise after a few unfavorable documents came to light and showing a few of them did not satisfy his supporters. In a surprising display of assertiveness, the MAGA base did not bend to Trump’s will. They demanded that Trump fulfill his promise.

Marjorie Taylor Greene became the face of the opposition. At first Trump held firm but gave way in what commentators have called TACO - Trump always chickens out. Some have said that this was Trump’s brush with political mortality. Almost immediately, he began to equivocate about the documents he would release. Although people have said that Trump’s political strength was due to a cult of personality, we are beginning to see that his base is treating him like other politicians. Trump’s tacit and open support of conspiracy theorists now came to haunt him.

Marjorie Taylor Greene held firm to the Trump populist campaign platform. In addition to the release of the Epstein files, Trump had promised to do something about the economy and the high cost of living. At first he could blame people’s perception of a declining economy on Joe Biden. He could also blame Biden for the immigration crisis. Trump had won his way to power by denying Obama’s native born citizenship and inflaming the right about the threat of murderers and rapists flooding across our “open borders.” He promised to close the borders and deport millions of undocumented residents. However, Trump’s deportation methods and lack of a coherent plan started to turn the independents and some of his supporters against him. Trump’s favorability ratings have fallen dramatically.

Trump was astute enough to see Marjorie Taylor Greene as the possible face of a rising opposition within MAGA. She was also in favor of keeping healthcare affordable by extending subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in opposition to Trump’s proposed cuts. She supported improving the affordability that Trump had promised. It now seems that Trump is again chickening out on the healthcare subsidies and even talks about increasing them.

Greene claims that her change of heart is not focused on a political agenda as much as it on the style of politics. She has said that she is going from doing politics with knives - her trademark style - to one of listening and finding common ground. She also seems frightened for her own safety after Trump called her a traitor, fearing that someone would act on his words to try to kill her.

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It seems that her great crime is criticizing Trump on his budget provision that would not renew many of the COVID-19 subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare). The effect of this measure would triple health insurance premiums for her adult children and make them unaffordable. Republicans are continuing their decades long attempt to repeal or strangle the ACA without providing a meaningful alternative, despite their slogan of “Repeal and Replace.” They have completely forgotten that the template for the ACA came from Republican Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts health plan. Additional proposed and actual cuts to the social safety net include the SNAP food program for low income people and the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) nutrition and support program for mothers, their newborn, and young children.

Greene also feels that Trump has not followed through on his promises to contain inflation and make everything more affordable. It is not a stretch to see that Biden lost because annual inflation in September of 2023 was 5.8%. Food prices rose by 2.1 %. Trump came back into office with the promise that he would roll back the cost of living. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 2.9 by August of 2025 and the Food Price index was 3.1% in September 2025. Additionally, his new uncertain inflationary tariffs and tax incentives have not yet hit the economy’s dashboard.

In a 2024 ABC election exit pole, two thirds of voters said that the economy was in bad shape. In addition, 45% of Americans said that their own finances were worse than they had been 4 years earlier. Surprisingly, this number was higher than those surveyed in the wake of the 2008 Recession. Although the inflation indices have been relatively consistent in both administrations, they exceed the Federal Reserve’s goal of 2% by about 50%.

Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, 31 - born in Kampala Uganda to Indian parents - became the mayor of New York City on an affordability platform. Mamdani is proposing free and efficient public transportation, rent controlled housing, public grocery stores, and child care vouchers. Like his predecessor, Mamdani plans to build 200,000 affordable housing units over the next 5 years. There will also be an increase in community gardens and green-spaces.

Trump disagrees with the importance of the affordability issue but has given it a brief glance. Democrats are finally united on an issue that is very important for the majority of people. Biden campaigned and won on “kitchen table” issues. Although he delivered on longer term strategies for the cost of living, he lifted millions of children out of poverty through the child tax credit which Trump has repealed. Despite all the messaging from both parties, the middle class are focusing on their grocery receipts, utility bills, and tightening their belts.

In a surprising photo op in the Oval Office, Trump met with Mamdani - a man he had called a communist - and shielded him against hostile questions from reporters. When Mamdani was asked about his calling Trump a despot, Trump intervened and said that he had been called worse things, so it wasn’t that insulting. When asked if he still thought that Trump was a fascist, Mamdani started to dance around the question. Trump placed his hand on Mamdani’s forearm and said to tell them yes. One report characterized the meeting as two men who shared their love of New York and the desire to make it more affordable.

The stock market, employment rates, and the Consumer Price Index show a strong economy. While this is good for investors, the middle class and younger generations are finding that everything costs more. Mamdani’s socialist remedies are beginning to look more appealing. Libertarian billionaire Peter Thiel, on the day after Mamdani’s election, brought up his long-standing critique that today’s challenges could lead the younger generations to embrace socialism if nothing is done.

Driven out into the wilderness, we await Greene’s next move. Others are now starting to diverge from Trump in a guarded manner. Many Republicans are leaving Congress and the party stalwarts anticipate losing control of the house in the mid-term elections. Trump will continue to exert power even as he leaves office, provided that his health and cognition do not continue to deteriorate. However, if there are significant fissures in Trump World or if he just gets more interested in his crypto currency and international deals in the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, there may be a path for Greene out of the wilderness. Of course, there is also the possibility that she may ride the affordability issue and her Trump and MAGA bona fides to the Senate. Stay tuned.

In difficult times we often ask for an end to our own and the world’s suffering but the answer and the healing is not in our asking but in our thanks giving.

Some say that we should give thanks in difficult times to show our faith.

Some say that giving thanks should happen when our prayers are heard.

Some say that praying to an empty heaven merits a no thank you.

The curse of cell phones and social media is fear and apprehension.

The state of politics, the state of the poor, the state of children slaughtered.

The ache in our hearts, the numbness of our feelings raises anger not thanksgiving.

In good times we breathe and smile and give thanks;

In the raising of the sun, the brightness of midday

In our hearts and lungs, a gentle breath of peace.

A gentle breath and smile, an alignment of chakras,

A yoga of release and all bad is vanquished

A resurrection beyond the cross.

In a thanks for all in the good and the bad

In science we even see that thankful prayer

In our very nerves and fiber glows a coal in deepest winter.

For family and friendships lost and gained

For turkey and trimmings of youthful smiles

For all blessings lost and found

We give thanks

The Lord be with you.

And with your spirit.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right and just.

It is truly fitting and just, always and everywhere to give you thanks and praise almighty and ever living God.

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The assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah on September 10, 2025, has brought political tensions to a boil with condolences and vitriol from across the political spectrum. Instead of the more traditional call of the president to bring the nation together, Trump began by blaming the left for the increase in political violence. Other voices decried Kirk’s positions and hurled videos at each other documenting his statements and actions. I think that it is misleading to call Mr. Kirk - may he rest in peace - a conservative activist. It is better to say that he was a far-right activist. He was a talented and charismatic person, husband, father, and man of faith. He was also a Christian nationalist.

There is a general view among secularists that our political struggles are strictly based on earth. The right sees political and cultural issues as battles in the heavens.

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The heavens are often invoked to support hellish causes. Deus Vult (God wills it) was the motto of the crusaders. It is now tattooed on the arms of Christian nationalists and Neo-fascists. The clash of civilizations was invoked in the Global War on Terror. Now it is the Culture Wars that justify the demonic as politics.

The media and popular lexicon define political factions and ideologies as liberal, conservative, or independent - left, right, and center. Of course it is really a spectrum. The left begins with paleo-liberals from the era of civil rights, Medicare / Medicaid, and women’s rights. Neo-liberals lean more to the left supporting notions of critical race theory, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and - of course - environmentalism. Self-described Democratic socialists are classic leftists abandoning liberal capitalism and pushing for a European style cradle to grave safety net. Of course, there is the classic call for the redistribution of wealth and the disestablishment of global corporations.

In general, the left approaches issues like sexual morality from an exclusively secular perspective. Families can take many shapes and forms or none. Women have an absolute right to control their bodies. There is little imperative to get married. You can end your own life on your own terms with assisted suicide.

On the right, we have the classic mid-century country club conservatives with their focus on markets, meritocracy, and American exceptionalism. Their hallmark was free trade and isolationism. Democrats were protective of American manufacturing and the blue-collar middle class. Of course, democrats let go of free trade with the success of Bill Clinton’s New Democrat Movement. Just as Democrats moved to the right, Republicans gave up their focus on isolationism to the Neo-conservatives with their one sided promotion of democracy and nation-building to use force to obtain peace.

The Evangelical right rejects secularism and liberalism. As true conservatives they are apprehensive if not hostile to any departure from Christian mores. Abortion, LGBTQ rights, and the absence of religion in public spaces and discourse are examples of a God-less nation. They believe that the United States was founded as a Christian country and derives its success from adhering to the divine mandate. We are not unlike God’s chosen people. We are exceptional. Moving further to the right we have the Christian Nationalists who push for a state based on a faith focused on sexual morality, male dominance in families (patriarchy), racism while ignoring the call for social justice in the Hebrew scriptures and the Gospels. They call this religious liberty.

The merging of authoritarian political and cultural power with theology is called Christo-fascism by its opponents. It represents the combination of nationalism and faith. It supports the idea of a strong national leader with almost unlimited power. It uses government policies to oppress non-conformists on the margin such as non-Christians, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community. Religious teachings are used selectively to justify its policies. Political conflicts are framed in apocalyptic terms as struggles of good versus evil which drives further polarization.

Populism which focuses on economic inequality is an ever-present movement in American society. It focuses on the common people who are opposed to the elites that oppress them. Until recently, populism found its home in the Democratic party in the western states and the upper Midwest. It took the form of farmers and settlers in their struggle against the monied elite of the Northeast. Unlike communism it does not call for the overthrow of the state or the nationalization of industry. The Democratic party’s lack of attention to the economic displacement and social disruption caused by globalization in the heartland led them to Donald Trump.

Although Trump is the professed leader of conservatives, he derived his power from the populist resentment of the powers of the “Deep State” and its enablers - the coastal elites. Increasing income disparity and cultural upheaval made populists turn into Republicans which seemed to be a contradiction in terms. Yet, no matter how uncomfortable the union, Republicans were happy to see blue states turn into swing states. Large monied Republican New York elites now directed the lives of Populists in the heartland -cutting healthcare coverage, shrinking the safety net, and increasing poverty; all to the satisfaction of those populists they oppressed and now called themselves conservatives. Populists who had sought relief supported legislation that redirected Federal money and resources away from themselves in the form of tax cuts and budget cuts that benefited financial elites. Adroitly, Republican elites directed the frustration of the defrauded populist heartland to the culture wars and the demonization of Democratic intellectual and social elites.

The libertarian movement became a political party in the early 1970’s. It began -in part - as response to President Nixon’s wage and price controls. It is a combination of personal freedom and fiscal conservatism. The party espouses unregulated or laissez faire capitalism. It seeks to reduce the size of government, regulations and the national debt. It also seeks to replace the social safety net with private sector charities. The protection of individual rights is the government’s only function. Although his political beliefs began as moderate, Elon Musk is now considered to be a far-right libertarian. Peter Thiel is another tech billionaire whom people consider to be a Libertarian authoritarian skeptic of democracy. He also owns Palantir a company that can combine large datasets for the government and defense which can be the basis of a surveillance state. Consequently he appears to creating the infrastructure to destroy the core tenet of Libertarianism - individual rights. The Libertarian Party and its billionaires now come under the conservative umbrella using MAGA to their advantage to ply trump with money, flattery and direct pressure. Trump counters this with his populist base even as these oligarchs lavish millions of dollars on Trumps pet programs.

Charlie Kirk was a very effective spokesman for MAGA and grew its following among students and young people. Trump acknowledged his help in all three elections. I think that it is important to realize that he was not a conservative but a Christian nationalist on the border of being a Neo-fascist. Many of his statements degraded the success of African Americans as the result of affirmative action. He said that when he was on a plane with a Black pilot, he hoped that he was qualified. Kirk said that Black people were better off during segregation and Jim Crow. He said that America had to remain a majority white country if it was going to continue to be successful. He made anti-Semitic statements like Nazi tropes about an international Jewish cabal that controlled world finances. He had derogatory things to say about LGBTQ people and trans people specifically. Kirk said that there were demonic forces behind the liberal agenda and that they must be fought as spiritual enemies.

People may object to these statements and demand to see the references. This essay format does not really allow space for a much longer treatise on the views of Charlie Kirk. But it only takes a few Google searches to make out his political and cultural positions. In general, he is not really a conservative but an exponent of Trump’s views which are fascist and authoritarian covered by a veneer of Christianity that calls us to love God but not our neighbor. He said that he liked the word sympathy but that he felt that empathy was a new term invented by the New Age. He did not see that without empathy you cannot love your neighbor. Without empathy you can demonize all who disagree with you.

Charlie Kirk’s death is certainly a great loss not only to his friends and family but to the MAGA movement and Christian Nationalism. He certainly accomplished a lot in a brief period of time and his influence will be felt for a long time. He alerted us to our national Turning Point. Charlie Kirk exposed the broader dimensions of Trumpism for what it is and for that we should be thankful.

Dear Kind Readers,

I have been dealing with some health problems over the last few month which has required me to take an unscheduled sabbatical from The View from 30,000 Feet.

I don’t know which was more distressing, my illness or just simply following the news. What is clear is that within the space of 180 days we have left behind 180 years of social and political institutions. The 80 years of post war economic, political, and military linkages that made us a super power have disappeared within 80 days. The structure and function of the state, society, and politics have changed overnight.

Our analog Enlightenment based constitutional form of governance is becoming something different in the digital media multiverse. As a culture we now live in our own information bubbles. We have gone from three major radio and television networks in the 20th century: ABC, CBS, and NBC. Today YouTube has 51 million channels. About 70 million channels have more than 1 million subscribers. Ten million channels have more than 1,000 subscribers.

The Supreme Court with six of its nine members in lock step with Trump has given the president the monarchical ability to rule by executive order - presidential decree. The president also controls Congress. By unleashing his followers he can instantaneously chastize elected officials and threaten their political and personal wellbeing. Trump has 108 million followers on X formerly Twitter. He has 2 million on his own Truth Social platform. For a sense of scale there are about 173 million voters. According to the US Census out of 174 million registered voters 63.5 % or 154 million voted.

All of the various intermediaries such as Congress, the press, and political parties have gone the way of travel agents. We live in a world of disintermediation in which press conferences are rare and beside the point since the president posts all of his desires, actions, and threats everyday.

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The framers of the Constitution as well as those of us who began writing on typewriters never foresaw how the technologies of the digital world would transform systems of governance.

McLuhan’s famous predigital dictum, the medium is the message, was an uncanny warning of how digital media would change us in ways that previous technologies had not. McLuhan put forward the idea that media technology changes us and that the medium itself is the message. In the latter half of the 20th century what we now call legacy media - movies, print, radio and television used to provide -what we call today - content. These analog media with vacuum tubes and rotary presses shaped and molded our perceptions and deeper cognition.

Until recently, authors, filmmakers, and musicians had limited access to potential audiences. Major media outlets such as publishers, movie studios, and record labels governed public tastes and the success or failure of artists and their work. The creation, editing, production and distribution of their content had to pass through various gate keepers. It was a world of intermediaries: studio heads, directors, producers, editors, screenwriters, set designers and distribution networks.

We have gone beyond categories such as artist, author, critic, editor, intellectual, radio show host, television producer and replaced them with self appointed content creators, podcasters, and influencers - to name a few. There are 207 million content creators in the world. In the United States 45 million of 162 million content creators are professionals. In a broader sense we can consider everyone who shares cat videos or other material on social media platforms as incidental content creators.

Digital media is driven by the same engine of analog publishing - advertising It also enables the instantaneous sale of wholesale and retail goods along with professional services such as law and medical diagnosis and treatment. Previous sales and marketing had some broad indicators about their effectiveness. Digital sales and marketing gives very detailed quantitative information. Social media platforms use this knowledge to push ads to us based on our online behavior and interests.

Large platforms such as Google and Facebook siphoned off the advertising life blood of small town and eventually big city journalism. This wave of technology reshaped the fundamentals of human trade and exchange that had shaped communication and governance from ancient times. Small town businesses were demolished by big box stores which were made possible by large scale databases which gave them huge purchasing and distribution capabilities. Online sales and overnight delivery turned shopping malls which had been large community market places into derelict “zombie malls”.

The digital revolution has eclipsed the 18th century models of politics. Gentlemen in the 18th century on the eastern seaboard implemented the ideas of Locke, Montesquieu, and others of the Enlightenment. They basd governance not on the divine right of kings but the God given rights of white propertied men. However, the founders including Jefferson and Hamilton had a fear of mob rule especially since arousing the public and inciting civil unrest had been a major feature of the revolution and continued after the war. Now the mobs are online.

Clearly our constitutional system which is a compromise mechanism that balances various interests is now becoming something different in the digital era and even bypassed not by the Trump Adminstration but by Trump himself online. The only countervening force are the American Oligarchs typified by Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg among others. Peter Thiel helped turn JD Vance - a man of conservative views into a reactionary, vice-president, and likely heir to MagaWorld. However, these men who had kept their distance from Trump are now allied with him.

Their alliance is based not so much on reducing government regulaiton as much as it is on the control of the consumer and the public. Large national databases such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Food Stamps, Immigration Status, and Law enforcement are now being interconnected despite previous assurances that one’s personal information would be safeguarded. If marketers, influencers, or government agencies want our personal information it is easily found. This is the key to the creation massive surveillance states such as China.

One can argue that the United States effort to soften Chinese communism by incorporating China into world trade led to the discontent and disempowerment of the industrial middle class. New manufacturing technology and the inclusion of China in the World Trade Organization led to the collapse of manufacturing and the loss of about 2.8 million jobs in the United States according to various sources. These losses were concentrated in the northeastern states. Their discontent has led them into the populism of the Trump movement and pushed the Democrats into the wilderness.

The MAGA movement shows us how 250 year old 18th century frameworks have been replaced in the 21st century in 25 years. Perhaps the information inputs that gave rise to MAGA and its creator may also bring them down but it is foolishness to think that the 18th century and its institutions still prevail.

Santa Cruz, California faith leaders from various traditions drafted and approved this statement.

The incoming Trump Administration has announced its intention to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. As religious leaders in Santa Cruz County from across the faith traditions, we cannot remain silent in the face of these policies that will cause untold damage to our community and our nation. While we recognize the dysfunction of our current immigration system, mass deportations are surely the worst possible solution to this problem. And so we denounce the immorality of these troubling plans and their immense human, social, and economic consequences.

We write with respect for the results of the election and for all of those who voted for President Trump (including many in our own faith communities). At the same time, we cannot deny that our various faith traditions, though diverse, all affirm the dignity and worth of all persons and, in this case, especially of undocumented persons.

To say that each person has inalienable dignity means, among other things, that they have rights. Our Constitution protects the liberty of all residents by due process and equal protection under the law. This cannot happen if both citizens and non-citizens are rounded up and put into camps. There are not enough immigration attorneys to safeguard these rights.

The age-old principle of the Golden Rule is also common to all our religious traditions: To treat others as you would have them treat you. We invite all in our community to reflect on this principle and the prospect of mass deportation. For instance, how would you feel if you were separated from your children and sent over the border? Or how would you feel if you lived peacefully in our community for years; did essential work that no one else wanted to do; paid taxes; and then were rounded up and sent to a detention camp?

Everyone will be affected by this threat to American citizenship. Mr. Trump said that he plans to deny passports to young and adult native-born citizens whose parents are undocumented or revoke their citizenship altogether. The proposed Look Again program may strip naturalized citizens and their children of their citizenship. If American citizenship can be removed from some it can be removed from all.

Consider also the economic costs. Deportation threatens the viability of whole segments of the economy: agribusiness, hotels and restaurants, construction, housing and small business. Some estimate that the cost of deporting 1 million immigrants will be about $88 billion per year. The deportation of 1.2 million homeowners with mortgages would jeopardize the viability of lenders. Nationally 23% of construction workers are undocumented. There are 855,000 with college degrees in business, engineering, communications and social science. Three quarters of a million immigrants are self-employed. Over one half of undocumented residents - about 5 million - speak English well or speak only English.

Furthermore, as many people have the potential to be removed from our congregations and community, it undoubtedly means that many children may be left behind on their own or in the care of guardians. There are 3.3 million people nationally living in mixed status households with documented and undocumented family members that could be torn apart. Separating families living in peace and contributing to our society is not a viable path forward.

We support the work of schools, local government, and community organizers to protect this most vulnerable segment of our population. We also applaud the decision of California government at all levels to refuse or limit cooperation with Federal efforts to bring about mass deportations. As faith leaders, we commit ourselves to educating those affected about their rights and to help them find ways to protect their families.

We call on our congregations and on all people of good will to speak up and act on behalf of all our friends, families, and neighbors both undocumented and documented in this ominous moment in our country.

Rev. Dr. Randolfo R. Pozos

Deacon, Our Lady Star of the Sea, Santa Cruz, CA

Matthew Livelsberger wrote in a note that he needed his mind to be cleansed of the lives lost of people he knew and the burden of the lives that he took.

"Although this incident is more public and more sensational than usual, it ultimately appears to be a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who was struggling with PTSD and other issues," FBI special agent in charge Spencer Evans said at a news conference.

CBC News January 3, 2025

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are a hazy memory for most of us, although, the chaotic retreat from Afghanistan will be a memory we may wish to forget. We often forget the cost paid by our active duty soldiers.

Matthew Livelsberger was 37, with an impressive record of achievements as a special forces officer. He received the Bronze Star with Valor and three other Bronze Stars for conspicuous courage on the battlefield. Retiring at a young age with the rank of Master Segeant is its own significant achievement. Yet all of his service and his patriotism came at a price. Perhaps the greatest tribute we can pay to Livelsberger and other veterans with PTSD is not to forget the sacrifice they made. It is the loss of fellow soldiers, the horror of remembering the people they killed, the terrors, the night sweats, the violence against their loved ones, and the searing pain that never goes away.

Although the term was coined in the 1970s, the reality of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder did not begin with Vietnam. In the 1970s, PTSD referred to returning veterans with symptoms of flashbacks, rage, and emotional numbness. Previous terms were soldier's heart, shell shock, and railway spine caused by civilian railroad accidents affecting the spine. Descriptions of exposure to military trauma go back to ancient times, including Homer in the Iliad and Herodotus describing the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. Shakespeare presents it in Henry IV.

According to the National Institutes of Health:

Estimates of PTSD prevalence rates among returning service members vary widely across wars and eras. In one major study of 60,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, 13.5% of deployed and nondeployed veterans screened positive for PTSD,¹² while other studies show the rate to be as high as 20% to 30%.^5,13 As many as 500,000 U.S. troops who served in these wars over the past 13 years have been diagnosed with PTSD.¹⁴

According to a study conducted by the RAND Center for Military Health Policy Research, less than half of returning veterans needing mental health services receive any treatment at all, (emphasis added) and of those receiving treatment for PTSD and major depression, less than one-third are receiving evidence-based care.⁵

PTSD is not limited to soldiers. It affects 8 million non-military members of the civilian public in any given year. PTSD became a recognized psychiatric diagnosis in 1980. PTSD can be caused by “experiencing or witnessing a terrorist attack, violent crime and abuse, natural disasters, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults.”

Many of us Baby Boomers who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s experienced the destructive effects of PTSD in our fathers and other veterans. Given the trauma of the war on the general population, PTSD was something like background noise. The cycle repeated itself in Vietnam in our generation. One man told me that his father, who was a decorated veteran, would “just go off” at times. Another talked about the violence and fear he experienced as young child. A decorated military chaplain who served in both the European and Pacific theaters and suffered with rage and paranoia self-medicated with alcohol. Domestic violence, alcholism, drug addiction / substance abuse led to divorce or entrenched family trauma.

In the wake of civilian opposition to the Vietnam War, an all volunteer Armed Forces replaced “the draft.” The end of conscription led to a more professional sevice member who was largely invisible to the general public. The past 25 years of fighting in the Iraq and Afghanistan did not have significant visibility in the news of the day. However, in the days of conscription, the number of casualties in Vietnam and Cambodia was published daily on the evening news.

Mental health professionals are using various types of cognitive therapy, written exposure therapy, and present-centered therapy to help veterans come to terms with their symptoms.

Ayahuasca, an ancient Peruvian brew, provides relief, as do psydelics such as psylocibin (mushrooms), and MDMA.

Matthew Livelsberger was a strong Trump supporter with no ill will toward Elon Musk. He did feel that there were things that were wrong with the country, but mainly he wanted relief from the loss of his friends in combat and the horror of killing people. His marriages and relationships had failed. He had a newborn son and his marriage was in crisis. He was in treatment in Germany for PTSD and the staff considered it safe for him to come home for Christmas. Fortunately, only 7 people had minor injuries at the scene of Matthew’s death by suicide at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. He chose the spot to draw national attention, which he did.

Is his message about the physical, psychological, and moral injuries of war? Is it about the war combat veterans bring home? Is it about the great silence surrounding military PTSD, after the blast goes upward and outward but does not damage the glass doors a short distance away? For Matthew, there was no leaving the battlefield.

May he find the peace that eluded him in life.

The Santa Ynez range rises 4,000 feet above Santa Barbara. For a mountain range, Santa Ynez is a youngster at only 5 million years. She is stretching up from a bend in the San Andreas fault and unlike most mountain ranges runs from east to west. She first spoke to me when I was 10 years old. We met through the picture window in my godparents’ home in Carpinteria. At first I thought she was a painting.

Her first children were the Chumash, living off of the plentiful game, fish, and sea life. There were floods, fires, and earthquakes, but mother and children lived in harmony for 13,000 years. Then Gaspar de Portola came with soldiers, and settlers. The missions and the ranchos came. The diseases came. The Americans came. Now, but a handful of the Chumash are left.

The Painted Cave State Park reveals another of the mountain’s secrets as recorded by the Chumash. A total eclipse of the sun with Mars and Antares may be recorded in the Painted Cave State Park.

In the late 1800s, wealthy Americans built their winter homes and many came for the healthy climate and the beauty. Farms and orchards overtook the mission lands, the slopes, and the creek beds.

Many make the mistake that the mountain is a backdrop, but the beach and the immigrant palms are actually a wrinkle on her apron.

We got better acquainted when I helped my godfather, who was the groundskeeper at an estate in an exclusive enclave higher up on the mountain - Montecito. Nearby was an old ranch called Queen of Peace.

In 1968, the country was convulsed by the war in Vietnam, with the rising counter-culture of hippies and folk singers giving way to sex, drugs, and rock and roll. We were on our way to the Moon even as we endured the killings of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Pope John XXIII had died after succeeding in his quest to “let some air in.” The Catholic Church was undergoing a transformation not seen since the Reformation.

That’s the year I entered the Jesuit Novitiate in Montecito, The College of the Queen of Peace. It was brand new and built to complement the mountain with its brick and tile facade that reflected the mountain and protected the buildings from the sun, salt, and wind.

It was a place of reflection, study, work, and the raucous disturbances of young men. We were finding our way in a world of Ignatian spirituality from the 1500s that focused on finding God in All Things at a time when God had been declared dead. The mood was a conflicted progressiveness, as older members of the order suffered the same generational shock that afflicted everyone else. We carried our draft cards and went to work in hospitals, in the inner city, and in schools.

The College of the Queen of Peace is now the Pacifica Institute and the Jesuit Novitiate is now in the hustle and bustle of Culver City - a place more in keeping with solidarity with those left behind in Los Angeles.

When I return to Montecito, I find a solace in Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It is a place that evokes what is deep inside me and still growing after my first sojourn on the mountain. In a city built in the Mediterranean or Spanish styles, Our Lady of Mount Carmel is out of place. It is a portal to the Jesuit churches of New Mexico, but built in 1938. It was funded by three wealthy women who had moved to the area.

The natural lighting in the church creates unusual effects that take me to other places. It creates an unusual dimensionality that shifts its intensity and bounds with the sun. The mountain still speaks to me, but even now, she keeps her secrets.

My wife Kathy says that some men go hunting or fishing, but her husband goes to Mars.

It all started in 1984 when I got involved with a group of scientists and engineers who were looking at NASA Viking images of Mars. In particular, they were studying objects in the Cydonia region of northern Mars which looked like an upward looking face, close to pyramids that were aligned with it on the shore of a long vanished ocean. The group was interested in looking at the images. Of course, I am not an archaeologist, but I was interested in the broader social and cultural issues posed by the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence.

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In 1986 I published The Face on Mars - Evidence of a Lost Civilization? (Chicago Review Press). My conclusion in the book is that there was not enough resolution in the images to make a definitive judgment. In the book I presented the text of one of our conversations. The conference was unusual because we did this pre-Internet, using a very early form of email called asynchronous messaging, on dumb terminals that had a cradle for the telephone receiver. The messages were printed on thermographic paper. Our data was flying at a mind boggling speed of 300 baud.

Of course, the easiest explanation for these features is that they were natural land forms and that light and shadow seemed to make them look like the creation of intelligent life. The images had been singled out in 1984 by two imaging scientists, Vincent DiPietro and Gregory Molenaar, while they were reviewing images of Mars from the 1976 Viking Mission. They were working on ways to enhance the shadow of images to derive their actual 3 dimensional structure. Almost immediately, they contacted their colleague Dr. Mark Carlotto, who had also been working on using algorithms to work out shapes from the shadows they cast. The whole story, which has taken more than 40 years, is recounted by Dr. Carlotto at his website MarkCarlotto.com.

The consensus was and still is that these unusual surface features on Mars are not artificial. They are the products of natural forces on the planet. However, Dr. Carlotto presents digital evidence to the contrary.

Earlier this year, I was approached by a young independent film maker, Brian Cory Dobbs, who wanted to do a documentary on Mars. He had been intrigued by the “Face” and the controversy surrounding it. The documentary is Blue Planet Red. The theme comes from the fact that Mars was more Earthlike in its early phase and is now a red desert.

Per usual, a lot of content in film and video production is never used. A couple of weeks ago Brian sent me a link to his YouTube channel which featured my conversation with him on a lot of issues relative to the “Face” and to broader questions of whether we are alone in the universe.

There are the standard questions and I present my views on them in this interview from an anthropological perspective. I also draw on the large body of thought experiments we have, which is more commonly known as science fiction.

Are we alone in the universe? - Both possible options are terrifying.

If we aren’t alone, how come other intelligent life forms have not shown up? - Perhaps it is because it would be too destabilizing for us or perhaps our planet is not a suitable habitat for them.

If they come, will we collapse? We can get a clue from the encounter of indigenous people with Europeans.

Will they come in peace? It depends on whether they are like us and come for natural resources or if they come for more enlightened reasons.

Could first contact with extraterrestrials unite us? Yes and no. Humans are very status conscious and even the United States and Britain in World War II had their own conflicts as allies.

I also point out that Mars is a cautionary tale of how a planet can go from blue to red due to a planetary catastrophe. We know that the planet suffered a huge impact from a meteor that changed its surface early in its history. Mars lost its oceans and atmosphere and went from a blue planet to a red one. John Brandenberg a well respected plasma physicist in a 2015 eposter presentation for Universities Space Research Institute presented 3 possible cases that can account for isotopes created by natural nuclear reactors and a possible nuclear explosion on Mars. According to Brandenberg the evidence that nuclear warfare or a nuclear event on Mars cannot be ruled out. Brandenberg brought up this topic in the mid 1980s and almost 30 years later presented a concise and convincing presentation.

We face a climate crisis which could eliminate a large part of our species. However, our real threat of our extinction does not come from extraterrestrials or severe climate change. Our main risk as a species is from ourselves and nuclear weapons.

How come NASA and academia have not taken the land forms on Cydonia and other anomalies seriously? NASA has its own agenda of managing expectations and budgets. The topic is radioactive for scientists who want to keep their funding. Later images of Cydonia tend to bear out the conservative explanation that they are tricks of light and shadow. It is an example of pareidolia - a psychological term - that describes the human tendency to see familiar images in unusual places such as cloud formations that look like animals. It is the human tendency for the mind to assign meaning wherever it can.

Why is a search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), a scientific topic dating back to the 1950s, regaining interest? In part, the term UFO has been placed within a broader scientific range of unidentified aerial phenomena or UAPs. Reports of UAPs including UFOs have garnered renewed interests among scientists because of the release of decades of government data on UFO sightings and more current and credible encounters with UAPs. NASA coined the term UAP in 2022 to reduce the stigma associated with UFO sightings, so that scientists could work on all types of aerial phenomenon.

There are many types of aerial phenomena, including lens clouds, lightning strikes, and satellite configurations, that are worthy of study and often explain UFO sightings. Removing at least some of the stigma makes it possible for people on a commercial plane saw high altitude Chinese surveillance balloons. Using the broader scientifically inclined term UAP makes it easier for pilots and people in general to report sightings with out fear of being labelled as undependable, irresponsible, or just plain crazy.

Powerful personal computers, the internet, and social media have made it possible for regular people “citizen scientists” to study these unusual land forms and a myriad of other space exploration topics. One of the advantages of creating narrowly focused groups with their “silos” of interest and data is that a whole new generation of people like Brian Dobbs can take up these topics and enrich longstanding debates with new perspectives.

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My mother, Corita Pozos, was born María del Socorro Bonilla Castro in Ventura, on the southern California coast, in 1919. She was the child of Mexican immigrants and named for our Lady of Perpetual Help. Her life was like a novel in many ways. My mother, her sisters, and her brother were accomplished storytellers in a family of storytellers, in the Latin American literary tradition of magical realism in which truth is found in the narrative of this dimension and others.

The term historia in Spanish is often used in the sense of stories, whether fiction, non-fiction or a blend of both. My fictionalized family are the Mirasoles - the Sunflowers. Although Mirasol - the one looking at the sun - is feminine - la mirasol, I have used Los Mirasoles since that is how you refer to families in Spanish. Some say that mirasol is a contraction of Maria de la Soledad - Our Lady of Solitude.

In these historias, I have taken all of the liberties of my family tradition of storytelling, which is to tread lightly on the truth and to step firmly on gossamer. I have focused more on the women and their stories, not so much that women can be overlooked but because these women could not be overlooked any more than forces of nature can be glossed over. My legions of cousins can rightly criticize my fictionalized portraits of their mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers, but these women were much more than they let on. While my own mother might dispute the facts, I am also convinced that she would see what she imparted to me as a version of the Romances of our heritage.

A romance (Roh-man-say) is not a romance novel in our American sense of the term or necessarily of stories of human love. The term originally refers to stories translated from Latin (Roman). They are stories and ballads of chivalry from Spain. In Mexico the romance, perhaps influenced by Aztec poetry, became el corrido in the early 19th century and became the centerpiece of Mexican music in the early 20th century during the Mexican Revolution. Corridos are fast-paced poetic ballads - correr means to run - that convey stories of heroic people or events. However my stories are a romance - El Romance de los Mirasoles.

My great grandmother, María Muñoz de Bonilla, was a tobacco farmer in the late 19th century who was a devout woman given to bouts of colorful and creative profanity. She would preside at wakes and sometimes funerals out in the countryside when distance and circumstances did not permit families to get to church. María was in demand for the all-night vigil - el velorio. She came on her horse across the highlands of Guanajuato with her prayer book, rosary, whisky, and her commercially grown tobacco. The deceased was in the center of a small house or hovel. María would lead the rosary and say the prayers for the dead. As they prepared to keep vigil until sunrise, the family would serve strong black coffee. María would pass out shots and roll cigarettes as she began a night of storytelling of ghosts, unrequited love, and her own fables.

Here begins El Romance de Los Mirasoles

The late afternoon breeze

Al atardecer, that time of the day when the breeze ends the workday, Coyo faced the bay. A slight chill came through her cotton dress. The light floral print dress looked much whiter against her dark brown skin. Her black eyes under her very straight bangs saw the fog prepare for its five o’clock descent on Pierpont Bay, raising scents of warm sand, hot clay, sweet chapparal, and the sharp iodine of kelp. The bright desert light softens and cools al atardecer.

Coyo was never carefree, but she felt a tenseness in the mixing of this day’s salt and sun. Not a new experience, for there were others like it. Feelings, presentimientos, a glimpse of someone’s core, a sense of things to come and things awry were not unknown to her in her 8 years. She inhaled them from her grandmother Muñozita’s stories and flint like intuition. Como si fuera un sueño, it was like a dream perhaps, but the sage had a sharpness, and the fog was more of a mist softening the light into a pale gray.

The nice lady from across the road - la Gringa Simpática they called her - was running across the sugar beet field toward Coyo and looking beyond to Coyo’s mom at the door of their home with a deep anguish. La Simpática came up to Coyo speaking rapidly in English and making frantic gestures, hoping the girl’s limited knowledge of English could bridge the gap between histories, languages, and cultures to convey terrible news. La Simpática had gotten a phone call she mimed and kept saying accident – accidente? -  choque? Crash? car – carro – wagon? Auto? Coyo’s mind raced. She ran with la Simpática to the door and saw her mother’s concerned bewilderment. Train – tren? The word hung in the wisps of fog over their heads.

María Abundia Castro de Bonilla was a young woman. She had a newborn little girl, her sixth child and was waiting for her husband Martín to bring her mother Dorotea López from Ventura in his Model A to help for a few days. Coyo’s mind was racing. Train accident? But Papa and Mama Dorotea always came in the car or Papa came on his horse. They didn’t come home on the train. She felt a fog fall on her but it wasn’t the moist salt air. ¿Qué dice? ¿Qué dice? Her mother commanded in bewilderment. Se dice, se dice, Coyo stammered, algo de accidente con el auto o un tren – something about an accident with a car or a train. Maybe a car and a train?

There was a pause and the eyes of the two women looked up from little Coyo and met in anguish and disbelief. María Abundia’s soft alabaster face was framed by her light hair lifted gently in strands by the breeze of al atardecer. Her green eyes were flecked with alarm and incomprehension. La Simpática was talking and gesturing again with more urgency. Come, come. You have to go. ¿Ven, ven? Go? Where, When, How? María Abundia looked down at her daughter in puzzlement.

Dice la Simpática que tenemos que ir. ¿Para qué? Why? What’s this about? Coyo began to see her mother’s delicate form, her fine bones, slender shape, and beautiful head beginning to waiver and Coyo’s broad and dark eight-year-old child’s arms hugged her mother into sitting on the ground before she could fall, overwhelmed with fear and grief.

Coyo’s sisters and little Martín peered anxiously out the door. Mercedes, the oldest, tall and pretty at 12 came out. Mamá. ¿Ay Mamá que pasó? She looked at la Simpática. Mrs Wilkes what happened? Mercedes, let’s get your mom into the house. There’s been an accident, a terrible accident.

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The world is a wonder. And that is all we know. Much of the time it is confusing. Perplexing. There are the age old questions about why we are here and what is this all about. Then there are those moments when we see wonder and we know.

Where we are is something to be found. Many people are on the road as migrants reminding us that we are not as rooted as we think. We walk for pleasure out in nature. A safe distance from the cocoons of our cars, we venture out in Gortex and designer jeans.

For billions, walking is a way of life. Morning trips by women and girls to draw water 2 miles away, returning with plastic jugs on their heads. For the fortunate there are long hikes to hop into pickup trucks that cross deserts a bump or a breakdown away from misfortune.

In the fresh air creature comforts of glamping, we wonder why we are lonely or why we have lost the way. For billions, the way is known, but where it heads is still unknown. We come with answers that are but hopes of spirits and beings around us or a life beyond death. A time and place where the innocent do not suffer and people are not forced on the roads to escape and wander in hope.

How are we to the stars? How are they to us? We are made of the stardust that piles on our surfaces and is brushed away. All the atoms vibrating and bonding themselves and us together come from star nurseries that engender us. So, are we just a sweep of dust and gas coming into existence and brushed off the cosmic surface in a quantum flux? Are we here just to hear the tree makes a crashing soundwave in the forest? Are we here because without us there would be no night sky?

The odds that there are others like us ranges from none to 100 to 1,000 in our galaxy of 100 billion stars. Why have others not come to visit? Either is disturbing. We are alone or they have not told us.

From the stars thou art and to the stars thou shall return.

The stars are not a static creation nor a backdrop for human drama. Of themselves, powered by the fire of Divine Love, they sweep us into the Hymn of the Universe.

“Once upon a time men took into your temple the first fruits of their harvests, the flower of their flocks. But the offering you really want, the offering you mysteriously need every day to appease your hunger, to slake your thirst is nothing less than the growth of the world borne ever onwards in the stream of universal becoming. Receive, O Lord, this all-embracing host which your whole creation, moved by your magnetism, offers you at this dawn of a new day.”

“Because, my God, though I lack the soul-zeal and the sublime integrity of your saints, I yet have received from you an overwhelming sympathy for all that stirs within the dark mass of matter; because I know myself to be irremediably less a child of heaven than a son of earth; therefore I will this morning climb up in spirit to the high places, bearing with me the hopes and the miseries of my mother; and there — empowered by that priesthood which you alone (as I firmly believe) have bestowed on me — upon all that in the world of human flesh is now about to be born or to die beneath the rising sun I will call down the Fire.”

- Teilhard de Chardin - Mass on the World

Only in the moment for a few days, the stars of our days show the wonder of the forces of galaxies caught on a gentle stream, a slip of air - a silent flutter. Weak and ephemeral as a human’s years, the indigo of beauty and strength reveal a light from the first “Let there be.”

And so we are the stars and they are us. We cannot be apart. From them we came and wheel around not only our Sun, but the center, on an arm skimming space-time.

“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” - Ephesians 3:17-19

And so the question is not what we are, nor where a we headed. We dance in a prayer. We live in song and drum. In myriad suns and multiverses, we are at home. Our light dispels all that is misfortune and wrong. We live. We suffer, We rejoice alight in the stars.

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