Yesterday a fellow human being died. Well, in fact many human beings died yesterday and many more will die today. It's part of the bargain that we'll all head for Boot Hill as our final act of this existence. One fellow who left us yesterday though, was Kurt Vonnegut. I feel this loss more than our other losses yesterday because Kurt, in his time here on this blue green marble floating in our giant celestial vacuum, spoke to me. I never met Mr. Vonnegut but I always hoped I would, so when I say he spoke to me what I mean is through his writing. His voice, on paper, came in loud and clear like a wise, sometimes grumpy, old friend. The last thing I read by Kurt Vonnegut was a collection called "A Man Without a Country." It's a wonderful book and it seemed to me in reading it that Kurt had taken his many years of observations, refined and compressed them into gleaming little gems. I read most of the book while sitting in Central Park in New York. The whole time I sat there I felt as if there was some wild haired old man with a big mustache smiling over my shoulder as I read.

I like reading a book in a park out in the open air. Somehow it seems it sinks in a little deeper if I'm reading outdoors. I remember reading "Letters to a Young Poet" in a park in Saint Cloud, France. It's a thin book but spoke volumes to me there among the trees above Paris. I love summer reading in the hammock in my yard. I like to fall asleep with a book on my chest. It's probably obvious why I would miss Kurt Vonnegut at this point.

I'm not writing this post to celebrate Kurt Vonnegut but instead to try to keep a little of what I felt was his gift to me alive. What was this gift? The small dose of sanity in a world so full of madness I got when I read his words. There are all different kinds of writers and I'm not one to judge who is better or best. In fact I hate that sort of judgment. I can only say that Kurt Vonnegut spoke to me and I am grateful he did. I found that you could apply the things Mr. Vonnegut expressed in daily life and really, just try to tell me that's not a wonderful thing. His writings are a beacon of sanity in a sea of madness.

In times when people wander though life and ask over and over "What can I do?" because they can so clearly see that things have gone horribly awry, injecting a little sanity into the discourse would be a welcome choice. It can be done and it does not require that you empty your piggy bank to do so. It requires from you only some thoughtful reflection and a willingness to give of yourself and your time. It does have an effect even if you are only exposing one other person to your well chosen and thoughtful sentiments. As the old commercial used to say they might then go out and tell two friends who may tell two friends and so on until you have this tsunami of sanity sweeping the planet. It's worth trying isn't it?

Take this situation with Don Imus, I know I can't be the only one that finds we have once again reverted to our old lynch mob mentality in this case. The torches are lit, the angry mob in the street, and we're gonna have ourselves a hanging. It can't only have occurred to me that Don Imus has always been a buffoon, pretty much everything he spews is of little to no consequence and he has been collecting a paycheck for quite a while now for saying stupid things on the radio. You can't tell me any of that has been a mystery. All of a sudden I'm supposed to take Don Imus seriously? Do you want to know what I find most offensive in this Imus situation? I find it offensive that this is what stirs us to react as a community, in unison, and with such swift clarity. Of all the horrors in the world today, all the things we could join together in, apply ourselves toward, create a rapid and decisive response to, this is what moved us. An idiot on the radio stringing together three words in a pathetic attempt to amuse people and we move like we're trying to escape a fire. Here we are, everybody big and small, all at once, and in complete agreement, from corporations to check out clerks combining their voices to put an end to Don Imus.

We say it's about tolerance and to show we won't tolerate this kind of behavior. We say it's to show we want everybody to feel comfortable and happy and secure about themselves and what they do. Will removing Don Imus put an end to words like the ones he used? No, of course not. Did what Imus said change anything the young women from Rutgers accomplished? No, of course not. People ask what if it was my daughter and my answer to that is simple, I'd tell my daughter nobody can define who or what you are but you. To create such a stir over what an idiot on the radio said is to give his words a weight and power they never had until we gave it to them. Did we teach anybody a lesson with our reaction to Don Imus? I don't think so because it's clear from our reaction most of us think what Imus said was wrong and amazingly stupid. So all we get for our troubles is one less idiot on the radio. I can tell you that's fine by me but how have we really improved anything?

Let me just say to those who think this is an opportunity to go after other people who express thoughts we don't like in language we don't like - Be careful what you wish for because once you set a precedent like that all bets are off and the day when your thoughts and language are no longer acceptable could come awful quick.

Please, I beg anyone who reads this to be a beacon of sanity in these strange times. I don't want you to donate your money, I don't want you to volunteer at a homeless shelter, I am not asking you to feel guilty about anything. I'm just asking you to reflect for a moment about what is happening and make an effort to understand what it could mean to our future and the generations to come. I ask that you remember these words and put them above any petty bickering and name calling for the good of all people:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

With that I applaud the resounding victory of stomping out the voice of one radio moron. Hooray for our side, as Mr. Vonnegut might have said. I applaud the coming together of one and all, great and small to win this battle. I'm impressed by this unity and passion. Now that we have silenced one man to prevent him from making derogatory comments about young women perhaps we can now direct this passion and unity toward something that might really make a difference or save a life. There are a multitude of causes, the war in Iraq, the genocide in Darfur, feeding the multitude of homeless and starving people on our planet or even just removing the current group of criminals who have hijacked the executive branch of our government. I'm not picky and I believe in democracy. We could vote on it. I just want to see the same kind of swift and passionate response.

Be a beacon. Don't ask what you can do, we've just seen what we can do when we come together. Be a beacon and your light will show the way.