I'm thinking, I'm thinking.  Damn, why couldn't he have asked me to do one on the Birds, I did one on the Bees.  :-)  

This issue is very personal to all for whom it arises, myself included.  It goes to the very heart of how culture is created and how we participate, knowingly or unknowingly, willingly or unwillingly in that creation.  More to the point, what we, individually and collectively, can do about it.

It is one thing to make brief comments informed by my own flawed life experiences.  It is quite another to compose a coherent two or three paragraphs on the subject.  I would like to do justice to the subject and the request.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."