Thank you for the reply. You seem to be very perceptive about our international missteps, as well as missteps in our own country's ideals. Our 'underpinnings' are coming unraveled, thanks to our leader's loss of focus--on both sides of the political aisles.

The media does little to keep an even hand on unbiased content, and spoon-feeds us with whatever soup du jour attracts the most attention. We seem to have lost our national--and community--focus, and our insight into what really matters.

Perhaps that is why I was drawn to Good Magazine--for 'people who give a damn'. That says a lot in just a few words.

While the Dems and GOP duke it out, our financial markets keep taking big hits, and Peak Oil takes us down a slippery slope, I'll accumulate some self-sufficiency information, and get acquainted to a future in this country that will most likely look quite different from what it looks like now.

Keep your focus...I'm interested in what you have to say to our 'less-enlightened' citizens (and that includes myself).

Thanks.