Vox Populi
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Daniel R. Cobb: Apologia
To all people of color, to Latinos and African Americans, to the refugees fleeing war and persecution, to immigrants from around the world,
To Muslims and Jews, to those of the Baha’i faith, to Hindus and others unnamed,
To all women. To our wives, our daughters, our mothers and our sisters,
To the disabled, the elderly, the poor and disadvantaged,
To the countless instances of human rights violated and justice denied,
To Earth and those many future generations who will suffer profoundly as avoidable climate change unfolds and permanently overheats our planet. To the millions of species lost,
I am sorry. We failed.
Copyright 2016 Daniel R. Cobb
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Vox Populi 
To: Daniel R. Cobb. I came across your above post about your experience which happened when your life was “on the line.” I’m posting this here because I cannot find a contact for you. I did not want to post this pubicly, but perhaps one person might read it and find some value. I’ve had a remarkable life and can completely understand and relate to your experience (from very direct and personal experiences). I have been environmentally aware from my first rude awakening in 1961. I’ve been in the military, and have also been a whistleblower during the reign of the “Prince of Darkness,” (Reagan). Most of my experiences must remain undocumented. I also lived through the 1960’s. Mine was a shamanic experience of discovery which brought my own search for God into sharp focus. While I find myself very much affected, disenchanted with much of mankind, and sometimes deeply saddened (perhaps even depressed) over what has happened to our planet, especially since Reagan, I realize that we must keep trying to save this planet and expose the unfettered hypocrisy of the New Gilded Age players. However, I find spiritual solice in the concept of soul, reincarnation, and karma. Science holds many answers, but certainly not all. Mankind has barely scratched the surface of what there is to know. God does not offer public proof. There will always be “plausible deniability.” “Proof” is only experienced on an individual basis. Orthydox religions have gotten much wrong, and much of it is wildly off the mark. How is it that most heinously criminal industrialists lead lives of wealth and luxury, and then die of old age, in relative comfort, of natural causes? How is it that another person is born into abject poverty in a third world country and knows only an endless and constant series of struggles and tragedies? Reincarnation is the _only_ thing that explains the seeming brutal injustice of this world. (Though, one could also claim that “life is hard and then we die, and that’s all there is.” Yet there is no way to prove that claim either.) Those who cause global warming, wars, etc., will all get their chance to reap what they’ve sewn. We all do. It is a slow, painful process that takes millennia. The world is overflowing with examples of people doing things that would take lifetimes to resolve, yet few ever think of a cosmic process that does exactly that. I think you might find these books interesting: “Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot,” and “Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife.” Both of these stories are quite compelling and worthy of investigation, for anyone interested in the deepest mysteries of Life.
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James, thank you for your thoughts.
Thank you for the thinking that went into your comment above, and the care you took in formulating it. Clearly a lifetime of searching and introspection. I will explore the books you reference. I don’t know what may be the ultimate destination of the lives we live (one or many) or the ultimate story of humanity. I am terribly worried. Frankly, news from the realm of climate science is quite bad. I’ve sometimes wondered if our curse as a species may be our “intelligence”. With all of our great achievements, what have we done to the world? Ourselves? To the countless other species that are suffering mass die-offs and extinction due to our blinding greed, our “success”? My life is a journey. I look back at my past, some of my decisions, with serious regret. Looking forward, I can only hope to avoid repeating mistakes. And perhaps, with like-minded souls such as yourself, coax the world toward a more gentle, enlightened, and compassionate place. And maybe, just maybe, we can deliver an Earth to future generations that we have not decimated. As a teenager, it occurred to me that our problem was this: Our technology is cumulative, advancing with each generation. But wisdom dies with age.
Warm wishes to you, James.
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Some have written to me, asking what this essay is all about. The have no context. I wrote this immediately after Donald Trump was elected president. I was in extreme duress, and still am. Two years and lapsed and still the travesty of Trump’s expropriation of office has not been been reversed. His election was a fraud in every sense, and justice, honoring democracy and the Will of the People, must be delivered.
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It’s the way I feel, also. So many of us now know we have to fight all of the issues and people we failed. Much harder work now, that is almost overwhelming is now the work of those who won’t have the advantages of the laws to help us. Thanks for this, Daniel.
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But we have with us the righteousness and stamina that comes with our conviction that we progressives, we liberals, are defending the sacred interests of humanity: equality, and liberty, and the sanctity of the Earth we all share. So if we chose to overcome, then we will. It will take work, perseverance, but we will overcome for one reason: Our cause is just.
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Hopelessness is a privilege none of us can afford. Keep going, Daniel Cobb. Most of the voters in our country did not vote for Trump. See Rebecca Solnit’s entire book, “Hope in the Dark”.
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I will check out “Hope in the Dark”, Greenlaw. Thank you much.
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Greenlaw, I read Hope in the Dark. Thanks for recommending.
My relationship with God, assuming I have one, is a mystery. In my late youth, in a period of extreme stress, I prayed fervently to God, to anyone, for help. Let me just say that my life was on the line, on a ship in the middle of the sea. I was not a religious person at the time. At that moment, I experienced an event that I can’t adequately describe. I was hit, enveloped by a presence that expressed overwhelming love for me and I was left sobbing with gratitude. Many years passed and over that time I traveled the world and met many people of many religions and they all seek communion with God, in their own way. Those who claim to have the exclusive, singular path to God tend to disprove themselves by their own failings. In all of my reading, all of my studies, all of my prayers, I have never had another such encounter. I don’t know where God lives. My training is as a technologist, an engineer. I am a student of science. I need facts, evidence. Elusiveness is a contrary proof. Blind faith doesn’t work for me. I don’t fault God. I’m still searching. Maybe that is our destiny, to search and in end, finally, to love humanity more than ourselves.
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Great piece.
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