January 2010

Nevada has always been known for being more permissive than most states, at least when it came to brothels. It is not something the state legislators want to talk about, lest they be perceived as legitimizing what has traditionally been illegitimate. Brothels were places where men would go to find women for a few hours. They’d pay their money, get their caresses plus or minus, and leave. Now Nevada is trying to open a brothel employing men. There are those who think the idea won’t fly and there are others who object on the ground that such places may attract homosexual activity. Whether it’s homophobic or sexist, the objections speak of prejudice. What’s OK for heterosexual males is not OK for heterosexual females or for gay men?

Freedom House a human rights organization which ranks countries in term of freedom each year says that freedom lost ground in 2009. It cited the countries where freedom seemed worse, and as I read it was easy to feel disheartened. And then I began to get email upon email about the earthquake in Haiti, some giving me the names of organizations through which I could contribute, some telling me where that person had given. Not since the famine in Ethiopia over 20 years ago have I seen such a deep and heartfelt sense of caring. Then after the nth expression I remembered that no matter what good work Freedom House does, no matter how helpful their numbers may be, there’s something they didn’t factor in, caring. As long as there’s caring freedom is safe because it is that need for expressing caring that also feeds our need to be free.

We’re closer to finding out if there’s life out there! We’re four to five years away from it, or as Simon Worden, an astronomer who heads NASA’s Ames Research Center, said, getting to the bottom of that question. That is because the Kepler telescope is making numerous new discoveries possible. Of course the question of whether or not humans are alone in the universe is important. But as we near the answer, there is a question that is even more important: What would we do should we find a planet with life—or at least what we call life? Would we as in the movie Avatar, start extracting its resources? Would we colonize it, use it as a penal colony, as an overflow for overpopulation? Would the idea of ownership lead to conflicts, and with whom? If the planet had inhabitants, how would we treat them, with honor for their traditions? The time to begin asking questions is not when we would be so excited about an important discovery, our emotions would likely interfere with a rational decision. The time is now, when we still have a modicum of objectivity.