So, this “wunderkind” of the New York entertainment industry at the age of 21, found himself at a New York gambling establishment one afternoon. Sitting at third base on the blackjack table was an older man, visibly drunk and pulling on hard eighteens, the man was disrupting the distraction of the day. Being the persnickety, and sometimes obnoxious rebel that I portrayed, I yelled at the old man to “go home already”. This almost bald, weather-worn grumpy drunkard looked up at me with venom in his eyes. I have to admit, I may have wet myself a bit at that moment. Like always, when threatened, I shot back my stern deep glare, “yes, you, you are ruining the table for everyone.” The dealer looked at me and shook his head no…no…no! After another agonizing hour of stupid blackjack playing, the old man slid off the stool and made his way out the guarded door.

“Good, he is going somewhere else” I shouted rudely.

As the armed doorman slammed the metal-reinforced door behind the man, the dealer shot across the table “are you an idiot or what?” “Why” I shot back. The dealer began to explain.

Do you know who that was?

“No”

“Did you see Raging Bull, you know the boxing movie with Deniro?”

“Sure, that Jake guy, Lamotta right?, “What’s that have to do with him?”

“You just told the Raging Bull to go home old man.”

I would mend that infraction and make a friend and client out of Jake Lamatto. Even went so far as the produce Raging Bull Part Two “The Real Raging Bull” with Jake and a great group of Producers and Directors.

Although I have stumbled, tripped and fallen way short of my intents, my goals and my missions and even been called out as a scoundrel once or twice, I have continued in the race to be kinder, continuously caring and “of service” to many who I have not met nor will ever meet me. I hope that my sacrifices built upon years of broken possessions and failing health have meant something to someone who is asking themselves, right this moment, who am I and what good is this world. The world is no better or worse than ourselves. It mirrors what we are, what we think, and what we seek or hide from. So, the measuring of a man’s heart could very well be a split image that includes his sacrifices and the conditions of the world around him.

I have traveled to all four corners of this vast earth and, having done so, I have witnessed some pretty alarmingly shuddersome things done by humans to other humans. I can, without reservation, state that “this world we live in is off the rails ..” Yes, this is Biblical and yes we can look at other civilizations and see commonality-of-actions as with the Roman Republic, however, we have the choice before us to halt this march into biblioclasm. We have before us what the Roman’s did not, we have their history to learn from. I ask, how is the bitter fight before us in Washington unlike the war of words and actions between Julius Caesar and the Senate?

Friends, Americans, countryman, and women what are we doing to halt this perishing march into total destruction? What are we doing ourselves to eradicate even one insane act a week from our own actions?

“When insane becomes fashionable then the proverbial writing is on the wall.”

When the fight to prevent senseless massacres becomes the equivalent of World Wide Wrestling with bogus retaliations and loud exchanges then the lives of everyone involved have become worthless

“This makes me ill!”

I plead with society, with you, with your sensibility to speak up and reclaim the five feet around you. Restore values, honor, and sanity where you walk. Step carefully forward and hold the logical truths to be self-evident. If you claim your five feet of real estate and your neighbor adjoins, we will have ten feet of sanity, and then 20, 30 and even 50 feet.

Can you imagine this? I can!

Along the way, as I cooked the food without the restaurant, I would open the back kitchen door and feed the hungry in small ways. Maybe only a plate here and there, they still enjoyed being treated to healthy well-prepared food. Before long, the lines developed at the back door and more and more people in need waited for the wonderful meals. The word spread, and like social media, people around the world heard of the dishes being served. It was time to put together a team to help build our “place of serving”. The first team member was needy and asked for all the money I had so he could keep a roof over his head. Not being a man of endless resources, I diverted all I had and was no longer able to buy the ingredients to feed the endless line at the kitchen door. Another team was built who said they could help but never worked in a restaurant before. They came and realized that maybe waiting on those that needed to be served was not for them. Another team came along, remember, word of the “servings” had reached all over the world. This team said here are the resources, but don’t buy fresh beef and vegetables, buy three day old, its cost effective. Some people got sick and word of this spilled here and there.

Along comes another team, however this time I have learned from the trials and errors. The line outside of waiting customers is growing. This team I have hand chosen because I have learned that a good waiter must prove they can serve others. I good manager has to show they know how to set the table with clean linens and sparkling silver. I great coat check girl, dishwasher and line cooks must be able to handle the pressure of serving 1000’s of people needing to be “served”.

I learned how to pick the team, train the team and maybe most importantly, form expectations from the team.

The restaurant is now ready to be opened. The manager has set the tables, checked the silver, wiped the sparkling glasses, and is ready. The line cooks and dessert chefs have prepared the sauces, cooked the soups, and prepared the deserts. The creative members have made wonderful menus and placed the ads for the world to see. The inspector has checked for rats, and seen to it we got a good inspection. We have been to the market and purchased the best spices, tomatoes, and basil. Each team member understands their role.

It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a team to “serve” the under-served” The grand opening nears …. there are hundreds of hungry people who need to be “served”, can we do it? Can we hold together and give these wonderful customers the best “meal” ever? Through years of hard knocks and rough times, I believe we can. The grand opening nears !!!

Proximity To Power is the story of one man’s journey through a treacherous labyrinth of global dark corners into the light of day. His proximity to these powerful people, powerful places and powerful events will shake readers to their cores. From the murkiness deep in the bellies of politics, religious cults, the entertainment industry and international trilateral oracles, brightness, and radiant energy seeps in shining brilliantly, sparkling with confident optimism . — Robert J. Cipriano

Come and travel back so that, together, we can journey forward enlightened and blessed.

INTRODUCTION: As with most of us, there is something that provokes within that calls us to deliberate about things that we would rather not. For the most part, we already know that if we take our beliefs and bond them together with any sense of coherent reasoning, we will end up at a place where we start to question everything, including our relationship to others, the social order, humanity, our pursuits and ourselves. These ethos are played out before us, being the masses, by a small group of “spiritless conspirators” for their own or collective personal gains.

We fear that if we journey too far into some pretty complicated areas, we might be overtaken with sanity or something that resembles sanity. Of course, if we are prepared to allow a little sanity into the estate, we better be prepared to begin to calm ourselves and our emotionally elevated thoughts.

At a young age an English teacher named Mike Moss once stated in a classroom full of rowdy angry, pot-smoking 11th graders that “nothing was anything unless it was compared to something…” Kind of a burdensome thought for us juvenile delinquents.” Yet, it stayed with me till this very day. I have been haunted by the thought process that supports that statement. It became clear to me that there might be numerous levels from which to stand and view our past and make deductions, form opinions and interpret our realities.

As I began to make assessments of others and their lots in life, I found that they each had a parallel passage. The entire advanced thinking world is made up of diverse shades and hues of two typically atypical personas.

What about the rest of the world?

Where do all the other advanced thinking souls fit in?

I surmise that the left behind magnitude public called humanity have quietly been seeking a rationale and position to call their own. A safe harbor in the storm of feelings and actions going to and fro between the advanced thinking masses and the morally wanting souls. The wanting soul’s are dodging the bullets and the bomb, the excise and times, death and disease and still remain not relevant. The others are our friends in all places.

My question, years in the making, is this. If we all arrive at the same place at the same time with the same confusion then what is this journey’s true purpose and how can we begin to understand our meaning in God’s creation?

For me, as I have shared in so many blogs, it was in climbing out of myself for a moment and seeing, hearing, listening and helping another person without self motive or gain. Trust me, I was never planning for this to happen and was perfectly happy plodding through my self centered and single-minded journey disconnected and “not so’ing” as much as possible.

The key word in that thought and question was humanity. This is where I am going with this line of thought. It is the combination of all of our individual voyages that collectively create the tapestry from which this world is made. No matter where you stand or where you stood we are all right here at this point in time.

Where is here?

Here is where we stand looking at each other thinking thoughts we never thought we would ever think.

Here is where we are prepared to think the worst before the best of anyone, because, we in some manner, in some way, understand that we ourselves are capable of less than best thinking and actions.

Here is where we shrug our shoulders as a society at our leaders as they aimlessly and, at times, shamefully drive the current events to mold a particular line of reason that is absolutely self driven and self serving.

The humanity that we share has been pushed to the back of the bus in the past three generation for an assortment of reasons.

Today, lack of humanity seems to be fashionable. We watch as 100–900 channels provide front row center access to any amount of arguing, yelling, fighting over any of 1,000,000 issues that, at this very moment, seem to be of our only consequence. The humanity that has evolved is a inhumanity rather than a progressive humanity.

Where in the world do I have any meaning in all this?

Do I retreat into the quietest corner and hide until it's over, hoping not to be seen? Not!

Humanity starts with me. Compassion is defined as how I connect to the world not how the world relates to me. If I was to judge how the world related to me and serve up some of that stew back at world, we would all be racing to the bathroom with food poisoning.

No, humanity is something that I needed to go beyond myself to find. I needed to find it in something other than my intersecting with the world or the world’s intersecting with me. For me, this came in the form of children. It is not a noble thing I keep telling people. Helping children is not suppose to be an award winning activity, nor is it suppose to be the exception rather than the norm. There should be 150,000 social networkers friends already helping children in crises and I would be the one “hold-out.” I should have been the one that said or thought… this is for someone else, there is nothing I could add.

But, this was not to be.

Circumstances that were beyond any control set me into action, and yes, today I am in action. My humanity comes from a series of events that I had nothing to do with setting into engagement.

Do you know where and how that race started?

It started when I first had a thought about something other than me. It began when I first found myself on my knees screaming… why? And, there was an answer. A loud answer. “Because you have to do it.” “God, was that you, I asked ?” The rest has been a humanity history. At no point, may I remind you, has it become any easier. At no point has life all of a sudden become a bed of roses. The only thing that changed was that from that point on, from that very second, I have never ever second guessed or re-though who I am, where I belong, or what is my meaning. Let me share what a special place that is. It is a place where you meet humanity head on like a bug on a windshield. SPLAT!

It is where compassion surfaces and never leaves you. It is where charity sits like a rocking chair in the corner calling you to it so that it might provide ease to you and others.

It is in all of this resulting activities that you get the chance to meet your maker. At this moment, we begin to have knowledge of the true fears. The originating fear and how we face that knowledge. Sound interesting? It is actually. However, not for the faint-hearted. We are called to be example of charity, love and wisdom. The only road to this platform is by stepping out of yourself and joining the league of angels that have come before you or have climbed that mountain right ahead of you. Once there, you will, without doubt be a powerfully influential person within yourself and to yourself. This resulting creation with be, for the first time, in unison with the Creator/Teacher and at that moment… all will be answered, just like it was for me.

…a small action by you results in the largest action that certainly saved many lives, and, at the same time saves you and prepares you for this day that you have waited for since we began to loose sight of the road.

As a young man, I witnessed how many students treated those with physical handicaps and mental retardation. The masses refused to defend those that the few were tormenting. The few seemed always to inflict the most damage and the most seemed to see the least. I wondered then, Was this peculiar to my class or was this the way it was? Was this how humans were and how we would become? And, if this was how we were to become, why did I feel so uncomfortable with it all? Why did it violate something within that, by all appearances seemed to be anomalous to me? What I did NOT see or grasp was the actions of the tormentors were done based on fear and the lack of action by the masses was caused by anxiety within them, and most foreboding, the effects upon those to which the tormenting was directed was horrific.

Then, I knew instinctively that the unfortunate needed “a friend, defender, and advocate.” I also knew that being that would bring mockery and persecution to myself. Somehow, this was all acceptable to me. Not because I was a marvelous soul or extra tendered, but because I felt the pain, as it should be to me.

Many years later, my aspirations would lead me to the streets of Manila in the Philippines. In my thirties, I would find myself being treated as a dignitary and a guest of the government. A long way from home. A long way from the hallways and the classes of my youth, yet ever too close to the spiritualistic sadness of those hours and bygone years.

As I was riding in the back of a black sedan through the streets we stopped for a light and a crowd of twenty or so children, no older than eight or nine rushed to the car. Their little hands slamming on the window inches from my face. Their small voices screaming for money or food or for attention. My soul exploded with monstrous wretchedness and all-encompassing devastation. Those faces burned into my mind's eye; their bodies filthy and grimy coursed through my well-groomed and perfectly tailored Armani scented existence.

I describe myself then only to accentuation the division, the distance and the wide divide between my cultural standards of home, requirements of three well prepared meals and minimums financial prosperity versus the standard of a home at all or one with walls and windows, food more than twice a week that is uncontaminated and any monies that were not begged stolen or earn in exchange for sexual favors.

The divide was so wide that I knew that it was not because the world did not care, it was because the world could not grasp the measurements of the divide. It was not because the world could not help, or would not assist, it was because the world did not desire to know or be exposed to such inhumanity for fear that seeing or witnessing such barbaric conditions and not helping would bring about that same anxiety that I referred to at home and in our youth. As if we would be some kind of barbarian for not helping once we knew that it existed and existed for and with and to innocent children.

The issue for me, then, was not one of a biblical description. I can not say that the Bible led me to feel and except their pain, however, I am sure that God was working deeply to remove the many miles of the divide.

As I returned to my familiar home in the States, I was profoundly heartbroken and deeply disturbed. The nightmares and tears ceased to cease. The days ran together, the weeks blended and month marched on with an emptiness so consequential that I felt as if the living of life was simply inconsequential without helping the children somehow. Everything I did was tarnished with a comparison of the divides. The sadness was not birthed entirely from the children, although most prominent was their faces and their little hands; the sadness was indeed from the realization that the human spirit could be so infected with malice while marching through life in such dignified appearances. How thin the line could be and how I needed to re-analyze my thinking, my attitude and my willingness to transform.

My healing began as a stepped back from life and the pursuit of riches and acclaim. The curing began as I allowed myself to comprehend other and their approach to life and their pursuits. My way, my methods, my thought process was not the center of the universe, in fact, I knew very little of the universe. I was as guilty, if not more so, of building and digging divides than most for fear of anyone getting too close and exposing my lack of compassion and fears.

What do I do now, I asked?

How do I move through this endless nightmare? Wait, it was not about me, rather those children. To reduce the divide I must connect the dots, bring us together, bring them closer, embrace the poverty in order to eliminate the death and starvation.

“I must bring the plight to the surface so that the great minds and greater hearts can connect and bring into action the steps to STOP THIS SCOURGE. It means that the “I” in “me” better get busy and do the things needed and then share with the “you” in “us” how much fun it was and how easy it is to change the lives of so many people.”

If I go there first and I fight the fear, beat back the enemies and cross this divide, then maybe, you will follow and in such numbers, since they're a whole lot more of you than me, and then, “golly”, we might actually do what could not be done by me, or I or you or us… we will have “done it.”

A hero is someone who “we” determine to have demonstrated behaviors and decisions that are ethically and emotionally worthy of our awe. We see in them something we think is not in us. Given similar conditions, we “think” we might not make the same moves and decisions they do, so we place them in an elevated place in society or in our minds. What is a hero? Someone who inspires us by their example. Someone who moves us emotionally to connect with them at some level in order for us develops a connection with them. We may want to idolize them or place them in high personal regard. We may want to connect with them in a personal way by focusing on them to garner their strength or will-power. We may also desire to possess them in order to gain hero status by way of a kindred association.

So, what is it specifically that a hero does that creates awe in us? What makes us pick one over another? What is it about the hero that makes us stand up and take note and then admire, adore or try to emulate them? In many cases, it is their accomplishments. We have been granted access to their triumphant consummations of acts and deeds which, we believe, are beyond our own capacities. For example, a great football player achieves astounding record-breaking feats, and we immediately determine that they possess a greatness, that we bestowed upon them. They are a god. They are superior in all ways due to the fact that they threw the ball further or ran faster than all before them. We develop awe and a form of respect for their accomplishments. Their achievements become the new “superhero” standard to measure against. What about Princess Diane, the people’s princess? The world adored her in her rise from a rather simple country girl to a world recognized and cherished symbol of goodness. We connected with her, no matter who we were because she connected with us in an awe-inspiring way. Like a fairy tale, her journey to marry Prince Charles and become a Princess disclosed to us that it was indeed possible to live a fairy tale life. What did we garner from this example? That we connect with a hero because a hero connects with us. Even though they have done that which, we think, is beyond us, they connect with us. It would seem to be paradoxical, but for some reason, it is not.

What else does a hero do to attain our admiration? Many times, they overcome a tragedy or survive a horrendous calamity. A sickness or a heinous accident that would have desolated the average person seems to have intensified the heroes determination and intrepidity. We gaze upon this person in absolute astonishment and want to reward them with our love and respect for their triumph over tragedy. Their actions tell us that is it possible to overcome whatever comes our way. They connect with us personally by surviving and thriving.

Since the beginning of time, many of our heroes were warriors who over-powered those who would try to harm or take from us the things that we cherished. A strong defender of us as a society or culture gets hero status. Our great military soldiers who sacrifice everything to defend our borders, or cultures or our freedoms are indeed heroes to us. He or she places their very lives on the line in order that our way of life is protected from the influences or domination of others who wish to bring evil to us. Our armed forces are a classification of joint heroes. We automatically bestow heroic honors to those who fight for us. However, very often a single person will emerge from the joint heroes to be elevated to hero. He or she has demonstrated such courage and honor that they grab the attention of a grateful society. We call them a hero and we are compelled to connect with them. Many times, this hero does not understand why they are being exalted merely for doing what they believed and thought was correct and right. They did not think at the moments or during the episode, “if I do this, I will be loved and adored forever”. They simply did what was in them. They placed other people’s wellbeing before and above their own. Thank God above for this hero, because our freedoms are dependent upon these few.

We have seen many heroes emerge over the past centuries. These people show us that there are indeed choices involved in the process of living a respectable life. Recently, we watched a pilot, Sully Sullenberger, land a U.S. Airways flight in the Hudson River in New York City that was disabled after hitting a flock of Canadian geese. He was called a national hero after all 155 of the passengers and crew survived. What choices did he make at that moment that resulted in such a joyful end to what could have been a disaster? He decided and made the personal choice to place every single person’s life on that plane at the highest regard. He elected to also protect the tens of thousands of lives that may have perished if the flight had crashed into midtown Manhattan. He did what needed to be done when it needed to be done without even an inch of doubt. I am sure Sully did not think about the press conference later that afternoon.

Still yet another type of hero has emerged. The passengers on Flight 13 in PA on 911 decided to take action in the face of an inevitable ending, and take over the terrorist who were evil-bend upon death and destruction. Where did these men and women gather their strength to do this remarkably brave thing? I would suggest, that they gathered unity courage. They looked into each other’s eyes and “connected” with each other. They saw in themselves an uncommon valor through a banded bravery. In the end “we” saw them as modern-day heroes …

What have we learned so far? There are different types of heroes. Heroes that, for example, show us that anything is possible. Heroes that by their decisions, demonstrate a courage that is not common in the average populace and we see a hero that finds the strength to overcome adversity and thrive. We have seen heroes that connect and unify when their unification is needed to stop or to mitigate the amount of death and destruction that is blatantly obvious to occur.

I have witnessed in recent months a little girl named Angelina who has and still to this very minute, demonstrate’s such courage and heroic strength while she fights vicious cancer. She is only ten years old and her will to “push through” and, to be an example of strength and the “right stuff” has personally connected with me. As I fight my battle to live, I connect with her. So, being a hero is about connecting with people. It is about being connected with and connecting with others, most of whom, we never meet. It is about placing the safety, health, welfare, and protection of others first and foremost in your decision, or better yet, a hero is one that does not make the decision but rather just acts in the protection of people.

Heroes come in many ages shapes and sizes. Many of our heroes are everyday folks like you and me. It is the mother who chooses to stand up and protect her children with courage and inner strength when the cards are stacked against her. She works around the clock to provide for their healthy growth and protection. When her pain is so agonizing that she can’t walk another step, she gathers yet more strength in order that the children are well.

There is the hero child who stands up for a disabled child in a playground and does not permit the challenged wee one to be hurt. There is the school bus driver who protects their children passengers against any invader. There is the father who faces an invader into a home and places his life before all. There is the parent who adopts a child who has been abused and patiently holds their hand as they navigate childhood. There is the mother or father of a veteran who’s taken his or her own life who finds the strength to help other parents who face similar tragedies.

Each of these heroes and many more garner from within themselves the unimaginable fortitude to change the lives of other with absolute sacrifice and unmitigated determination.

I have been blessed to witness such heroism time after time in my life. I have seen how people respond to heroes and also seen how heroes have been attacked. What makes some people attack a hero? What brings outrage in certain people against our heroes?

I would conclude that when certain individuals are faced with the heroic actions of others they might generate a fierce furnace of hatred because they have not yet demonstrated within themselves a similar response. They, without self-awareness, project outward their own feeling of incapability of responding heroically. The hate is so severe that it spills out towards the hero and is filled with spitting venom. A disturbing portion of our society has morphed from a culture of raising up our extraordinary to a society/culture of bringing them down. The thought is “I can’t be like him or her, so they must not be for real … or … they are hiding something”. The thought process is that we are all lost and useless and so the one who stands out must be a fake. This is a sad commentary of where some of our cultures has landed.

I know a man who demonstrated such heroic deeds his entire life. He literally has saved tens of thousands of lives with his humanitarian work. A few years back he was attacked viciously by a helpless hidden diabolical and reprehensible man who sought nothing more than attention for his attacking of my friend. It seemed unreal that someone so noble could be bombarded so relentlessly with such deception and slander. As the years passed, I understood more about the nature of the attack and the attacker.

It is a shame that some people find that their only recognition in life is a narcissistic attack upon others whose purpose it to provide relief, aid and help for those in need. Since, the true hero, as we learned earlier, does not set out to be recognized, nor do they seek adoration for their actions, the attacks may seem bizarre at best. Forgiveness seems to be the first line of action by the hero, which, by perfect chance, it already built into their DNA.

I will continue to write more on our heroes in hopes that we return as a society to a place where we hold them high and learn how to, ourselves morph into a humanityhero — AllHumanity!

Let us look at the origins of the two words. Virtual comes from Latin “virtus” and reality “realitas” or virtuous authenticity.

Virtuous, meaning of substance and value and authenticity, meaning true to one's own spirit and character.

Interesting!

By creating the term Virtual Reality are we not meaning “honorably being authentic?”

Today, virtual reality has many meanings and applications. We hear the term VR used in gaming, the medical field sectors and education, especially long distance education. It brings to the viewer/receiver the action/experience/intent of the creator/sender. In gaming, we are introduced to life-like experiences such as war and sports. In the medical sector, VR is being used to educate and assist the receivers with medical procedures such as surgery. In education, a VR experience includes bringing students into a VR classroom from anywhere on the planet providing education and instruction.

How about humanitarian virtual reality? Humanitarian, what is the definition of a humanitarian — “improve the lives and living conditions of other people.” So, the term Humanitarian Virtual Reality could mean honorably and authentically improving the lives and living conditions of other people.

At AllHumanity Group, we believe that through the development and creation of virtual reality tools and technologies we can better prepare aid workers and agencies, NGO’s and UN members, nonprofits and charities, institutions and universities/schools to deliver virtuous and reality-based sustainable solutions in improving the lives and living conditions of people around the world. We believe that by providing the knowledge, education and technology (tools, equipment, content creation and programs) coupled with, the financial resources to implement these solutions, we will increase the impact by organizations and groups 1000 fold.

How can this be achieved? Aid workers, charity personnel, mission staffs, and international teams are already “boots on the ground” around the globe. By being equipped with the correct technologies that can capture what they see, hear and feel 24/7 and transmit/deliver this back to their organizations and AllHumanity Group, where producers and VR professional can create the correct and authentic content for use as tools for donors, contributors and maybe most importantly, training/educational opportunities to prepare future aid workers and such prior to their deployment into the humanitarian field.

This is just one of over 100 ways to utilize the technologies available today to help people in crisis. Poverty around the globe has its bases in hunger abatement, shelter/housing, medical/medicines availability, and education. All of these bases can be impacted with sustainable results, if not eliminated over time, if we in the humanitarian sectors, embrace the technologies and make it plausible, affordable and user-friendly.

Virtual “Humanitarian” Reality was originally published in AR/VR Journey: Augmented & Virtual Reality Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This is what a new friend and fellow AllHumanity Roundtable member shared with me this morning. Listen, listen, listen … I may have forgotten to listen lately. For this, I am truly sorry.

The path I have chosen is difficult and the less traveled path to select from. It is a “suit and tie” cutthroat on certain days and a compassionate minute by minute human path on others. The trick is to navigate both equally and, I am sorry to say, I fail at it from time to time. I put that suit and tie on and race into the sector negotiating humanitarian agreements that have been called “game-changing or changes”, I seek to bring organizations to a new sense of transparency and accountability by blending business best practices and protocols with their/our will and desire to change the course of history for those in poverty, ill-health or grave danger.

On other days, I am inside the hearts of those who are hungry or in crisis. I am trying to listen to both our voices. I am removing the “them” and replacing it with “us”. Rarely, have I been in the same day with the suit and tie and listening to “our voices”.

This must change immediately.

I believe that we must first and always listen. First, for the voice inside of us, that speaks truth and compassion, and second, to the voice of those of us who are screaming for food, shelter, medicine, and compassion. If for me it means suit and tie, then wonderful; I have been gifted, we hope, with the gift to interface with business and government persona’s that make change happen. If for you, maybe it is rolling up the sleeve, writing a check or grabbing an economy fare to China to get busy with orphans.

So, lately, I have been too much suit and tie and not enough “in your/our face” with some good old fashion true loving and caring and most of all listening instead of talking.

I am a romantic about my causes and a cynic about the world. I have the capacity to be both things and to live with the contradiction. I have seen human beings at their best and worst — often in the same experience. I understand the world as it is with all its corruption and cruelty. But I think it is a moral failure to accept injustice as the inescapable tragedy of our fallen nature.

I am a fighter, never afraid to stand for my beliefs. I never take the easy path in life — and through sacrifice and suffering, I hope I have inspired others to serve something greater than self.

I hope that I have shown that your demonstrated boundless self-sacrifices are not outdated concepts or cliches, but rather, the building blocks of an extraordinary humanitarian life. I think everyone in these times wants to have some connection and wants to do something to show their respect and love for humanity. I hope that I have demonstrated that “anyone” can.

I am not rich nor famous. I am not a Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford graduate. I am not a Saint or blessed with any specific Godly powers. I am the same as you.