My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Arizona.  We combined visiting family and friends with touring some of the state's major tourist attractions.  I am always amazed, when I visit the western US,  about the vastness of our country and the incredible differences between the eastern and western states of our nation.  Arizona, like all of the western states, has stunning vistas that are truly fabulous and draw visitors from all over the world.

We divided our trip into two parts.  We spent part of our trip in Flagstaff, a central point for visiting northern Arizona, and the rest of our trip in Mesa, a convenient location for visiting the eastern half of the Phoenix metropolitan area. 

What more can be said about the beauty of the Grand Canyon?  I hope everyone gets an opportunity to visit one of natures greatest gifts to the world at sometime in their lives.  We also visited the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert and got to see more of natures beauty on display.  On our way from Flagstaff to the Petrified Forest we stopped to visit the famous Meteor Crater.  How often does an easterner get  to drive for miles on a flat straight road on a plateau that is about 5,000 feet above see level?  We also saw many Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains running along the tracks that run roughly parallel to the highway.  It was interesting to see one of Warren Buffett's large companies, through Berkshire Hathaway, in action.  We also spent a day in Sedona, another beautiful area in northern Arizona.

We visited friends in the Prescott/Prescott Valley area on our way from Flagstaff to Phoenix.  Prescott was originally developed during the 1860s near mining camps and was once the capital of the Arizona territory.  It has a colorful history like all the mining boom towns that are scattered through the western states. Some of the history has been preserved on Whiskey Row in downtown Prescott.

We visited the Goldfield Ghost Town in Apache Junction (Phoenix metro area) during our trip.  This reconstruction of a typical mining town that boomed and went bust twice is typical of many mining ghost towns throughout the west.  We purchased a wonderful painting of the area featuring the Superstition Mountains and I bought a book, Upstairs Girls - Prostitution in the American West, by Michael Rutter.  The stories of these unique women of the wild west and the men they were involved with provides some insight on what life was like throughout the west in mining camps and boom towns.  It is very hard to fully appreciate what life was like in that era.

We haven't seen all of Arizona or all of the American west or fully appreciate all of its history.  But every time we get a chance to see or learn more about the Wild West, the more I appreciate that it was a unique period in the history of our nation.

TPM

A few months ago I was ordering some books on-line when I noticed a book I has never heard of before.  It was a paperback.  It was inexpensive.  The subject matter looked interesting.  I ordered The Gods of Eden by William Bramley.  Due to my personal schedule, the subject matter and the length of the book, it took me over a month to read The Gods of Eden  from beginning to end.  Is the author's analysis of our world right or wrong?  I don't know.  After reading the book and thinking about it, I can't accept the author's analysis and conclusions as fact or dismiss it as complete fiction.  I will tell you a little bit about the book and you can decide if you want to read it or not.

The Gods of Eden was first published in 1989.  Twenty-five years have passed since Bramley finished the book.  Bramley originally "began researching the origins of human warfare."  "The Gods of Eden is written for those people who already take seriously the possibility that Earth has been visited by an extraterrestrial society."  Bramley's fundamental conclusion after completing his research is stated as follows:

"Human beings appear to be a slave race languishing on an isolated planet in a small galaxy.  As such, the human race was once a source of labor for an extraterrestrial civilization and still remains a possession today.  To keep control over its possessions and to maintain Earth as something of a prison, that other civilization has bred never-ending conflict between human beings, has promoted human spiritual decay, and has erected on Earth conditions of unremitting physical hardship. This situation has existed for thousands of years and it continues today."

The book is Bramley's explanation as to why he believes his conclusion stated above is true.  He discusses the historical role of the "Custodians",  the "specific extraterrestrial society (or succession of societies) which appears to have had ownership and custody of the earth since prehistory."  Bramley also explains the role of the "Brotherhood" throughout history.  The "Brotherhood" started out thousands of years ago as good guys.  Unfortunately, the "Brotherhood" evolved into very sophisticated bad guys that sometimes seem to be good guys, but are really bad guys when you get into details and put their actions into a spiritual context. The "Brotherhood" is responsible for most of the bad things that have happened on our planet for thousands of years, including wars.

Bramley covers thousands of years of history in 400 plus years of paperback book pages. His theory is extremely interesting but at times he gets lost in the details of a particular era and tells the same story others have told but in his context.  Bramley could have written The Gods of Eden in many volumes if he had desired to pursue it, but he didn't. He hopes that others will continue his research. Based on other books I have read that written within the past twenty-five years, I believe they have.  The search for truth continues.

TPM

This weekend my wife and I traveled to North Central Pennsylvania and Southern New York and passed through parts of Maryland and Virginia.  Earlier this summer we drove through Oklahoma, Missouri, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York City, Philadelphia and New Jersey.  We have traveled through many of the states of the United States of America in recent years.

During our travels this weekend we saw acres and acres of corn ready to be harvested.  We saw signs with directions to wineries in Pennsylvania and Virginia.  We drove along major rivers and railroads.  We have driven though the urban areas and the suburbs of major cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington,  Orlando,  Phoenix, Las Vegas, St. Louis, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay area in recent years.  And we have visited and driven through many other cities and towns across the country.  A lot of our discussion while driving is about the tremendous diversity of life styles of the people living in all of these different areas.  Some of the areas are similar.  The corn fields of rural Missouri and the corn fields of Pennsylvania look very similar as we drive down the highway.  Some of the urban areas of New York and St. Louis look very similar.  Each state we visited has a huge variation of circumstances of the people that live there.  There are urban, suburban , rural and industrial areas in most, but not all, states. 

How does a state government provide the services its people need with all the diversity present in many states?  How does our Federal government create programs that have impact millions of people in widely differing circumstances?  Can Federal programs ever be fair?  Since the Federal government is so far away from dealing with the actual circumstances that exist does it make sense for many Federal programs to exist?

The more we travel around the country, the more ingrained our belief is that the concept of solving local issues at the Federal level is totally flawed.  It is not possible to develop programs where one size fits all.  The needs of people in different parts of the country are vastly different.  Many states are so diverse it is extremely difficult for state governments to deal with the diversity within the state.  Local problems must be solved locally whenever possible. 

The United States, both its people and government, has not adjusted to the increased diversity of lifestyle, culture and economics throughout our nation.  We need a fundamental change in philosophy is we are going to make major problems in solving our problems.  At the core of the needed changes is a need to move as much decision making as possible to the state and local level.  Citizens in urban areas, city suburbs, rural areas and industrial zones need uniquely focused government that works for each of them.

TPM