Chapters...

Life really is like chapters of a book when you look back. The introduction to the story of your life, the rising action and build up to exciting times, the climax where you've done the best you can and are enjoying every day, the falling action or wind down when you finish out your career or see your children go off to their own, and finally, the resolution or closing, where hopefully you are happy with it all.

We all experience some of these during slightly different ages, I suppose, but I'm sure all of us who are older can identify with the basic concept. Unfortunately, many do not get to enjoy the full book of life, when things end early or abruptly, so those who get to enjoy the book of life all the way through, are indeed quite lucky.

Our Introduction

During our youth, we are establishing our character, building our ethics and morals, and deciding where we are headed. As toddlers learning right from wrong to teens testing the limits of parents and society, we mold ourselves into the human we will likely be from now on. Our parents, grandparents, friends and enemies, all play roles in these early days and make us the unique individuals we turn out to be.

Our Rising Action

During our late teens and twenties, we may be learning the skills of life, building our careers, work and life experiences or having our own children to mentor and enjoy. Often our children help drive our motivation to do good in the world, to do the best we can and to be the person they would be proud of. We are learning, living and loving life and beginning to realize how special it is.

Our Climax

At some point we may feel like we've done our good for the world, be it our children, work, volunteerism or other life accomplishments. We should be happy with our accomplishments and look back at our life, so far, with pride. We aren't all so lucky to feel or see that, but I believe that should be our goal. For some this may be our 40's, other 50's, or even older, depending on the individual.

Our Falling Action

Our falling action years would hopefully be our golden years of retirement, resting, thoughts of our past with good memories and taking time for ourselves to enjoy the world, without the need for work or daily actions, unless that is what we really enjoy doing.

Our Resolution

In the end we finish out, hopefully knowing we did do the best we could, that we stopped and smelled the roses along the way, that we presented the best example we could as a human being, and that we enjoyed each day to our best ability. Those late years in life are very special and hopefully we have no regrets during this time.

We all should step back and make sure we are writing our book of life the way we hope it will be.

References:
https://literarydevices.net/plot/

The Lucky Life

I would imagine that most of us have lived the "Lucky Life". We've been blessed more than we usually realize. Some of that "luck" may be partly due to hard work and perseverance, but you may be lucky to have that drive.

I have to remind myself of the Lucky life I've often had. I wasn't born into a rich family but never lacked for things as a child. I watched my dad and mom work very hard for what they had and provided for us. From trying their own business to my dad driving hours a day for a better job, and mom working when she could downtown, they set a great example. Maybe I was lucky to have those examples in front of me that helped my "luck" continue in my life.

Maybe I was lucky to always feel valued and loved by my parents, sister, family, and all those around me. I remember friends that weren't so lucky in that area, but most of them changed that luck as adults ensuring their kids never felt the same. I was lucky to be smart enough to do well at what I wanted to do but also lucky to not be so smart, making it a burden to feel normal.

I was lucky to find employment when I wanted and never lacking for a job, but then again I was "lucky" enough to see those opportunities and follow through at the right times. I used my skills and brain to make sure my luck continued in my career by trying to learn all I could and be ready for the next big thing. That helped luck along often I feel, as I watched the technology world grow, change and accelerate at an amazing pace as I rode along these past nearly four decades.

I've been lucky with health, I'm sure, as well, never having had major problems although "luck" may be lacking in that area as one ages. This is the one area that seems the most important as you get older, as without good health, other things in life are harder to enjoy, I'm sure. I have tried at least to hedge my bets on the lucky health side by not abusing the one body we have too much, and by never smoking or drinking to excess. Some things you can't change, and heredity is obviously one, so luck may not have a whole lot to do with health... but then again it may.

I'm lucky to have my wife, Karen, through thick and thin and enjoy our time together every chance we get. I've been lucky to have a close immediate family and a wonderful son, who was a joy to raise, teach, and learn with and experience life with. He's now lucky to have a family of his own with our first grandchild little Stella Jo Nolen. His and Tandra's luck has already started with an extended stay at Children's hospital from an early showing by Stella, but a joyful outcome of them settled into their new home and life. 

I hope to be lucky in old age and retirement as well, and enjoy the twilight years on my own terms,  enjoying simple things I like to do in life and time with family, friends, kids and grand kids. Time will tell if the future is lucky or not but I'm doing what I can to help luck along.

I'm lucky again to be offered an opportunity to retire a little bit earlier than I had planned to start that "old age" phase. I'm lucky that I'm reasonably prepared to take advantage of this offer and do understand others may not be in the same position. I hope they have luck in moving on to new and hopefully better opportunities in their life as I hope to experience as well.

I'm sure you've been lucky too, if you really look at things from the right perspective.

Wandering Ways...

It’s odd to me how the world, including people, companies and governments, grab onto the latest bandwagon or “viral trend” and jump out of their seats to “change things”. An actual small number of people get attention for feeling “offended” and suddenly everything must change… that is until the next viral topic comes along and then that has to change too.

I’m no angel but from my life observations this is usually due to the individual, corporation or even country not having guiding principles, morals, or ethics. Basically no “moral compass” to keep on the right track during turmoil or disruption. Based on what we’ve seen in the USA the past decade or two it’s pretty obvious. Corporations driven by greed, governments driven by control, and individuals driven by entitlement.

Without that moral guiding compass, people, companies, news media and governments lose their way during the temptations, disruptions, and squeaky wheel situations and jump at the latest “threat” usually over reacting and creating more turmoil in the long run. Nothing actually gets improved and now the rest of the world is offended or unhappy.

To me, a “moral compass” doesn’t mean a certain religious, lifestyle, political ideology or other. It means doing the right thing for everyone involved with logic, sustainability, and compassion be it individual, company or government. It means taking care of yourself first but taking care of others in true need. It means not being distracted by the latest viral trend. It means staying the course you planned but being aware of what is short term versus long term concerns.

If we would guide our life, companies, governments and world with true quality principles, we can weather the storms and truly assess what should change and what should not change just because it’s the latest “trend”.

My two cents… no returns or refunds.

-Stephen

Smart Home Version 10?

Original Web Front End

Ok, maybe it’s not version 10 but I have been through a LOT of major version changes in my home automation / smart home history. Starting way, way back in the 1980’s with a Commodore Vic20 running as a dedicated controller for turning on and off X10 lights based on my “programmed” schedule and some X10 control pads around the house, through SEVERAL different PC versions of X10 based controls, to a dedicated Time Commander+ setup in the middle 1990’s, to a TC+ version and my own interface to fake keystrokes into the control software, then an integrated TC+ and web services version.

WAP Access - Simple Pull downs

Around this time some very basic WAP pages were developed to allow remote phone access for those nice limited Nokia phones. It worked just fine and was just a list of things to scroll up or down to and click on. With smartphones showing up the mobile interface was updated to a full html style page and formatted to fit the small screen. That interface is still the main front end I used day to day but is on it’s way out. Next to an expanded version of that with Arduino and ESP8266 end points and now my migration from my now “legacy” system over to a dedicated Raspberry Pi3 running Home Assistant / Hassio. That could be more than 10 actually.

Mobile Web Access

I’ve been questioning myself over what is the next version or phase of smart home I’ll be moving to for a while. Actually for a few years now. Obviously X10 is dead and has been for some time but that is what all my controlled devices were built around. Watching the Z’s (Zigbee and ZWave) battle it out, I never made a commitment to either. I did buy one Insteon wall switch that could do both X10 and their own power line carrier (PLC) but at their price point I could see it was going to be way more than I was willing to pay for budget wise to move everything that direction.

Then along came the Internet of Things (IoT) and WiFi device disturbance along with what seems like a million different protocols, options, and “apps” to use. I always loved how my home built web service put everything into a single site of controls so there was no way I was going to “app hop” to turn lights on, then arm the alarm look at cameras, etc. In the meantime I was slowly deploying my own ESP8266 IoT things on my network for temperature monitoring and some endpoint / relay controls but using my own HTTP API processes to do so. I had checked out Smartthings when they were a startup but after being bought out and up by a corporate giant my interest waned.

Hassio Control Screen

Finally during my wanderings around the web I ran across Home Assistant, or more specifically for me Hassio. I had actually recently picked up a Raspberry Pi3 on a whim as I knew I really needed to learn more about them and I had a $50 gift card on Amazon burning a hole in my pocket so to speak. I’ve coded in microcontrollers for years, check that, decades from 68HC11 devices through BX24 chips and for the last several years on the Arduino platform. I’m not saying I’m good by any means, just have been using them for my own fun. Seeing Hassio was basically made to run on a Pi3 with little effort I figured it was worth a try. Honestly the install was dead simple and before long Hassio was running and finding devices on my network.

So my goal now is to slowly, well I really want to do this quickly but time and money come into play so it's slowly, migrate all my old light switches, inputs and outputs, and automation routines over to Hassio and grow it from there. I’ve migrated quite a few switches, have text to voice working, have Alexa and Siri listening and responding, and am working on migrating my automation routines over. Learning YAML and its idiosyncrasies was a bit troubling at first as I am a quite sloppy coder but after a few thousand errors and fixes I’m getting better.

HA Dashboard Master Screen

Although the Hassio control screen does it's job well, it's just too much at once and not that easy to customize. Fortunately, the wonderful HADashboard add on for Hassio and Home Assistant, makes it super easy to build out new web interfaces to replace what I’ve built before. With HADashboard one can configure multiple dashboards and customize them for the particular endpoint display as needed. For example my small old phone displays are laid out different than my larger phones versus the Android tablets versus the old Ipad devices. You can setup your “widgets” and then include them in your dashboards adding easy re-usability of existing code.

I have to say version “10” (or maybe even higher) of our automated home is better than the old versions of the past and continues to improve. There is much work to do including moving inputs and outputs such as the washing machine, dryer, garage doors, alarm system and other sensors over to the new system but this will actually be easier as ESP8266 end points will be much easier to build out than running wires everywhere.

Watch for more details in the future as this decades long adventure continues…

Resources:

Home Assistant/ Hassio:

https://home-assistant.io/

HADashboard:

https://home-assistant.io/docs/ecosystem/hadashboard/ 

My ThingiVerse Things for 3D printable items I've used:

https://www.thingiverse.com/Protowrxs/designs 

To learn more about Home Assistant and DIY Smart Homes in general check out these Youtube channels:

• Dr Zzs at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7G4tLa4Kt6A9e3hJ-HO8ng
• Bruh Automation at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLecVrux63S6aYiErxdiy4w
• diyAutomate at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwpl3ZLLDx_LqOnhtFDq8iQ

Believing in Change

I believe in change. I’ve been a change driver my whole life through technology and the deployment and use of it. “Change is the only constant” as they say. The older I get the more I do see the other side too however. Age brings experience and when you see what works historically you stand by it.

Change isn’t always good. Most software companies motto should be “new ways to do things you already know how to do”. Add a couple new features and then change how you do the rest. Do I want to still be using Windows 3.11? Of course not but then again I don’t want to have to use “search” to find a simple setting that used to be two clicks away.

But on a bigger note, I can’t support change that is more destructive. I can’t support change that criminalizes victims and makes them the bad guy for defending themselves. I can’t support change that victimizes criminals and looks for outside excuses for their actions no matter their race, creed, religion, or culture. I can’t support change that ignores laws such as immigration when there are legal methods in place. I can’t support change that disrespects our country and those that have fought for our freedom. I can’t support change that seeks to legitimize violence to suppress free speech and then uses free speech to justify their actions. I can’t support change that attempts to divide our citizens by race, religion, geolocation, or culture. I can’t support change that encourages reliance on others and ridicules self reliance. These may be change, but there is good and bad change and sometimes it seems we can’t see the difference.

These are changes we have seen for years now that is destroying what we are about as a nation and change that does not move us forward but backwards as a nation. I can only hope we change how we see these actions sooner than later and keep what works, actually appreciate living in the greatest nation on the planet, and actually change what needs to be fixed instead of tearing down what works.

That’s my two cents of change...

Does Your 3D Printer Tweet? Or Email or Text?

Does Your 3D Printer Tweet?
Or Email or Text?

Get an email, text or Tweet from your 3D printer lately? No, why not? Well, OK, it’s not REALLY from your printer but it’s still pretty handy to get a notice when that print job is done if you’re not sitting there babysitting it.
If you’re using PronterFace or any other PC based printer control that supports external commands you can easily get email or text notifications when print jobs are done or if there is an error. In fact with some free email to Twitter options such as TwitterMail.com you can put your 3D printer online and have it Tweet when it’s done.
This will cover how to do this on a Windows machine for the details but Linux gurus can easily replicate the end results I’m sure.
PronterFace has an option under the Settings / Options menu item and the External Commands tab to run external programs for printer start, printer final, and printer error situations. With this we can run any program we want to for our purposes we will use some simple VBScript to make it happen. This could just as easily be done in PowerShell if you’re a PS expert.

First we need ability to use an SMTP server somewhere. If you have an account with SMTP.com or are running your own SMTP server somewhere then it’s easy. For a local SMTP server just ensure the IP you’re PC is using is able to send email through the server if local and make sure you know a valid username and password for either option.

You can even use Gmail to send the messages if you desire but it takes a little bit more and lessens the security on your Gmail account. If you want or need to use Gmail it might be best to create another GMail account just for this to insure your main account doesn’t have any other risk. The reason is that you do need to lower the security level for “Less Secure Devices” after you log into the Gmail account by visiting this link and making the change: https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps. Additionally you will have to store the email password for the gmail account in open text in the script which is obviously not good either. Once you turn ON access for less secure apps, our script can then send email through that Gmail account.
Once you have an SMTP server accessible then the rest is rather simple. We can setup the following command in the PronterFace or other print controller to run your .VBS script to email the notice. In PronterFace your external command should be like this: “Cscript.exe C:\3Dprinting\SendEmail.vbs” where the path is where ever you put the VBS script from below. The script is a little messier with the TLS requirements vs if you run your own email server and can simply whitelist the IP of the host computer but either works.

Super easy way with your own SMTP or use something simpler like SMTP.com:

Set Arg = Wscript.Arguments
If arg.count > 0 then strJob = arg.item(0)

SendEmail “WhoTo@from.com”, “Gray Hair 3D printer just finished print job “ & strJob

Sub SendEmail(ToAddress, Subject, Text)
 Set MyEmail=CreateObject("CDO.Message")
 MyEmail.Subject=Subject
 MyEmail.From=”MrWallace@Protowrxs.com” ‘ Whatever you want/need the FROM to be
 MyEmail.To=ToAddress
 MyEmail.TextBody=Text
 MyEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing")=2
 'SMTP Server
 MyEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver")=""
 'SMTP Port
 MyEmail.Configuration.Fields.Item ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport")=25 
 MyEmail.Configuration.Fields.Update
 MyEmail.Send
 set MyEmail=nothing
End Sub

More Complicated when using GMail:

Set Arg = Wscript.Arguments
If arg.count > 0 then strJob = arg.item(0)
‘Call the sub like this
'SendEmail "", "", ""
SendEmail “WhoTo@from.com”, “Gray Hair 3D printer just finished print job “ & strJob
Sub SendEmail(ToAddress, Subject, Text)
    Dim iMsg 
    Dim iConf
    Dim Flds
    Set iMsg = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
    Set iConf = CreateObject("CDO.Configuration")
    iConf.Load -1
    Set Flds = iConf.Fields
    With Flds
        .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpusessl") = True
        .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpauthenticate") = 1
        .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusername") = "@Gmail.com"
        .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendpassword") = ""
        .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver") = "smtp.gmail.com" 'smtp mail server
        .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing") = 2
        .Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport") = 465 'stmp server
        .Update
    End With
    With iMsg
        Set .Configuration = iConf
        .To = ToAddress
        .From = "@Gmail.com"
        .Subject = Subject
        .TextBody = Text
        .Send
    End With
    Set iMsg = Nothing
    Set iConf = Nothing
End Sub

Tweeting Your Print Info using TwitterMail.com

You can have your printer Tweet when it’s done as well by using the free Twittermail.com or TwitterCounter.com service.
Visit the http://www.TwitterMail.com site and login with your Twitter credentials. Once logged in go to the Settings / TwitterMail option and you’ll see a unique @Twittermail.com email address that can be emailed to in order to Tweet something. Then you can simply email to that @twittermail.com email address to Tweet your printer message.

Doing the Text Thing

I’m sure there are some better ways of sending an actual text and this will likely only work for some carriers but at least for AT&T one can send an EMAIL to @txt.att.net and it will forward it as a text messages. I believe Verizon and other carriers offer similar but have no clue on non US carrier options. It work for me on AT&T at least.

Other ways? Your Way?

Of course this will not work if you are printing from an SD card or MKS controller, etc that I know of. But I usually have a PC running my print jobs so I have a bit more control over it.
 Do you know a better or different way of doing this? Post up your solution.

Left/Right

Don't be so Left you don't see what's Right but don't be so Right you don't see what's Left.

Make sense? Let me explain then. When did we become a nation of Left VERSUS Right? Where did the balance go and the blinders go on where we can't see that politics, like everything else in this world, has to have a balance or things simple are not sustainable.

So don't be so Left you Can't see what's Right. That we can't see its Right to want people to support themselves and be responsible for their own lives. It's Right to abide by the second amendment and allow us to bear arms. It's Right to insure business and capitalism grows and provides jobs and economic growth. It's Right to allow freedom of speech and expression even if you are offended by it. To see that it's Right to have a strong military even at the cost to protect ourselves and our interest. We have to see it's Right to use natural resources to better our world and lives.

But don't be so Right you don't see what's Left. We have to take care of those Left behind in today's world and help them succeed. We have to deal with what's Left over from racism and history and acknowledge the hate and work towards solutions. We have to insure big business leaves something Left for the middle and lower class that isn't just left overs. We have to insure what's Left of the world and environmental resources is everything that was there to start with to sustain it long term. We need to understand there is room Left to have other or even no religious beliefs if one so desires. 

We need a mending of extremes in this country to restore the balance required to survive. But it should be noted that sustainable "balance" isn't two extremes way out on each end of the limb balancing each other out as that situation is ripe for catastrophic failure when, not if, one extreme fails taking the whole system down. 

You don't have to agree with me, your neighbor, your friends, family or the President of the United States, but you do need to understand that "United We Stand, Divided We Fall" and recently we seem to be more divided than I've ever witnessed in my life at least. Time for all of us to look for the balance. 

The Age of Magic?

Do we live in an age of magic? Yes? No? Follow along and see if you agree or not...

Magic

noun

1.

the art of producing illusions as entertainment by the use of sleight of hand, deceptive devices,etc.; legerdemain; conjuring:

Things we take for granted would likely be magic to those from the past, or even really for us here today. Look around your house, do you know HOW your TV works today? Your computer? Your cell phone? Heck anymore even your computerized refrigerator? You drive your car every day but I bet you have little knowledge of how the thing really works inside, computer controls and all?

Now think about someone from 75-100 years ago seeing this stuff.... "Maaaagic". Today we take this stuff for granted but most of us do not really have a clue how it all works. Of course things are only going to get worse... or is that better? With the advancement of artificial intelligence and self learning algorithms even the experts that designed and started them admit they really do NOT know how it is now working after being trained. Would it all be magic if we jumped forward 75-100 years? I'm sure it would!

Indecernable human looking robots with the knowledge of the Internet and beyond hooked into their brains for instant ultimate intellegence. But more than that the ability to understand, feel, express, and either have compassion... or have true anger at the "robot repression" of the "past". Will they integrate with humans or force humans to integrate with them? Maybe just toss us aside as a nuisance. Sound too far out? So did a handheld device that billions would own that you can ask questions by voice and see or talk to someone around the world anytime you want to just a few decades ago. 

Even today, from self learning AI algorithms that schedule your planes push off times to those that automate the selection and delivery of your on one orders, to those that will drive your future self driving car, to learning the best settings for your personal home heating and cooling, the magic continues. The magic of yesterday is the reality of today. Will it be white magic or black magic? Only the robots know for sure. 

BTW yes that is a robot girl, HRP-4C is her name and that was seven years ago - More here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HRP-4C

What About the Cars?

So what is it about cars that so many people around the world just seem to love?

Me and the old '69 in 2015
20+ years off the road was way too long

It's not just an American thing, people from all over the world have a love for cars and trucks, although obviously different types and tastes. Non car people just can't "get it" just like I can't "get" someone wanting to watch most (non car related) TV shows I guess.

It's actually rather amazing of how many different types of car aficionados there are. Some just want to buy and sell them, some want to just own them, some want to drive them, some want to race them. Some want them perfectly like new from the factory even thirty or forty years later and some want them cut up and modernized, some want them fast... OK, most car people want them fast, but some want them slow and powerful.

Just looking at racing types alone there are so many options from dirt roundy rounders to drag racing, rally racing, road racing, drifting, stock car, F1, city to city, off road, Baja, hill climbing, rallycross, ice racing, and obviously many more not listed here including my least favorite demolition derby car killing.

Sure there is the constant bantering of Ford vs Chevy vs Dodge vs every other brand out there but get the bunch together and they will likely all help each other get a car running or ooh and ahh over some cool ride that rolls up. Some of us like the street, some like that strip, some like the dirt and some like the auction houses better but most will appreciate the efforts of others with just a few arse-holes as the exception.

Some of us may not want to own a 48" tired lifted F350 or a bagged Merc cruiser, or a rusted Rat Rod, or a strip only dragster or a turbo four cylinder powered 80's car but most of us still appreciate each vehicle for what it is and where it came from. The history, the work to get it where it is now, the vision and persistence of the owner.

There are car people that never touch a wrench and car people that wrench daily. Owners that never drive and drivers that never own. Everything from lawyers and doctors to teachers, computer programmers, bank presidents and fast food workers (those are not in any order in the car world) that are "car people". There are still shade tree mechanics and mega corporate sponsored multi car operations but they all have a love of cars in common.

If this were the 1980's I'd be a rich man...

Obviously I have my favorite types of cars and trucks and own some of those and I have my favorite type of car person. My favorite type of cars are Fords overall with the street being my environment. However, the car people I actually admire the most are the do it yourself people that like the DIY world. Likely because that is how I am, also likely to a fault, but seeing the work someone has done themselves instead of farming out to someone else always earns more respect from me personally.

I honestly like building more than driving them and tinkering through the challenges of getting it all working, updating it and even making it as original as can be with the resources at hand. From rebuilding an engine from scratch, welding in new panels, wiring it all up after the mice had their day, and seeing it come back to life after years of decades of neglect. My weakness is paint and body but I have a few years left I hope, maybe that will work out. I've also always wanted to do more interior work as the little I've done felt quite satisfying.

So if you're a owner, building, tinkerer, engineer, or just trying get it running again, hats off to car people. The future is sketchy at best for our breed with a changing world ahead. Enjoy the now and go work on your ride!

Time Flies - Go Work on your Project

Divided We Fall...

I know everyone has heard the "United we stand, Divided we fall" saying. The saying goes back to Aesop and has been used in America for centuries. In my opinion it stands true today but today we are in the divided side, not the united one.

From race, sexual orientation, and religion, to politics and wealth, and even law enforcement we seem to have fallen out of balance and many feel it's "my way or no way". Sure there are many bad things that have happened here over the centuries but we generally stand together in the end despite our differences for an overall bigger need. We used to seem to know that we MUST all stick together in the long run in order to survive and thrive. 

Today the drive for "tolerance" seems to have no tolerance. I personally think I have tried to have the "live and let live" mindset and that seems to be the exception any more. I don't HAVE to agree with your politics, lifestyle, "genderality", sexual orientation, religious beliefs, race or other differences but unless you are trying to force me to do the same against my internal guidelines, or are harming another person or property, you should be able to do what you want. Of course, there are exceptions that ruin lives, place loads on society or others that need to be understood but again, those are exceptions.

Life is a balance and the balance must be kept. Nature is a prime example of the need for balance. When something in nature gets out of balance, things go bad quickly and damage is done until balance is once again achieved. Everything must be sustainable to continue to exist. The world, nations and individuals are no different in my opinion. 

However, to me, achieving balance isn't accomplished through forcing others to change their beliefs, it is accomplished through understanding of both sides by both parties and mutual agreement at some point. You shouldn't have to be ultra liberal or ultra conservative to be elected to lead us, neither is self sustainable. You can't riot and destroy things because you disagree with something that happened, especially when the full story isn't known, there are processes for this. You shouldn't bastardize gays or others in the name of your religion known for love and forgiveness and you shouldn't deem all non believers of your religion must be killed. You can't suck up 98% of the wealth in the world and expect the world to keep functioning in balance. There is no balance in any of these and is not sustainable, at least in a country as diverse as the USA.

By concentrating on our differences instead of of common traits, common situation, common time of the world we live in, and common needs, we could be so much better off. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of "drama" in that way of thinking and drama seems to be the lead mindset in the world today, especially in the extreme media and self reporting we hear and read each day. By listening to the extremes we only reinforce our belief in the extremes thus propagating the differences instead of the common concerns. 

Are there inequalities on America? Sure there are, just like any other place on earth. But don't use extremes to justify the means. There are usually underlying reasons for things that need addressed and burning or stomping flags or outlawing them isn't going to help either. It's just a diversion and another extremist expression that the drama driven world loves to see. 

But United We Stand does NOT mean united on the Left or united on the Right, it means United as Americans of all races, creed, religions, ages, economics and all.

Believe in what you want to believe, lets others do the same, and remember this country has survived by being "United", not divided and until we once again become the "UNITED States of America" our future is not in balance and questionable at best.