ON NEW YEARS DAY--RE-CONNECT WITH YOUR VALUES

I'm as guilty as the next person about forgetting what it is that makes me "me". Liberals have lived for years now under assault by people who demonize our core values, and we tend to lose ourselves by lashing back at those who attack us. Instead of holding to the attitudes and values that define us as liberals, we often forget them in our outrage, and thereby lessen ourselves.

Our values are based on empathy, which begets caring, equality, justice, and generosity of spirit. It must be remembered that others, who demean these values, are not like us. Their values tend to be self-centered, and greedy, and punitive. We run the risk of becoming like them when we respond to them in kind. And it's hard not to when we see the the tremendous damage done to our country as well as the rest of the world by those who hate and those whose only goal is the accumulation of wealth and power.

And so it's important that step away from the"hate and rage" mode that we fall into and look within ourselves periodically to re-connect with our souls. We dare not lose sight of what it is that forms the base of our morality, lest we become like those we loathe.

One way that I do this is by watching "The Dash Movie" every so often. Many of you have seen this, but it is definitely worth watching again, and again. You might find it "sappy", but the basic simple truths so eloquently set forth resonate powerfully in me, and describe perfectly why I am a liberal.

A friend sent me an e-mail recently with an inspirational story, which was obviously a fiction designed to deliver the moral, which mirrors that of "The Dash Movie": "We will not be remembered by our words , but by our kind deeds. Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments which take our breath", and "It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived".

And so, my friends, take a little time and rediscover what is truly important, so that your actions can be guided accordingly. Know your enemies, don't become like your enemy, and when you make that critical distinction, you can proceed to smite them soundly for what they have done, but for all the right reasons .