Where are the gentlemen and have all ladies vanished?

Have you ever noticed that manners and morals are not in style anymore?
As you wait to cross the street, people bump into you because you are in 'their' way, without noticing, without saying as little as 'sorry'?
Have you ever noticed that as you try to open a door, while holding a few bangs in your hands no one will help you, people will just continue passing by, following some busy schedule they have?
Have you ever noticed that cars will try to run you over while you cross the street only because you are not in a car and thus have no right to be on the road?
Have you ever noticed that girls walk, talk, act like boys? (They imitate men by imitating their rudeness and meanness so that they look powerful)

Have you ever noticed the teenager on a skateboard who almost ran over a young mother and her stroller, didn't say as much as 'sorry' ? Have you noticed that this act hasn't bothered anyone else on the street because they didn't care?

What have we become?
Where are out manners, our sensibility, our morals?
Why do we associate power and independence with rudeness and amorality?
When has good will become inappropriate?

The American Dream

The American dream refers to the desire of owning a house.  It has to be a house. A condo, townhouse, or the like do not count as much.  The desire of owning a house hunts people.  They are ready to work, to slave, to die for the house.
The homebuilders are not only selling 4 walls, they are selling dreams. The dream of having a family, of seeing your child grow in the house, of growing old in the house. All these dreams are unrealistic as not many people now can say that they are able to live in one place for the rest of their life, mainly because no one is sure that they will be able to work in the same region for many years.
As prices grew higher and higher, the quality of the houses fell lower and lower.  Nevertheless, the American dream is alive and thriving.  People dream of having a house. They dream of taking up a large sum of money from the bank and paying the triple or so of this sum over time to the bank in exchange of being the kings of their domain.
Isn't this price too high?
As long as people keep dreaming the dream, builders will keep selling the dream.  Nothing will change.
So, millions of people slave their entire life to pay the triple sum to the bank. In exchange                         they stress out, fall sick, and even divorce.  Children do not see their parents, parents do not see their children.  They all live in a dream.  Their reality of owning the house has turned to be less enjoyable than the dream. Nevertheless they hope that by the time they have paid off the house, they would still have time to enjoy their live in the house.
The children move out.
The husband dies.
The state sells the house and sends the lonely wife to the nursery home, so that there she can receive 'qualified care.' The money for the house pays for the last years of her life.  No one visits her as she became a stranger to her children because she was never there for them.
She lived the American dream. They all have.  Isn't it time to dream other dreams?

As Long as the Land Shall Last

Code of Ethics

1. Each morning upon rising, and each evening before sleeping, give thanks for the life within you and for all life, for the good things the Creator has given you and for the opportunity to grow a little more each day. Consider your thoughts and actions of the past day and seek for the courage and strengthto be a better person. Seek for the things that will benefit others (everyone).
   
   
2. Respect. Respect means "To feel or show honor or esteem for someone or something; to consider the well being of, or to treat someone or somethin with deference or courtesy". Showing respect is a basic law of life.
   
   a. Treat every person from the tiniest child to the oldest elder with respect at all times.
   
   b. Special respect should be given to Elders, Parents, Teachers, and Community Leaders.
   
   c. No person should be made to feel "put down" by you; avoid hurting other hearts as you would avoid a deadly poison.
   
   d. Touch nothing that belongs to someone else (especially Sacred Objects) without permission, or an understanding between you.
   
   e. Respect the privacy of every person, never intrude on a person's quiet moment or personal space.
   
   f. Never walk between people that are conversing.
   
   g. Never interrupt people who are conversing.
   
   h. Speak in a soft voice, especially when you are in the presence of Elders, strangers or others to whom special respect is due.
   
   i. Do not speak unless invited to do so at gatherings where Elders are present (except to ask what is expected of you, should you be in doubt).
   
   j. Never speak about others in a negative way, whether they are present or not.
   
   k. Treat the earth and all of her aspects as your mother. Show deep respect for the mineral world, the plant world, and the animal world. Do nothing to pollute our Mother, rise up with wisdom to defend her.
   
   l. Show deep respect for the beliefs and religion of others.
   
   m. Listen with courtesy to what others say, even if you feel that what they are saying is worthless. Listen with your heart.
   
   n. Respect the wisdom of the people in council. Once you give an idea to a council meeting it no longer belongs to you. It belongs to the people. Respect demands that you listen intently to the ideas of others in council and that you do not insist that your idea prevail. Indeed you should freely support the ideas of others if they are true and good, even if those ideas ideas are quite different from the ones you have contributed. The clash of ideas brings forth the Spark of Truth.
   
   
3. Once a council has decided something in unity, respect demands that no one speak secretly against what has been decided. If the council has made an error, that error will become apparent to everyone in its own time.
   
   
4. Be truthful at all times, and under all conditions.
   
   
5. Always treat your guests with honor and consideration. Give of your best food, your best blankets, the best part of your house, and your best service to your guests.
   
   
6. The hurt of one is the hurt of all, the honor of one is the honor of all.
   
   
7. Receive strangers and outsiders with a loving heart and as members of the human family.
   
   
8. All the races and tribes in the world are like the different colored flowers of one meadow. All are beautiful. As children of the Creator they must all be respected.
   
   
9. To serve others, to be of some use to family, community, nation, and the world is one of the main purposes for which human beings have been created. Do not fill yourself with your own affairs and forget your most important talks. True happiness comes only to those who dedicate their lives to the service of others.
   
   
10. Observe moderation and balance in all things.
    
    
11. Know those things that lead to your well-being, and those things that lead to your destruction.
    
    
12. Listen to and follow the guidance given to your heart. Expect guidance to come in many forms; in prayer, in dreams, in times of quiet solitude, and in the words and deeds of wise Elders and friends.