I prefer reading books, but this year I dipped my toe into the world of audiobooks and have one of my own .   Here are 3 very different audiobooks that I greatly enjoyed.

Michael Jordan:  The Life by Roland Lazenby

There are a number of books about Michael Jordan, but this is the best biography.  Aside from a painfully over-written preface that I barely made it through, the biographer settles into a groove and the book is consistently fascinating.  For those of us that were hardcore Michael Jordan fans, we know A LOT about the man.  There are usually not too many surprises.  But the Michael Jordan documentary on Netflix “The Last Dance” was filled with video footage that had never been seen and interviews that had never happened.  This book is the same way.  For those that enjoyed the documentary, this book is a deeper-dive into Jordan’s competitiveness, the tensions between Jordan and his teammates, the many battles with General Manager Jerry Krause, and the tragedy of his father’s murder.  But it goes deeper than that, and that’s where the book gets good.

Jordan’s uncanny ability to unnerve and insult opponents and identify everyone’s weak-spots is truly legendary.  His startling intelligence about the game of basketball is explored, as well as his machiavellian genius when it came to business negotiations.  Nike wanted to own him, but he figured out how to own Nike.  Furthermore, it was completely new to me that there was extreme tension within the Jordan family over his success.  His mother and father were basically torn apart by his success, relationships with siblings grew strained or non-existent, and his family that he cherished so deeply and which kept him sane amidst the truly global mega-stardom was basically destroyed by his fame.

The book takes us all the way through his Washington Wizards tenure and his desire to be an owner of an NBA franchise.  The behind-the-scenes stories about the games, playoffs, rivals, and off-season shenanigans were all very interesting.  Jordan is no saint; but his was a perfect storm of talent that goes beyond athletic skills.  There was great intelligence, an unmatched competitive streak, and an almost diabolical ability to emotionally and mentally destroy people who tried to get in his way.  Jordan makes Machiavelli look like a total wuss.

Secondhand Time:  The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich

Russian civilization and the Russian mind is extremely enigmatic and complicated to understand.  A nation that is neither East nor West, a small nation that became geographically-enormous, and a civilization hiding as a country–Russia is complex.  I’ve read quite a lot of books about Russia beginning in the early 1980’s, but this is the best one if you want to understand the Russian soul.  It is a large collection of interviews with different ordinary Russians talking about their hopes, dreams, desires, and their overwhelming sense of futility and resignation.  This is not a happy read (listen).  These are people who are mourning what was lost when the Soviet Union collapsed.  From the perspective of the West, we have a hard time seeing why anyone in the East would be nostalgic about the Communist era.  This book will make you have compassion and understanding.

Written by a Ukranian journalist with extensive experience living and reporting in Russia, the stories collected here tell of how hard life became after the Soviet Union collapsed.  Poverty, dysfunction, crime, immigration, extremely-low birthrates, corruption–for most, attaining middle class or wealthy status has been impossible.  Time and time again, what you hear is that at least in the Soviet Union, they had community and connection.  There was some structure and order to society.  People sang the same songs and had genuine pride in their country.  All of that is gone in the Darwinian, anarchical Russia of today.  It’s every oligarch for himself, and the rest be damned.

We hear from young people (all voiced by different voice actors), poor widows, war veterans, Islamic immigrants from former Soviet Republics, the stories of lovers, and tragedies galore.  Like I said, this is not an uplifting or easy listen.  But for anyone seeking to understand why there is a Putin, why Russia has often made such terrible choices, why they have often shot themselves in the foot, and why they are a nation in severe decline—this book will reveal all.

Beastie Boys Book by By Ad Rock, Adam Horovitz, and Mike D

If you think the Beastie Boys were just dumb, white rappers (a la Vanilla Ice), or think that rap and hip hop are stupid, this book should change your mind.  Yes, it’s a history of the most successful white rap group of all time told by the group, their friends and peers themselves; but more than that, it’s a tribute to the creative genius of the late Adam Yauch (MCA) and a deep dive into the entire culture of hip-hop, not just rap.  It’s actually a brilliant examination of many different kinds of music and their significance socially.  This is because the Beastie Boys, funny as they were, were playing dumb the whole time. Gen-Xers instinctively get the irony of that.   They in fact, were 3 brilliant Jewish kids from New York City who had very sophisticated, eclectic tastes, and enormous musical knowledge.  To create sounds, new beats, rhythms and rhymes, they mined every kind of music imaginable, including classical music.  Even for someone like me, (a music-phile with tastes that range from New Kids on the Block (yikes, did I just admit that?) to Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, from the Nigerian music of Feta Kuli to the Appalachian music of Loretta Lynn, to the Japanese pop of Utada Hikaru and the urban rhymes of Notorious B.I.G.) the Beasties take it to another level.  I found myself looking up artists of all genres I had never heard of.  So creative was their sampling, that they even made an album of entirely made up, eclectic, fake samples making people scramble on impossible quests to find the real song behind the beat.

That’s another thing.  The book is very funny (and the book version is significantly more beautiful).  On the audio-version, Beastie Mike Diamond is joined in narrating the book by many well-known actors, musicians, actual people from their lives, and they include Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Steve Buscemi, John Stewart, Amy Pohler, Elvis Costello, Chuck D, Jarvis Cocker, Bette Middler and many others.  Yes, it is for fans (or 80’s kids who have a good ironic sense of humor and want to remember what it was like to grow up in the 70’s and 80’s), but it’s also for anyone that wants to learn about the history of Hip Hop which goes beyond rap, to dancing, graffiti, deejaying, emceeing, and beat-boxing–all things that are more complicated and have more rich, nuanced histories than one might imagine.

FINALLY, My latest book, a personal (and humorous) memoir about my life and the sometimes toxic, sometimes beautiful role religion plays in the world is also available on audio and should be considerably funnier than the Russia book, although you might find me an equally tragic, hopeless figure.  You can order the audio version of No Religion Required:  A Memoir of Faith, Doubt, Chocolate Milk, and Untimely Death (narrated by Darth Vader).

1) Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West by Hampton Sides. I was in a bookstore in lovely downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico and the store owner saw me looking at this book. He said, “That will be one of the best books you’ll ever read.” I bought it immediately and it turns out he was right. It’s not often that a book is so good that every single paragraph is filled with fascinating information. It’s the true story of one of the most adventurous men in American history. Kit Carson was a soldier, a hunter, and an expert at understanding and gaining the trust of Native American tribes and he seemed to have nine lives–escaping all kinds of imagineable and unimagineable dangers. It is 1846 and the West is on the brink of being conquered by the United States. The gentle, mild-mannered Carson is tough than Rambo and has more adventures than Indiana Jones. Native Americans are making their last stands, Mexican people and tribes still occupy the Western half of what would become the western United States, and nature is starting to take a beating as humans wipe out buffalo and cause environmental destruction. Carson’s life is constantly exciting, but even more interesting is this extremely vivid glimpse into what life was like in the Old West and what was lost as territory was gained.

2) In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr. by Wil Haygood. If you are old enough, like me, you remember enjoying the music, acting, and comedy of Sammy Davis Jr. and the rest of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack. But it’s only those who really grew up watching Sammy from childhood that understood how groundbreaking and talented he was. Beginning in the era of vaudeville as vaudeville is dying and is being replaced by the movies, this book not only covers Davis’ long career as an entertainer (he was a child star born in 1925), but also the changes in the entertainment industry and the racism that provided obstacles throughout his whole life. Before Michael Jackson, there was Sammy who seemed to be able to do everything from tap dance, play drums, do impressions, and bring people to tears with his singing. A natural comic, the tiny man with a glass eye (he had a horrific car accident and lost his eye as he was becoming a household name in America) found ways to be succesful and relevant no matter what obstacle life threw at him. Why Me, a biography (based on his autobiography Yes I Can), was one of the best books I read during college. I figured a biography about Sammy with many voices speaking in would be wonderful, and it was. Great for those that were fans of his or love to read about old showbiz.

3) Mao: The Unkown Story by Jung Chang. The story of Mao is well-known and written about, so what can Chinese scholar Jung Chang add? She adds example after example of people NOT being on-board with Mao’s reckless and poorly-thoughout out plans. It’s something we never talked about in graduate school studying modern Chinese history. From his time in Yan’an after the mostly mythical “Long March” to his deathbed in 1976, Chang talks about the many people who tried to stop Mao–and the price they paid for it. The elegant and usually celebrated Zhou Enlai comes off as a man who always knew Mao was a disaster but could never muster up the courage to challenge him, no matter how much humiliation Mao would dish out to him. It’s an angle not written about much and Chang does a great job re-telling the well-known story. Wild Swans remains her masterpiece, however.

4) Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race by Shanna H. Swan. Any pediatrician will tell you, children are going through puberty at a much younger age. It is in fact, shocking how early some kids are developing. There are also higher rates of miscarriages (women are only 33% as fertile as their grandmothers), extremely low testosterone levels for men–even young men, estrogen issues for women, and spermbanks that can barely use the material they are given because of deformities. In addition to all of this, genitals themselves are changing and all of this is being observed in the animal kingdom as well at the same time. Initially a skeptic for over 15 years, Swan and her researchers at Stanford found consistent, solid evidence that forever chemicals (endocrine disrupters like plastics, chemicals in food, and drugs that never leave our system) are permanently altering our human bodies. In other words, the chemicals on our farm fields, in our facial products, in our soft-drinks and even in our vegetables are doing great damage to fetuses in the womb. So much so, that it leads to more cases of gential deformity and gender dysphoria. The United States is particularly bad at allowing blatantly illegal chemicals to be unregulated. Over 500 poisons are legally exempt from being taken out of our foods and products in the United States. Then there are the many experimental drugs, anti-depressants, and other medicines that are regularly taken. For those afraid of the Covid vaccine, your average cheeseburger, french fries and the vegetables in your salad probably has more harmful chemicals than a rapidly-made vaccine–chemicals that never leave the body. Swan’s book is very important and there’s not enough discussion about what LEGAL and highly dangerous chemicals are in our food and other products that go on our body. Society taking this book seriously, however, would damage the profit-margins of a multitude of companies and corporations and would force more sensitive nuanced discussions about sexuality, pregnancies, health care and identity. That’s probably the reason the subject and the book do not get enough attention.

5) Genesis for Normal People: A Guide to the Most Controversial, Misunderstood, and Abused Book in the Bible by Peter Enns and Jared Byas. Considering it’s probably the most well-known book in the Bible, it’s remarkable how bad many Christians are at reading Genesis. That is a tragedy, because Genesis is a book that can teach you to read the Bible very correctly or highly inaccurately. There are many good books on Genesis, but this one is the most simple, easy-to-understand guide to getting a handle on what is-otherwise–a very, very strange, but crucial book. Aside from its religious meaning, Genesis has had a huge impact on Western Civilization’s view of humanity in general. Nothing in this sensitively written book should be controversial if one takes seriously Near Eastern literature on its own terms, but sadly even a book this simple and non-threatening would probably be too much for many.

6) Never by Ken Follet. After spending years writing exciting trilogies spanning the World Wars and Medieval times, Follet begins a trilogy in the current era. A U.S. President, CIA officers, and African migrants are just some of the people trying to avert catastrophe as they take on China and Islamic jihadists who are setting up a nuclear war scenario. Part 1 of 3.

7) Roadmap to Hell: Sex, Drugs, and Guns on the Mafia Coast by Barbie Latza Nadeau. A depressing but highly-informative look at how the various Italian mafias in the south of Italy smuggle weapons, drugs, human migrants, and women for sexual slavery purposes. It’s bleak with some unforgettably awful stories. But one learns how efficient these groups are, how lucrative drugs are and how inhuman are the conditions that migrants (particulalry from Africa) must deal with as their own towns in Africa get destroyed. Furthermore, it becomes easier to see how poverty-traps are created and escape is virtually impossible. It’s a side of Italy and Europe that most don’t see (and which is present all over the world). For those of us doing charitable work in these communities, this is a good introduction into how these global networks function.

Last year, I read the Sci-fi novel “The Ministry for the Future,” by Kim Stanley Robinson. The novel is about a special organization set up to deal with the political and economical challenges of a global climate crisis in the future. It opens with a terrifying scene in India where the high temperatures and extreme humidity reach the wet-bulb level. That is the level at which the body can no longer sweat and we begin to literally boil to death. In the novel, people stand in disappearing lakes to cool off and there are not enough air conditioners nor enough of a power supply to keep millions of people cool. It sounds pretty extreme and as though it’s either impossible or a crisis we will see far, far into the future. But this summer, temperatures in heavily-populated Central China got as high as 117 degrees F. (or 45 degrees Celsius). “Who cares? Vegas is hotter!” The problem was that this region always has humidity levels that reach into the 90% level. That is not Vegas! This came dangerously close to the wet-bulb level and people moved into bomb-shelters to escape the heat–unable to even sleep. This is not normal.

There’s not a single place I travel to where the local people me that the weather is the same as it always was. Throughout the world storms are more severe, droughts longer, floods harsher, and many places are seeing entire industries (as well as animal and plant life) disappear quickly. In Switzerland, there’s no snow on the Alps this summer and enormous glaciers are completely gone. This has dangerous knock-on effects, such as a shortage of a clean water supply for Switzerland and neighboring countries. Enormous forest fires are no longer a California thing–they are now plaguing the very temperate, cool countries of Germany and France. Rivers throughout Europe are dry or very low. All of it is disrupting agriculture and food supply. It is also straining energy supply at a time when energy costs are set to skyrocket across the world. Extreme floods in Pakistan have displaced 10 million people in that country this summer. Lake Havasu in Arizona is drying up, as is the Western United States’ water supply. The examples are endless, weekly, and from every part of the world.

Much of Sub-Saharan Africa and a huge expanse of Asia from Shanghai all the way across to Iran are in danger of hitting wet bulb temperatures in the very near future. About half of the world lives in this large region that is overwhelmingly very hot and very muggy in normal times. Picture Arizona’s heat with 80% to 90% humidity instead of its more normal 30% or lower humidity. It’s physically unbearable. Even without these extreme temperatures, the world is currently hitting a wall on energy. Wind, solar, and other alternative methods of replacing fossil fuels are nowhere close to being able to meet the current energy demands. Even a quick switch to nuclear would still require lots of water and time to build out.

Yes, there have been examples of climate scientists exaggerating or even making up data. And it is true that the world’s climate has changed before. What is often left out is that those climate changes had a severe impact, particularly if carbon entered the atmosphere at a great rate. Some creatures survived, but it was not pleasant and it changed the world permanently destroying many ecosystems. There are plenty of books and articles that you can find that will talk about climate issues being a hoax. Talking points can be provided. But as farms in the Midwest struggle as never before, as flash floods kill more people in those areas that produce climate skeptics, and as we watch basic things that we’ve taken for granted like rivers, water and lakes disappear or become scarce; the anti-climate science talking points won’t matter. We will soon move on to a world that understands that this is real and that lives in fear of the next summer.

Is America headed toward a violent civil war in the next couple of years? Over 40% of Republicans believe that the country will be split apart violently. They are not alone. Democrats and Independents also believe the country is close to the breaking point. About 80% of Americans feel like the country is on the wrong track. One third of Republicans believe violence is justified in order to save the country from a clearly stolen election. And since the Covid-lockdowns and the January 6th attack on the Capitol, American citizens now possess 400 million guns (more than one for every citizen). Amidst all of that, many evangelical Christians believe that the United States is becoming a godless country embracing abortion, homosexuality, wokeness, drugs, pornography, and a godless school system. And under the Trump/Pence Administration, they have seen the Supreme Court become more conservative and the pro-life movement reassert itself. Many evangelicals believe that if the Republicans can capture the presidency, the House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court, America will be great again and indisputably Christian. I think this is highly unlikely nor do I think it is desireable. Religiously-led governments are disasterous and would definitely kill off democracy in America, but let’s assume all of this happens peacefully through an election season and evangelical Republicans succesfully control the U.S. government. There are some enormous questions evangelicals will now have to wrestle with that they are not even remotely contemplating as they embark on this religious agenda. Let’s take a closer look:

It’s Tuesday, November 5th, 2024 and (Trump/Pence/some other evangelical) has won the presidency. Republicans control Congress and dominate the Supreme Court. Even most of the states have Republican governors. The first big question will be whether the Democratic Party should exist at all since they are supposedly slaves to liberalism and an anti-God party. That would then mean that evangelical leaders will need to push for a one-party State. Only a theocracy (A government based on God’s rules) will work if the Christian Republican Party is to reform this godless country. So that would mean American democracy is finished, and a “Godly government” is now in power. Great right? Who needs democracy if your government is under the leadership of a Holy God?

Well there’s another big challenge. Of the 329 million Americans, a generous high estimate would suggest that only 10% (30 million) are evangelicals. What if the other 299 million Americans violently protest this evangelical America? Are American evangelicals ready to take up arms against 90% of the unbelieving population? Are they ready to use or go up against high-powered assault rifles? Are they ready to have the Christian government round up citizens and put them into armed camps so as to not interfere with the Christian agenda? Or to see their children and grandchildren caught in the crossfire of a long religious war and insurgency that will be assymetrical. There will be car bombs, mass shootings, guerilla warfare, and many weapons being unleashed even if the U.S. military doesn’t show up in defense of the Christian government. What will be done with Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, and Atheists? How will equality be preserved for them or what new restrictions will they face to keep America Christian? Basically, this evangelical government is going to have to find a way to control 300 million people (in a Biblically-based way?).

Perhaps the evangelicals can pivot and just proclaim the United States “a Christian nation” that doesn’t have to be led by evangelicals. But do these evangelical leaders in Washington D.C. view Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics as Christians? Traditionally, they have not. Nor have those branches been comfortable with Protestantism. What about within the protestant, evangelical, and Christian sect traditions: Liberal Protestants, Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists; where do they fit in? Will they need to be identified as heretics not to be listened to by needing to wear a badge? Maybe an upside down cross? Or will there be a huge fight within the American Christian government and society between evangelicals, other protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians? How will this be settled? Which branch and theological school of Christianity gets to set the Christian rules of this Christian nation?

One answer could be making sure everyone gets a good evangelical education in public schools. But where are the evangelical or Christian leaders of America going to find the 3.5 million Biblically-based and correctly doctrinated teachers to educate our children? What do we do with non-religious educational institutions like Berkeley, Harvard, and Princeton and 4,000 other institutions where the curriculum is not religious?

Since the liberal media is untrustworthy and anti-American, which channels will be allowed to dispense news about our government? Fox News, OANN, the Christian Broadcasting Network? It would seem that the only way to get Christian truth to the masses would be through a select few channels. Do our cable providers drop most of our channels? Social media would need to be massively censored, so internet censorship would be a thing which would hinder knowledge and innovation. Also talk-radio would need to only reflect Christian values. Maybe all Americans should spend the hours they would have spent on social media, radio, and television reading the Bible instead. How many hours a day would that be? Wouldn’t that insure a more Godly society?

Then there’s the issue of art. If the lamestream media spreads liberalism and godlessness that undermines Christian values, then clearly much of what Hollywood produces should be banned. And someone will need to decide what gets banned, and once again, based on what stream of Christianity (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Evangelical)? Is Zeferelli’s “Jesus of Nazareth” movie okay, or does it contradict some streams of Christianity? Must we say goodbye to some of our favorite shows, movies, and songs? It would seem so, if the government wants to make sure that church and state are not separated. The church would need to be present in everything. This would lead to the biggest problem of all: Religious belief dramatically decreases under religious governments. Are evangelicals ready for the secularization that would follow in “Christian America?”

What about other sources like Q-anon or Alex Jones or Sean Hannity. Is there a Q-anon theology that someone has developed? Where does there authority lie in relation to the Bible? Maybe they are trustworthy, Christian sources of information, but there would need to be some kind of theological matrix created upon which to declare them theologically kosher.

And what about the End-times? Many Evangelicals believe that Jesus is returning soon, and that things are getting bad because this is the prophesied sign of the times Jesus talked about in Matthew and that we find in the Book of Revelation. So, if we are indeed living in the end-times, then why are we evangelicals trying to prevent Jesus from returning by establishing a Christian theocracy in the United States? Wouldn’t that contradict what is seemingly going on in this prophetically-driven decaying world? And wouldn’t it delay Jesus’ return? It all seems pretty self-defeating, not to mention the Bible talks of a Kingdom ushered in by Jesus redeeming Creation through a New (non-political) Covenant, and a new Heaven and New Earth. The Bible doesn’t say anything about a Christian empire ushered in before the end-times or during the end-times by American evangelicals through politics. So wouldn’t this Christian American theology in fact be a competing “Kingdom?”

In fact, the Old Testament captures the folly and failure of “God-led government” and “Godly Kings” quite well, and the New Testament is primarily made up of small churches already divided amongst themselves by controversies. Not only are the churches in conflict and confusion about their identity and theology, but key leaders like Peter and Paul don’t agree on critical issues…and they weren’t trying to govern a nation of 300 million. In fact, not even Jesus manages to make it through his 3 years of ministry without one disciple betraying him completely and committing suicide because Satan entered him. What is to prevent division and Satan entering into this new Evangelical Christian Godly United States of America (ECGUSA)? What is to prevent this religious government from getting co-opted by bad actors like the Fascists and Nazis (Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini) who all used religion to justify their massacres? What safeguards have evangelicals come up with to prevent what happened in Ancient Israel and in the New Testament church from happening now in, of all places, the not so pure culture of Washington D.C.?

What these questions reveal is that politically active evangelicals are great at identifying what’s wrong and sinful in society, but not so hot on explaining how an Evangelical Christian Godly United States of America (ECGUSA) could ever be ushered in without destroying the separation-of-church-and-state-intentions of the Founding Fathers and repeating the same mistakes as found in the Old Testament and in Christendom. As Communist revolutionaries learned throughout the 20th century, the revolution is the easy part; it’s the day after you win the revolution that is the hard part. What are theocratic, one-party, Republican Christians planning to do with the rest of the 200 million Americans that are not in support of this agenda. It would seem like there should be some concrete plans presented and new theologies deliberated as well. Most importantly, are all these Christian theocrats ready for a very long, bloody, insurgency that will probably require murder, mass arrests and incarceration?

The reality is that a “Christian America” is not possible; not even by the Bible’s own definition. There’s one Heavenly Kingdom promised, not two. It doesn’t make sense from a political point of view, a theological view, or a Biblical point of view. It doesn’t even make sense from a self-perpetuating, self-interested, marketing point of view. Consequently, the goal of a one-party Christian theocratic state is not a Christian, or Biblical agenda. It is a fantasy ideology. But one which is alluring enough to some people, that a horrifically violent war in the near future is not out of the question, even though it should be.

Patrick Nachtigall is the author of six books including, “In God We Trust: A Challenge to Evangelicals” and “No Religion Required, a Memoir of Faith, Doubt, Chocolate Milk, and Untimely Death.”

SOME OF MY BIGGEST CONCERNS FOR UKRANIANS:

SEX-TRAFFICKERS: Refugees are perfect targets for being tricked by sex-traffickers. It happens all the time. Women looking for security, food, or shelter for their children are particularly easy targets as they are desperate to help their children survive. Already, there are many people on the borders of Ukraine offering their “help” and “services” to Ukranian women and children and these people are only there to abduct them, abuse them, and trap them permanently. It’s important that we have lots of trusted organizations on the ground crowding out the bad/evil actors and that we support them.

CONCENTRATION CAMPS: So far, the Russians version of warfare in Ukraine has not been a 21st Century one, but a 20th Century one. So it’s not surprising that there are now reports of Ukranian citizens being rounded up to be sent to “work-camps” in Siberia. Concentration camps are an old tactic used very often in 19th and 20th Century warfare (and the Chinese are using them now while the world looks away). When we make sacrifices in our homes, towns, cities or countries to take in Ukranian refugees, we could be saving them from this kind of horrific re-location and torture. You’re temporary sacrifice could be saving a man, a woman, a child, and a family from death or a life of horrific abuse.

COMPASSION FATIGUE: It’s easy to get burnt out on the news or decide “I have my own problems here.” That’s a legitimate feeling, but there are times when we have to force ourselves to engage with the world far away. When we can’t just stay locked in our little bubbles in our own neighborhood. I believe this is a major turning point for the world. The very order of the post-Cold War era (which has been in a form of anarchy and disorder) is being decided at this moment. Regardless of whether you believe that or not, when a nation of 44 million people (that provides a lot of food to the rest of the countries of the world) suddenly empties out–it will affect us all. I think one thing every country has learned in the past 10 years is that our institutions, our civil society, and our democracies are extremely fragile. Any on of us could find ourselves in this exact same situation. It’s no longer unthinkable. We might suddenly lose everything because of a coup in our country, a war, an energy crisis, or an extreme weather event. Any one of us could be that person that has suddenly lost everything and is dependent on a neighbor’s generosity and humanity to survive. Don’t look away. Give and Sacrifice more than you think possible. And KNOW HOPE!