Hoping

I HOPE the human race continues to exist long afer I am gone. I have no reason to think it won't; I hope someday be somebody's ancient history. I want to have successfully passed the torch from the previous generation to the next. The human species is at this very mmoment poised precariously between survival and self destruction, and could choose either. Nobody's ever been trained to predict the prospects for long term human survival, but many make the attempt. It seems sensible to think that human life might be aorund awhile, if it makes good decisions and goes in the right direction. This must include peace and stable prosperity. It has pointed out by at least one historian that over the centuries humanity seems to be becoming less violent,less warlike. (From our lips to God'sears). Could it be possible that the human race is breeding violence out of its system, out of its behavioral matrix? For us, that might be too much to expect. But if indeed we as a species are becoming less violent over the centuries, may it continue to do so until it becomes completely nonviolent. A completely non violent homo sapiens is, we must admit, difficult to imagine. People and society in general don't seem any less violent to me now than at any point historically, but I may be wrong. Einstein once said that as long as there are people, there will be war. I hope and pray that he was wrong about that, but he probably wasn't. for one thing, Einstein was rarely wrong, about anything. Then too, it takes a good amount of imagination to even imagine a human race without conflict and violence, considering our history and human nature. If we don't end all wars, our long eterm continued existence seems very uncertain. The weapons have become too powerful, and the stakes too high. Among the many things for which I despise Trump, one of the most important is his revealed tendency to start wars, seemingly without giving a great deal of thought as to how they will be won, and what will happen when they are done. In order for our species to continue existing, we must reverse Trump's policies, do just the opposite, must refuse to start wars, and totally eliminate war from human culture. Otherwise, our long term future on Earth seems quie uncertain at best, highly doubtful at worst. Our beloved United States of America must take the lead in promoting and preserving peace worldwide, precisely because it is the most militarily and ecnomically powerful and strongest nation on Earth. Have we humans sufficiently evolved spiritually and mentallly to create and sustain lasting peace on Earth? Probably not, but we'd better hope so. I would like to think that my descendants will exist. I would like to think that they will be very advanced intellectually, and will reach out into the galaxy, exploring, and maybe contacting intelligent life. There are probably millions of planets with life. Most of them will almost certainly remain forever unknown to us, becuase of their distance from us. But if our species can survive itself long enough to become much more scientifically advanced, it may be that our dsecendants not only experience humanity's first contact with intelligent beings from other planets, but that the human species becomes a citizen of the universe,reaching out into the endless cosmos, mapping and exploring countless other stellar planetary systems, and, just maybe, finding brothers and sisters among the countless stars.