Note: This article is not my usual fare. If you're looking for a fun Shiz diary, this is not it. On the other hand, if you want to read something of substance and maybe even worth, read on.
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My mind, heart, and soul have turned dark lately. There is so very much bad news coming out of media outlets far and wide that I just want to curl into a ball and hide under the covers until it all goes away.
Unfortunately, that is not possible for a variety of reasons.
The thing that scares me most is climate change. Recently, an extremely large and vitally important glacier was predicted to start melting soon. Ocean waters are set to rise something like 9 to 16 feet! I am not even shitting you. Look it up and get depressed, just like I did.
That means New York, California, Florida, and a variety of other seaside states and countries worldwide will eventually be under water. For real. For good. Forever.
This is not science fiction anymore, you guys. This devastating and awful information is about as real as it gets. There is no turning back. We, as a species and as a planet, have gone beyond the tipping point with regards to many of the climate change scientists' utterly terrible warnings about not steering Ship Earth back from the brink.
Some governments were ready to heed these dire predictions and would be willing to make important changes, but most didn't have the courage to do a damned thing about it. And now there is hell to pay. Hell on Earth.
And it matters. This matters more than anything, and it matters more than any issue, ever. It is The Most Important Thing, and it has to be. Because without a species and without a planet, we cease to exist. There is no purpose for us to inhabit our Earth, and this planet will kick us right the fuck out.
As well it should. We have abused Earth to the point of degradation. There are very clear, sober, and concise arguments for why we should no longer be here. We don't deserve it. It's going to happen eventually, right? Because we have fucked this shit up beyond repair. And everyone knows it, in their heart of hearts.
So I'm gonna tell you why it fucking matters most, you stupid goddamned stubborn homosexuals homo sapiens!
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Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi

Eleanor Roosevelt
Gene Roddenberry
Nelson Mandela

Rosa Parks
Voltaire
Susan B. Anthony

Galileo Galilei
Harvey Milk
JRR Tolkien
Albert Einstein

Pablo Picasso
Betrand Russell
Chief Sitting Bull

Thomas Jefferson
Friedrich Nietzsche
Mother Theresa

Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Harriet Tubman

Carl Sagan
Lech Walesa
George Washington
Joan of Arc

Malcolm X
William Wallace
John Lennon
Leonardo da Vinci

Ryan White
Sojourner Truth
Neil Armstrong
Charles Darwin

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
George Carlin
Helen Keller

Ludwig von Beethoven
Bill Moyers
Socrates
Abraham Lincoln

Jane Goodall
Ann Richards

William Shakespeare
JK Rowling
Vincent van Gogh

Thich Nhat Hanh
Thurgood Marshall

Kurt Vonnegut
Bernie Sanders
Nikola Tesla

Harriet Beecher Stowe
Michelangelo
Georgie O'Keefe

Jimmy Carter
Edgar Allan Poe
Frank Zappa

Aristotle
Gloria Steinem
Lt. Dan Choi

Rachel Corrie
Phil Ochs
Salvador Dali

Oskar Schindler
Molly Ivins
Thomas Edison
Maya Angelou

Charles Dickens
Stephen Hawking
Ron Kovic

Johann Sebastian Bach
Allen Ginsberg
Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Paul Wellstone
Leonard Peltier
Frida Kahlo

Daniel Ellsberg
Bob Marley
Medea Benjamin

Henry David Thoreau
Howard Zinn

Mark Twain
Anne Frank
Claude Monet

Ellen DeGeneres
Hunter S. Thompson
Aldous Huxley

Mikhail Gorbachev
Leo Tolstoy
Desmond Tutu

Amelia Earhart
Dalai Lama
Cesar Chavez

Plato
Joan Baez
William S. Burroughs

Harriet Beecher Stowe
Elizabeth Blackwell

Jane Addams
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Peace activists, revolutionaries, philosophers, artists, world visionaries, civil rights leaders, scientists, community activists, etc. - all of these people helped to make the world a better place. We would be lost as a species without them.
Of course, this list does not include your own family, friends, and personal heroes. We have some wonderful people in our personal lives, and that is more powerful than any connection on Earth.
My child is my hero. I love that kid more than anything.
Who are your personal heroes?