(Emphasis supplied]

Well, Venus, you agree with Professor Kant and his moral imperative, according to which we all have an obligation to act as if we were everybody. I don't know that I agree with that. Just because I decide to "tend my garden" (from Voltaire's Candide), doesn't mean everyone is going to do that. Everyone will make their own choices, and the possibility that everyone will do what I do (the most obscure little retired man in a small town in the provinces) is probably even lower than the possibility of my winning the lottery.

No. The reason I started this thread is because many (most?) people with mental afflictions are already doing several jobs at the same time, and they're doing those jobs while coping with, in many cases, terribly painful and distracting mental problems. And from time to time I see, here on PC, usually in the current events discussion, PC members worrying themselves and bothering themselves over all kinds of things they can't do anything about. And this is on top of all the other things they need to do. Personally, I think they do enough if they vote in each election, and make their views known to their elected representatives via e-mail and snail mail. If they'd like to do more they can volunteer where they live.

I too was taught, as a youngster, to pay close attention to national and world affairs. To read the newspaper everyday. To vote. To join demonstrations. Etc. And that's the way I've lived my life until now. But now I'm 66, my wife has Alzheimer's and I'm her only carer, I'm forced to look for a job because we don't have enough money, and I have to deal with my own mental problems. I think that's enough. I think my plate is full. I don't want to jump on a bus and go to Washington to demonstrate about something. And even if I did, I don't have the money to do so. I think I'll let younger people do what I did at their age, and that is to "get involved." But after forty years of "being involved," I think I can sit out the rest of the dance. Take care!