Money is not the root of all evil. The ego is — that bit of ourselves that looks upon us as the whole diamond instead of just a facet of the same brilliance that other facets join together to create. The putting of our personal needs above that of the collective whole dulls the sparkle of that divine diamond.

When we worship the individual over the whole we are creating an artificial separateness that allows a few people to gorge themselves on the abundance of our natural world while so many others are starving, homeless or denied health care. Indeed, it separates us from nature and invites us to deny responsibility for our transgressions against mother Earth, other humans and animals because it is good for me. It denigrates cooperation, which is the true state of nature, while embracing coercion through wielding the tool of fear.

Ego warps our values into perceiving an innate right to subjugate others and control the levers of government to enrich the few to the detriment of the masses; that some people are better than others because of the wealth they have accumulated, their physical fitness or beauty; that their talents outshine all others.

We are all one. To deny that is to create social and spiritual cancer. What good is life if we are so constrained by our false ego constructs that we lose our humanity and declare life has no meaning by denying others of theirs through violence?

Tom McDonald-Sawyer, Auburn