Thursday's Writing Essential December 29, 2012 Is mankind friend or foe?

Back in the sixties Walt Kelly creator of Pogo wrote in his comic strip, "We have met the enemy and he is us." In this the season of giving, of love and of kindness this is also the season of nastiness of murder and suicide like what happened in Clackamas, Oregon Tuesday. It is the season of drunken driving creating car wrecks injuries and deaths.In parts of the country there are drive by shootings and road rage not just in this season but all year long. If we focus only on these acts and acts like them that occur far too much it might seem as though Walt Kelly's idea of us being the enemy is more accurate now than in the sixties.

In both of my hero books I write that heroes are all around us. We just have to look for them. Proof of this is the police officer who gave a homeless man a pair of shoes a few weeks ago, year round volunteers for Habitat for Humanity helping people build homes for people who would never had the privilege of home ownership without the help of these kind people. Proof of the heroes in our midst  also include the daily volunteers at Shriners hospitals,  the thousands of Special Olympics or any of the tens of thousands of places  and events where volunteers are making life better, easier and run smoother.

So which is it?  Is mankind the enemy, are we in the midst of heroes or is it a blending of both?

Your Challenge for Thursday December 13, 2012 is to create a post that supports either of the two suppositions or brings them together creating something different.

Walt Kelly's supposition is going strong some 47 years or so after he wrote them and many years after he died. I wonder if it would be possible for us to create suppositions that will stand the test of time like his supposition did.

Please keep in mind the guidelines that we need to follow each week . One guideline to remember is to include the words mankind friend or foe 12/13/2012 somewhere in the title.

Another guideline is to be sure to tag it with Thurs or Thursday Writing Essentials, Thursday Gather Writing Essential, mankind friend or foe Don't forget to Post your post  to Gather Writing Essential.

The final guideline is to not forget that there is a limit of three submissions from each member per day. If you’re extremely prolific, spread out your work and post only three submissions per day.

* Please remember not to submit any response until Thursday actually happens (No earlier than 12:01 AM).

** I still have not reached a point  where my plate is clear enough to be able to post a list of the responses to Thursday's Challenge. It is still my intent to to finally do that ASAP but it won't be this week either. I am very sorry.

***Any post submitted after Thursday will be accepted throughout the week as usual.