Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

If the White House thought it had a problem with Glenn Beck, conservative talk radio and the “organized smear campaign” against Van Jones….they better hold onto their hats as they are not likely going to be able to hold onto their jobs.

This morning, on both Glenn Beck’s radio show and, simultaneously on FOX cable TV, they ran an undercover video with audio exposing WHO ACORN IS and WHAT ACORN DOES. A portion of that video is being excerpted on the web, as I write, at Big Government.

ACORN “professionals” assist, advise and conspire to commit fraud with an undercover man and woman posing as a future Congressional candidate and a teenage prostitute who allegedly want to purchase a house in a respectable neighborhood to run a brothel.  Proceeds from the brothel will go into the campaign coffers of the man when he runs for Congress. 

The man and woman are undercover and with hidden camera and wired with a mic.

The ACORN employees are shameless criminals.

If ever there were a straw to break the Public’s back it will be this one.

ACORN employees:

    -Advise the couple how to evade filing federal taxes;
    -Proceed in misrepresenting the girl’s “job” by using the code designation for an unrelated occupation in order to qualify for federal loan monies to purchase the house;
    -Tell the teenage girl she should be proud of her prostitution;
    -Suggests the couple not discuss the 13 year-old-girls from El Salvador who are illegal and prostitutes working within the brothel or not get them social security cards because they’re not old enough to get social security.
    -Suggests the prostitute claim the 13-year-old-illegals as dependents.

ACORN is:

    -The organization from which President Obama emerged. 
    -Where President Obama learned how to community organize.
    -Having it’s employees arrested across this country, as recently as this week, for fraudulent voter registration. 
    -Along with SEIU, had the voting laws changed in Nevada in order to give Barack Obama an advantage over Hilary Clinton in the Primary that likely cost her the nomination.

Out of every bad comes a good.

This is a moment to STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT.
This is a moment to STAND FOR TRUTH.
This is a moment to say NO MORE CORRUPTION.
This is a moment to say NO MORE DECEPTION.
This is a moment to say I AM NOT AFRAID.
This is a moment to say I KNOW WHO I AM.
This is a moment to say I KNOW WHERE I WANT TO GO.

This is Your moment. Your choice. Your reality.

The road is forked just around this bend.  One way will take you home and the other will take you to a dark and twisted place. You have the Inner Guidance to know which way to go.  All you have to do is listen from within, trust in that voice, and stand with certainty for what you know to be True.

The rest will done for you.
Not by the Federal government, ACORN or Van Jones.
But by the Only Power There Is.

    

This past Thursday I wrote a column that was unusual for me because it had political subject matter.  I try to avoid that arena here.  Breaking policy, I wrote it because, as is always the case, truth is “the highest good for all concerned” and that’s my mission statement.  So, I go where it takes me.  On Thursday it took me to the White House.

It’s Sunday morning and the trip was worth it.  Van Jones has resigned.

Glenn Beck is a Public Servant, in the purest sense of the word, for has done the nation a service.  He shone a bright and unwavering light, the Light of Truth I dare to say, upon a shadowy man whose intentions have been deliberately masked and obscured by those in positions of power in order to advance a very anti-American agenda.

The resignation of Van Jones as Special Adviser to the President is a victory for full and fair disclosure… a legal and ethical concept lost on this Administration.  He is but the latest in a long list of appointees and nominees by this President who have personal and professional histories of corruption, pay-for-play tactics, cronyism and supporting policies and foreign governments that would see an end to freedom as we know it.

This is a cloaked and shadowy Administration but I still believe in Hope and Change.  They are what Barack Obama promised us and they are exactly what he is delivering….albeit not quite the way he and his wife intended.

There is always a silver lining… and I see this one shining brightly through.

We can remain HOPEful that there are brave and impassioned men and women, such as Glenn Beck and those who are making his personal mission possible, to shine that Light of Truth when and where it’s needed.

We can CHANGE the face of politics by removing the mask of deceit and cloak of subterfuge and demanding accountability, full disclosure and truthfulness of those who claim to aspire to serve the public good.

Van Jones’ resignation is not the end.  It is the beginning of a sea CHANGE moving this nation and, ultimately, free people everywhere, to higher ground where HOPE is the order of the day and the air is cleaner… not of CO2 content but of fear.

Yes, “HOPE and CHANGE.” 

Turns out it really is more than a bumper sticker after all.

This is not a political blog. I have always advocated “the highest good for all concerned” as my mission statement and I go the extra mile to find just that within everything I write.  Sometimes, however, important choices need to be made at crossroads, and I believe we as a People have arrived at one.

I have listened to Glenn Beck on and off for the past three years.  I found him entertaining and intellectually curious, a combination I enjoyed. I thought his tag line “the fusion between entertainment and enlightenment” was aptly put.  I sometimes questioned how far out on a limb he was walking… and where the fine line ended between his entertaining persona and his intellectual curiosity; however, I none-the-less felt that overall he provided a “cut above” in talk radio. 

He seemed not so much partisan as he did genuine.

To be up front, I was a life-long Democrat (now Independent) who voted for John McCain.  I did so not with a happy heart but because I had an intuitive feeling that there was too much unknown, untested and, frankly, disturbing about Barack Obama and the people with whom he surrounded himself.  I listened, as Glenn Beck started down the road of alleging more than discomfort with the President but rather alleging mal-intent.  As Beck’s allegations grew and intensified, along with his substantiated fact finding, my concerns grew and intensified as well.

I believe today is a turning point.  Like Glenn Beck, I too now pray for the country.

Beck has played on air this morning audio from April 2008 of Van Jones, Special Adviser to the President on Green Jobs.  It is the straw that will break that camel’s back.  Van Jones speaks, unabashedly, of undeniably Marxist intentions.  He sets forth, unmasked, what he (and I now believe many surrounding President Obama) intend for this country.  It is not what I intend and I know with certainty it is not what most people intend whovalue freedom, privacy and personal responsibility.

The President is a smart man.  He knows who surrounds him.  He is either in agreement with their intentions, or, he is not certain enough of what he believes in and strong enough to stand for it. 

Either way, the crossroad is here, now, for you and me.

Each citizen must decide for himself and herself what their basic values are and then stand for them. Be ready to stand for them in every way at every opportunity.  Be ready to voice your stand.  Be ready to be demeaned for it, marginalized for it and rejected for it.  And be certain that no voice other than your own has any more certainty or power.  Get your strength from within.  Fear nothing and no one.  Know that you are looking at and listening to an illusion wherever fear and urgency are the clarion calls. 

I take no political side on this. I take the side of inner guidance and personal responsibility. I take the side of full disclosure and good intention. I take the side of opposing all who would impose their view upon me while attempting to dishonor my own. 

I am hopeful that Glenn Beck has made his voice so public and so widespread, that to harm or silence him would be it’s own affirmation about the lengths to which those now in power will go to try and force their view of reality upon others.

This is a potentially glorious moment in our societal evolution.  I have no doubt that just as a lit room obliterates darkness, so too will the light of truth obliterate those who are motivated by power and the desire to oppress the spirit of man.

We are at the crossroad and it is the night before the dawn.

Stand for what you believe in and hold high the light of truth.  

This is a tough one to weigh in on.  I’m certain its easier for those of us who did not lose a loved one on Pan Am Flight 103 to show compassion than those who did.  Or is it?

Is compassion measured by its proximity to grief or by one’s proximity to God? 

As difficult as this may be to accept, I think it’s the latter.  If “vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord” then either you believe that or you don’t.  If you do, then ultimately the fate of Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi awaits him and, absence true repentance, better him than you or me. 

And, if you want to believe that every error you’ve ever committed is forgiven upon a sincere understanding that such errors are only committed in the absence of spiritual Light, then how can you seek such forgiveness without being willing to extend it?

So, while I partially understand the expressions of outrage that would see this terrorist die in prison, or those who preferred he be executed upon conviction had that been an option, I whole-heartedly know that releasing him to die at home is a decision that emanates Light.  If such a decision was made for economic and political reasons, as some have speculated, this is not what matters.  What matters is what is in our hearts as we feel what it is we feel about compassion and forgiveness for those moving in darkness.

Let everything else about this man be handled elsewhere… by a power infinitely greater than the UK penal system.

There is a lesson here for the highest good of all concerned.

Light illuminates where vengeance obscures.

There is a great deal of fear and anger around these days as is evidenced by the public outcry and conflict occurring at congressional Town Hall meetings over proposed health care legislation. This is just the latest and most visible display of something that’s been brewing for quite awhile now.

I have written about this growing fear and anger for over the past year and a half in this blog.

As more and more people voice their opposition to not only the proposed health care plan but also with government in general, its starting to look and sound like a battle between the Left and the Right.  Actually, between the extreme Left and extreme Right of both political parties.  But it only looks that way because that’s how conventional media is portraying it.

If you look with your own eyes and listen with your own ears you will see and hear something very different.

What you will see is Change. Not the bumper sticker change that catapulted Barack Obama to the White House.

Real change.

Systemic change.

History altering change.

The transition we are living through now, transformation actually, is best likened to the metamorphosis that occurs when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.  When this takes place, its the end of the caterpillar as we know it, admittedly. But its also the beginning of a life form that is less dense, able to cover much more territory from a higher perspective and… happens to be quite beautiful, as a perk.
 
The difference between the caterpillar dying (or transforming) and the demise of the corrupted legislative, judicial and executive branches of government as they now function can best be summed up in a single word.

Ego.

The caterpillar has none and the politicians have an excess.

So when Nature says its time for the caterpillar to “let go and let God,” so to speak, it simply does. To the contrary, when the will of the People says it time for the politicians to do the same, they react by making their best efforts to hold on and, in fact, will do whatever it takes to stay exactly where they comfortably are.

So what’s to be done now that the People have called an audible?  May I suggest the following:

If you are one of the People…do not lose you voice. Do not despair that change is not happening as fast as you would like it to.  Do not lose hope.  Do not second-guess your instincts.

If you are one of the politicians…find the Truth you misplaced long ago. Understand that change is happening faster than you can imagine. Re-establish the hope and faith in the Republic that drew the very first politicians to service. Do not second-guess your instincts.

Because both the People and the politicians instinctively know that the End is near.

But so, too, is the Beginning.

The only question is, “Are you the caterpillar or the butterfly?
 

Its been my policy since inception of this blog to write from a positive perspective and to always bring you the most inspiring message. Regular readers know that my oft quoted motto is “the highest good for all concerned.”  I’ll get there today as I always do.

But today, the road there is first through a dark and unseemly place. There’s simply no way around it.

In the 13 years during which I practiced Divorce law, there wasn’t a single case in which a husband had an extramarital affair that the wife did not know.  She always knew.  She may not have admitted it to herself… she may have blocked that knowing out… she may not have known the details… but in every single case she knew.  I can make this assertion with certainty because whether she admitted it to me at the beginning of the case…or somewhere later down the road…my clients whose husband’s had so behaved always, ultimately, recognized and acknowledged that they knew.

I tell you this because something is wrong in America. 

We all know it.

We may not want to admit it.  We may be trying to block out our knowing with diversions such as Michael Jackson or Bernie Madoff or All Star Games or summer vacations… but we know it.  We may not know the details or be able to state with certainty how or when it went wrong, and continues to go wrong, but we know it.  We may not want to admit it because to do so would mean we’d have to also admit that where it’s headed is untenable and that would mean we’d each have to step up and actually do something about it.

There isn’t time or space here for details.  Perhaps President Obama’s appointments to the offices of “Science Czar” and “Green Jobs Czar” (scroll down and read the “Political Evolution” section of the Wikipedia link) make the broader case for me.  These are people with disturbing histories who have been dropped into positions of authority and power and whose actions are unaccountable to Congress.

I don’t think that ruminating over what is wrong or ignoring what we instinctively feel in our “guts” is what matters. I think what matters is what are we going to do about it?

In hindsight I don’t know if any of my former clients could have saved their marriages by confronting the reality of those affairs at the time and taking a stand based upon self-respect and dignity. But here’s the thing. They’ll never know. What they do know is that burying their heads in the sand only prolonged their pain, diminished their self-esteem and cost them a fortune in dignity and legal fees.  Let us learn a little, or a lot, from their mistakes.

Something is wrong in America.

Each of us who knows this needs to act.  So far, I have two ideas.

The first is to speak truth to power and not be afraid to say, every day… every chance we have…to anyone we can… that, in fact, something is wrong in America and its time to change that.

Secondly, we need a Gandhi or Dr. King. We need a peaceful march on Washington and we need it in numbers so large that our collective voices cannot be silenced.

This is all I know for certain at this point. But if we can get those two accomplished, I am certain the next logical step will emerge in its proper time.

If you agree that we need that march on Washington, and that together we can do it, please pass this on.  I welcome all who are ready to admit that something is wrong in America and are also ready to do something about it.

Carole

P.S.

Because you often feel like one voice singing in the darkness… I know I sometimes do… I’ve pasted the lyrics to Barry Manilow’s song “One Voice.”  

Just One Voice,
Singing in the darkness,
All it takes is One Voice,
Singing so they hear what’s on your mind,
And when you look around you’ll find
There’s more than

One Voice,
Singing in the darkness,
Joining with your One Voice,
Each and every note another octave,
Hands are joined and fears unlocked,
If only

One Voice
Would start it on its own,
We need just One Voice facing the unknown,
And then that One Voice would never be alone,
It takes that One Voice.

It takes that One Voice.

Just One Voice
Singing in the darkness,
All it takes is One Voice,
Shout it out and let it ring.

Just One Voice,
It takes that One Voice,
And everyone will sing!

>        I don’t watch a lot of TV or listen to much radio. But there’s always news that filters through one way or another and the Internet is certainly one of those ways. So in the past few days, I’ve been unable to avoid some rather nasty comments and observations flying back and forth between what appears to be the political Right and Left.

Here are a just a few in list format, for expediency sake and, to make the point:
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size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>      – Letterman trashing Governor Sarah Palin’s 14-year-old-daughter by joking that she was “knocked up by Alex Rodrigues during the 7th inning stretch.”

         – size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>Letterman referring to Sarah Palin’s fashion sense as the “slutty, flight-attendant look.”

     – Bill Maher saying Former First Lady Nancy Reagan had lunch at the White House with Michelle Obama and, not quite sure who the Michelle Obama was, asked the First Lady “not to just move the furniture around but to do some dusting.” size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>

size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>      – Rush Limbaugh playing “Dancing Queen” from Mama Mia with a voice-over imitation of Congressman  Barney Frank singing, instead, the words “Banking Queen.” size=”3″ face=”Courier New”>

         First, let me dismiss the politics. I’m a life-long Democrat until about two weeks ago when I moved and had to re-register to vote. I registered as an Independent. I’m pretty much done with both Parties’ greed and corruption. As a Democrat, and now an Independent, I never particularly liked Barney Frank.

         But the Limbaugh parody was disgusting as are all the others.

         There’s a great line from the movie The American President where Michael Douglas, portraying the President running for re-election, gives a press conference and addresses his Republican opponent who has been avoiding debate on policy issues and instead attacking the widowed President and his love interest on moral grounds. Douglas says, “If you want to come at me with a character debate just tell me where and when and I’ll be there. But we’ve got serious problems that require serious solutions and your fifteen minutes of fame are up. My name is Andrew Wade and I am the President.”

         I’d like to paraphrase, if I may.

         To Letterman, Maher, Limbaugh and all the others: “We are living through a precarious time of extraordinary change. Divisions based upon differences have plagued us for thousands of years and led to unimaginable suffering. These are serious times that require respectful approaches. Harmony in diversity is the goal. If you can’t grasp that reality and stop being part of the problem, I can assure you that your fifteen minutes of fame are about to be up. My name is Carole Goldstein and I am a Citizen Lightworker.

I recently heard that more copies of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged have sold in the past few months than in the past few years combined. In case you’re unfamiliar with Rand’s philosophy or the story of Atlas Shrugged, both are predicated upon the escalating, and ultimately fatal, corruption of our society’s leaders in both business and government and the decision by some to withdraw from that society in order to begin a new one based upon integrity and individual productivity.

Sound familiar?

Of course, there are no accidents. The emerging interest in Rand’s work is a natural outgrowth of the frustration and helplessness felt by so many as we try and traverse these challenging and transforming times. Over the past decade we in this country have witnessed, permitted and at times condoned dishonesty, corruption ad greed. It was all a slippery slope we descended while turning a blind eye to the direction in which we were collectively headed. No, everyone was not complicit or guilty of what I just described. But even those of us who knew better were too silent, too complacent and for too long.

So here we are.  And while Rand’s solution in Atlas Shrugged is somewhat impractical (the protagonist, John Galt, who begins the dropping out and setting up of the new society actually does drop out and takes a whole lot of others with him) it does present a rather accurate picture of exactly what road we need to go down in order to rise above and beyond where we are and where we have been for some time now.

We aren’t going to be rescued by any one individual or by our collective private or governmental “leaders’ either. In fact, we’re not going to be “rescued” at all. This isn’t about rescue. Its about turning within and understanding, no…strike that…not understanding but rather knowing with certainty… that each one of us has a role to play in reshaping our world and the foundation for that new world, or paradigm, will be built from the bottom up, not the top down.

Consequently, you matter. Not only do you matter, you matter as never before. Every thought you have, word you speak and deed you partake of matters.  We got here by abdicating personal responsibility. We allowed others with apparent power to make vital decisions that spiraled our lives, and their own, out of control.  In order to un-torque that spiral and set it once again spinning in the right direction, it is necessary that each of us get our direction from within ourselves.

There is no one to go to for “expert” advice on this one. This one is on each of us, individually. And it will be different for each of us… which is why you can’t go anywhere outside yourself for guidance. No one knows better than you do what is best for your highest good and the good of all concerned. The key is trusting that you know the answer.  Actually, it’s trusting that you’re wired from within to be able to access a Source of guidance and wisdom that has only your highest good as its primary objective.

Just yesterday a friend told me that there was a TV show in the San Francisco area that had only good news. It only lasted a couple of weeks. I understand that. I had a talk radio show in Pennsylvania a few years back called “Higher Ground” that looked at the highest message in even the most negative news and it lasted less than a year. But here’s how I see it. It isn’t that we only want bad news or titillating news…. its that we’ve been raised on fear for thousands of years by those same people who we allowed to get us into this mess.  It’s the definition of the word “propinquity.” If you have a migraine for a few thousand years and wake up one morning without it, you’ll miss it.  Take away the fear we’ve been raised on and we’re not sure what takes its place.

The unknown can be pretty scary itself.  If you let it.  Or, you can keep accessing that place inside yourself that is connected to that Source that has as it’s primary objective your wellbeing.

I never give advice I haven’t lived. I know what is is to be scared, confused and hopeless. Been there. Done that.  So I can tell you, with certainty, that the way out is to surrender to that Source, that inner guidance… and follow your instincts. But I can only tell you this with my certainty. You’ll have to live your own.

John Galt really is here after all and will lead you successfully through whatever is coming. If you want to see him go look in the nearest mirror.

size=”2″ face=”Garamond”>
    As
the country and the world revel in this defining moment of our
collective history with the election of President Barack Obama, it is
wise to step back from the momentary celebration and take a realistic
look at the broader picture. Yes, our spirit as a nation has been
re-energized and uplifted. This was a state of both spirit and mind
that was long overdue. Let’s pray we’re able to sustain it.

    We’re going to need it to get us through the challenges that lay ahead.

 
  Just 48 hours into this Presidency, there are more than rumblings
about our economic future. As a contributor to Andersen Cooper’s AC360
blog, David Gergen,CNN Senior Political Analyst writes today
of the very vocal concerns within and among economists and politicians
over how to pull the nation through perhaps the most serious economic
downturn in history. And I’m certain great minds are pondering that
problem and it’s possible solutions as I write.

    But what
about you and me? What is our part in all of this and what can we do to
positively effect the outcome? I have one overriding suggestion.

    Keep in mind that there is only One of Us.

 
  Having spent most of my life feeling separate from other people,
imagine my joy to awaken in recent years to the realization that we are
all connected to each other in the most profound way. Not just as
members of a common species, community or nation, but as individualized
aspects of One Source. For when we trace our origins back to “the
Beginning,” whether through the pathway of science or religion, what we
often stop short of fully grasping is that both of these pathways lead
us to a single point beyond space and time…a single Source for All
That Is.

    The logical conclusion to be drawn from this
realization is that originating or emanating from a single Source makes
us, and everything else that has ever been or ever will be, an individualized aspect of that Source. This then makes it accurate to say with confidence and certainty that there is, ultimately, only One of Us.

    Awareness of this fact changes how you see and act in the world.

 
  If I have a home in which I safely live with sufficient food for
daily nourishment and someone I know, or know of, does not…and I do
nothing to try and aid their situation… I am consciously choosing to
allow myself to suffer. Remember, there is only One of Us. For
example, if I use my left hand to smack my right, am I not the cause of
my own suffering? Can I really tell myself that 1) I don’t know where
the pain is coming from and 2) that I don’t know how to stop it?  I am
either self-inflicting pain or permitting it to continue when and where
I have the power to stop it.

     If there is only One of Us,
and I believe that to be true, then it’s equally true that if I hurt
another or disregard another I am hurting or disregarding myself. And
if I fail to take steps to positively impact another’s suffering I am
allowing myself to needlessly suffer. The highest good for me,
therefore, becomes the Highest Good for you. Which is why the
contemporaries Jesus and Rabbi Hillel said “Do unto others as you would
have others do unto you” and “Do not do to another that which you would
not want done to yourself.” It turns out size=”4″ face=”Garamond”> I am not so much my brother’s keeper as I am my brother.

      So what’s all this got to do with a new President and an ailing economy, you ask?

 
    We’re all in this one together and the sooner we realize that
there’s only One of Us the sooner we can pull together to make sure no
one crawls out of this hole at the expense of someone else’s survival.
For when that happens, it simply sows the seeds of future devastation. 

 
     In order to break the pattern of thousands of years of selfishness
and greed based upon a mis-perception of separateness, it is our job now, yours and mine, to understand on the deepest levels that there is no you and there is no me. And when we are in that place together, there is only One of Us.

       And that’s exactly the meaning behind the Hindu salutation, Namaste.

REMEMBER, click here to download a FREE copy of my e-book, “Too Many Secrets.”

       

I had an interesting experience this past week. I wrote a blog entry about Barack Obama that spurred a reader to comment and share his opposing view. His thoughts were intelligent and well thought out…and even though I didn’t agree with him I did reply. Which prompted him to send a second and more lengthy comment. By this time, we had exchanged enough thoughts that the distance between our positions had closed somewhat.

It was gratifying to turn what felt like an adversary into a friend.

But there was something even more important about our exchanges.  While he is voting for Barack Obama, and I still don’t know what I’ll do two days from now, he made a statement in his second exchange that stunned me. He said that he was voting for Obama with reservations; however, McCain was not an option for him and to vote for a third candidate, such as the Green Party, would effectively be like staying home.

It got me to thinking about the countless people I have spoken with and e-mailed with over the past 6 months who aren’t really voting for either Obama or McCain out of conviction, but rather simply because one or the other is the lesser of two evils. Or, if that statement is too strong, then because neither is great but they’re all we’ve got.

Which is the part that stuns me.

I suspect that if everyone who isn’t thrilled with either of these two men would actually go into the voting booth on November 4th and all vote for another choice….we’d probably elect that other choice! And so what is frustrating to the point of madness is that “they”…the powers that still be…have us believing that we only get to choose from the options they present.

Just where is that written?

I write a great deal about our awakening consciousness and the profound changes that are taking place in our world as a result of that awakening. I think this election is a perfect example of how things have been and how we can affect how they will be going forward.

John McCain effectively got the Republican nomination because he “waited his turn” within his party. Barack Obama got his nomination through clever politicking and a ton of money. Then they both said, “Take your pick. We’re the only games in town.”

Well, I don’t think so. 

Maybe for the moment, because we have awakened slowly and this one got by us. But it can and will be different from Now on…if you believe that you get to create the reality you want and do not have to settle for someone else’s version.

I know what my reader was saying when he said that voting for the Green Party candidate or some other third option would be like staying home. I know what he meant but I disagree, and I think he’s actually helped me make up my mind. I get to choose….it’s my vote…and as the old saying goes…every journey begins with one small step.

I’ve set out on a journey for real change. The kind that will create a world where personal autonomy, personal responsibility, and personal integrity are the norm. If I can’t make it happen on November 4th…I can at least take one small step on that journey by voting not for their reality but for mine.

REMEMBER to click here to download a FREE copy of my e-book, “Too Many Secrets.”