Well, Lauren, back in the Vietnam War era I was about as left of enter as anyone could possibly be, as an undergrad at UC Berzereley. But...big pause...I was also an armchair philosopher and student of history. Although I enlisted in the US Air Farce to avoid ending up as rice paddy fertiliser in South East Asia, it didn't take me long to come around to the opposing viewpoint: that humanity is (and always has been destined to forever be) screwed. I served in SAC (Strategic Air Command) and later in ADC. In SAC we flew great big, mean ol' nasty intercontinental bombers that although used for 'conventional' weapons of death and destruction, could carry and drop enough nukes to completely eradicate those mean little parasites (that infest this otherwise beautiful planet) known as Homo sapiens 100 times over. We had a favorite motto: "DROP IT!"

Truth be told as I watch this latest replay of our inherently hardwired potential for extreme violence play out in Ukraine, I can't say I feel any differently today, some 56 years later. It's well past time to be done with humanity once and for all, and let Mother Nature ('Haumea' in Hawai'i) try once more to evolve a better sentient life form than the 'us' that famed 50s cartoonist Walt Kelly memorably alluded to in his "We have met the enemy...and he is US!"

After all, "Mother" knows best...