Civility, It Is Said, Means Obeying The

There's A Trick To The Graceful Exit. It Begins With The Vision To Recognize When A Job, A Life Stage, A Relationship Is Over - And To Let Go. It Means Leaving What's Over Without Denying Its Validity Or Its Past Importance In Our Lives.

I Am A Political Recidivist. An Incorrigible, Repeat Voter. A Career Lever-pusher. My Electoral Rap Sheet Is As Long As Your Arm. Over The Course Of Three Decades, I Have Voted For Presidents And School Board Members. I Have Voted In High Hopes And High Dudgeon. I Have Voted In Favor Of Candidates And Merely Against Their Opponents. I Have Voted For Propositions Written With Such Complexity That I Needed Noam Chomsky To Deconstruct Their Meaning. I Have Been A Single-issue Voter And A Marginal Voter. I Have Even Voted For People Who Ran Unopposed. Hold An Election And I'll Be There.

The Average Parent May, For Example, Plant An Artist Or Fertilize A Ballet Dancer And End Up With A Certified Public Accountant. We Cannot Train Children Along Chicken Wire To Make Them Grow In The Right Direction. Tying Them To Stakes Is Frowned Upon, Even In Massachusetts.

We Want Our Children To Fit In And To Stand Out. We Rarely Address The Conflict Between These Goals.

In The Biotech Revolution, It Is The Human Body, Not Iron Or Steel Or Plastic, That's At The Source. Are The Biocapitalists Going To Be Allowed To Dig Without Consent Into Our Genetic Codes, Then Market Them?