Cybersecurity educators should share resources to teach students important technical and non-technical skills

One-semester class can train for the workplace

Carnegie Mellon University

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The complex and evolving nature of the cyber domain requires that cybersecurity professionals have both technical skills and social intelligence. In a new article, researchers argue that cybersecurity educators need to share teaching resources to teach students critical technical and non-technical skills, and they describe a course they created that allows for such sharing to take place.

The article, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Community College of Allegheny Co., appears in the Proceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. ACM—the Association for Computing Machinery—is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society.

“Most cybersecurity education at the postsecondary level is focused on technical knowledge and skills without enough attention to vital non-technical skills,” says Lee Branstetter, professor of public policy and economics at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College, who coauthored the article. “Cybersecurity education has to integrate teaching and practicing non-technical competencies alongside technical knowledge and skills to ensure that both technical and non-technical skills transfer to cybersecurity workplaces.”

Cybersecurity professionals say that collaboration and written and verbal communication abilities are some of the most valuable skills in the workplace. But efforts to incorporate social, business, and other non-technical competencies with technical skills in postsecondary cybersecurity curricula are rare and face challenges.

For example, ACM and the Office of Personnel Management have urged institutions of higher education to incorporate non-technical competencies into postsecondary cybersecurity curricula, but in practice, cybersecurity certification exams often shape course content in ways that run counter to this aim. As a result, students typically encounter unrealistically pristine environments with unlimited access to systems, unconstrained authority to make changes, and little attention to how their actions could affect business operations or social dynamics.

Community colleges play a significant role in increasing the number of entry-level cybersecurity professionals and providing pathways to jobs for learners for whom a four-year degree is not a desirable option.

In this work, after identifying specific learning outcomes, researchers suggest research-based pedagogical approaches to support learning and transfer. In particular, they describe a cybersecurity lab they developed that uses experiential learning, role play, collaborative learning, technical simulation, and metacognitive engagement to support the learning outcomes they deem important.

The CyberSim Lab is a one-semester class that can be taught alongside classes on ethical hacking. In the lab, students work in small groups to identify system vulnerabilities, assess the extent of the weaknesses, develop a change management plan to address issues they have discovered, present their plan to upper management, incorporate feedback, and make necessary changes to the network.

“Gaps in the cybersecurity workforce threaten national security, commercial innovation, and the nature of public discourse in the digital age,” explains Judeth Oden Choi, a researcher who recently received her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon’s Human Computer Interaction Institute, who coauthored the article. “The CyberSim Lab serves as a curricular bridge between the classroom and the workplace, supporting cybersecurity curriculum designers by sharing learning outcomes and teaching strategies drawn from the educational research literature and tailored to the cybersecurity educational context.”

“The resources we identify are especially useful for under-resourced cybersecurity programs, such as those in community colleges,” adds Rotem Guttman, a Ph.D. student at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon, who coauthored the article.

The work was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, and the Southwest AP Build Back Better Initiative.

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DOI

10.1145/3641554.3701834 

Article Title

Bridging the Community College Cybersecurity Classroom and Workplace with the CyberSim Lab

Trawling-induced sediment resuspension reduces CO2 uptake

ANOTHER GOOD REASON TO END TRAWLING

GEOMAR study investigates the impact of sediment resuspension induced by trawling and other natural processes in Kiel Bight

Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR)

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The resuspension of seafloor sediments – triggered by human activities such as bottom trawling as well as natural processes like storms and tides – can significantly increase the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. When these sediments are exposed to oxygen-rich seawater, large-scale oxidation of pyrite occurs. This reaction plays a much greater role in CO2 emissions than previously assumed, exceeding the contribution from the oxidation of organic carbon. The new study provides the first quantitative evidence of this effect in the western Baltic Sea.

“Fine-grained, muddy sediments are important reservoirs of organic carbon and pyrite,” says lead author Habeeb Thanveer Kalapurakkal, a PhD student in the Benthic Biogeochemistry working group at GEOMAR. “We already knew that sediment resuspension can release significant amounts of CO2 into the water column. But until now, it was believed that this was mainly due to organic carbon oxidation.” The new study now shows that the major part of the CO2 release is caused by pyrite oxidation.

Kiel Bight: A Critical Carbon Sink at Risk

The study focused on Kiel Bight, a coastal region in the western Baltic Sea located between the German island of Fehmarn and the Danish islands. This area features a range of sediment types: coarse sandy sediments in shallower waters and fine-grained mud in deeper regions. These muddy sediments are rich in organic matter and play a central role in the carbon cycle of the Baltic Sea. They are affected both by natural forces such as storms and by anthropogenic impacts like bottom trawling.

Laboratory Experiments Reveal New Insights

To study the effects of sediment resuspension, the researchers conducted sediment slurry incubations. They collected sediment samples from different sites in Kiel Bight — ranging from coarse sandy to fine grained muddy sediments — and stirred them in laboratory containers filled with seawater. The experiments simulated both oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor conditions. During the incubation period, the team monitored changes in key chemical parameters, including CO₂ concentrations, pH, sulfate, nutrients and isotope concentrations. These measurements allowed them to identify the underlying processes and assess their impact on the local carbon cycle. The laboratory data were then integrated into a biogeochemical model to better understand the effects of sediment resuspension and oxygen availability.

Pyrite Oxidation: A Key Factor in CO2 Release

The results show that sediment resuspension leads to substantially greater CO₂ emissions than previously thought — mainly due to the oxidation of pyrite. When this iron-containing mineral, typically found in oxygen-poor, muddy seafloor sediments, is disturbed it reacts with oxygen in the water. This reaction generates acid that converts climate-neutral bicarbonate into the greenhouse gas CO2. A large fraction of the CO2 generated by pyrite oxidation is subsequently released into the atmosphere. Modeling results suggest that these processes could significantly reduce the region’s CO2 uptake capacity. In other words, resuspension can turn the seafloor temporarily from a carbon sink into a carbon source.

Protecting Sensitive Seafloor Areas to Preserve CO2 Uptake

“Kiel Bight, like other parts of the Baltic Sea, acts as an important sink for atmospheric CO₂,” says Kalapurakkal. “Our experiments and model simulations show that activities such as bottom trawling significantly reduce this capacity by promoting pyrite oxidation and acidification.” The findings underscore the need to protect seafloor areas with fine-grained, muddy sediments — regions typically rich in pyrite. Kalapurakkal: “These areas need to be protected to maintain the CO2 uptake capacity of the Baltic Sea.”

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Journal

Communications Earth & Environment

DOI

10.1038/s43247-025-02132-4 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Sediment resuspension in muddy sediments enhances pyrite oxidation and carbon dioxide emissions in Kiel Bight.

GREENWASHING

Nature positive: Lots of rhetoric, little reality

New research argues the term 'nature positive' is being adopted more for political rhetoric and less for real-life improvement in nature conservation, posing a new risk to biodiversity.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Griffith University

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New research led by Griffith University argues that the term nature positive is being adopted more for political rhetoric and less for any real-life improvement in nature conservation, posing a new risk to biodiversity. 

The study, published in Nature Portfolio Journal njpBiodiversity explores the tourism sector as an example. 

The team, led by Emeritus Professor Ralf Buckley with coauthors from universities in Australia, Chile, China and Japan, analysed the fine-scale political processes in the lead-up to CBD COP16, the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which started in late 2024 and resumed in early 2025. 

They distinguish “small-t tourism” - such as visitors and mobile tours in national parks - from “Big Tourism”, which consists of multi-billion-dollar global corporations and political associations.   

“Only 0.01% of the global tourism sector makes net positive contributions to conservation,” Professor Buckley said.   

“Big Tourism, which is largely owned by the US$13 trillion private equity sector, has net negative effects via land grabs.” 

According to the researchers, few tourism enterprises make net positive contributions to conservation, and “nature positive” terms were being used for “marketing greenwash, to delay and avoid environmental fees and regulations, and to lobby for land grabs in public protected areas”. 

Professor Buckley suggests Australia has adopted “nature positive” political terminology, but in practice has failed to implement past promises to establish a new independent Environment Protection Agency. 

“These findings are very timely in the lead-up to the Australian federal election, given the importance of environmental concerns to the electorate, but the very low performance by both major parties,” Professor Buckley said.    

"Despite nature positive political rhetoric, in reality the government significantly weakened its flagship environmental legislation just two days before the start of the election caretaker period.”  

The study ‘Nature positive rhetoric, risk and reality: sector-scale political ecology at CBDCOP16’ has been published in njpBiodiverstiy. 

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Journal

npj Biodiversity

DOI

10.1038/s44185-025-00087-5 

Method of Research

Observational study

Article Title

Nature positive rhetoric, risk and reality: sector-scalepoliticalecologyatCBDCOP16

Article Publication Date

24-Apr-2025

 

Female bonobos keep males in check—not with strength, but with solidarity

Study on wild bonobos reveals that females team up to maintain power in their societies

Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

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Two female bonobos clasp hands during grooming, which strengthens social bonds

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Credit: Melodie Kreyer / LKBP

Biologically speaking, female and male bonobos have a weird relationship. First, there’s the sex. It’s the females who decide when and with whom they mate. They easily parry unwanted sexual advances—and the males know better than to force the issue. Second, there’s the food. It’s the females who usually control high-value, sharable resources—a fresh kill, say. They feed while sitting on the ground, unthreatened, while males hover in tree branches waiting for their turn.

This freedom enjoyed by females might sound normal by our standards, but according to Martin Surbeck from Harvard University, it’s “totally bizarre for an animal like a bonobo.” Bonobo males are larger and stronger than females, which gives them the physical upper hand to attack, force matings, and monopolize food. Like almost all other social mammals with larger males, bonobo societies should be dominated by males. And yet, bonobo females famously maintain a high social status compared to their larger male counterparts. Until now, though, nobody knew how this paradoxical dynamic was possible at all.

“There were competing ideas for how,” says MPI-AB’s Barbara Fruth who has led the LuiKotale bonobo research station for 30 years, “none of which had ever been tested in wild bonobos living in the jungles in which they evolved.”

Female solidarity as a tool for power

Now, a study by Surbeck and Fruth has delivered the first empirical evidence from wild bonobos explaining the rare phenomenon: females maintain power by forming alliances with other females. The study found that females outranked males when they formed gangs, which the authors named “coalitions.” In the vast majority of coalitions—85% of those observed—females collectively targeted males, forcing them into submission and shaping the group’s dominance hierarchy.

“To our knowledge, this is the first evidence that female solidarity can invert the male-biased power structure that is typical of many mammal societies,” says Surbeck, the study’s first author. “It’s exciting to find that females can actively elevate their social status by supporting each other.”

A window to wild bonobos

An international team of researchers compiled 30 years of data from six wild bonobo communities across three field sites in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is the only country where bonobos live in the wild. The dataset included observations of 1,786 conflicts between males and females. The researchers analyzed the outcome of these conflicts—of which 1,099 were won by females—together with a range of social and demographic data. By doing so, they unearthed clues as to what influenced “female power” which they defined as all the factors that tip the outcome of a conflict. “You can win a conflict by being stronger, by having friends to back you up, or by having something that someone wants and cannot take by force,” says Surbeck the first author.

The team had some early hunches as to where the results would point. Surbeck was sure that female domination was driven by reproductive strategies, such as hidden ovulation, which prevent males from monopolizing mating opportunities. The result of coalition formation came as a surprise. Adult females are unrelated immigrants from different communities who did not grow up together, which makes their deep bonds and cooperation unexpected. Also, adds Surbeck who runs the Kokolopori bonobo research station: “You just don’t see coalitions forming that much in the wild.”

But when coalitions form, they make an impression. The first sign is screaming so unbearably loud “you have to block your ears,” says Fruth. It’s hard for scientists to know what triggers a coalition as they form within seconds of an event, such as if a male attempts to hurt young. The target male is followed through trees by screaming females who can sometimes cause fatal injuries. “It’s a ferocious way to assert power,” adds Fruth. “You know why these males don’t try to overstep boundaries.”

Not always “dominance”

But the wide-ranging study, which compared six bonobo communities, laid bare previously unknown nuance in the famed dominance of females. While females in the study won 61% of conflicts and outranked 70% of males on average, this dominance was “by no means the rule,” says Fruth. Rather, female dominance varied in populations along a spectrum. “It’s more accurate to say that in bonobo societies, females enjoy high status rather than unchallenged dominance,” she says.

Female coalitions are just one mechanism likely to drive the empowerment of female bonobos, the authors say. Female reproductive autonomy almost certainly changes power relations between the sexes. The fertile window of females is hidden from males, who gain more by trying to stay near females than by aggressively coercing them to mate. Testing this and other ideas are topics of future research.

Deeper questions linger, but their answers might forever remain elusive. Says Fruth: “I’m still puzzled why, of all animals, bonobos were the ones to form female alliances. We might never know, but it gives me a glimmer of hope that females of our closest living relatives, in our evolutionary line, teamed up to take the reins of power alongside males.”

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Journal

Communications Biology

DOI

10.1038/s42003-025-07900-8 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Drivers of Female Power in Bonobos

Article Publication Date

24-Apr-2025

Trump’s Christian Nationalist 

Twenty-First Century Inquisition

by Bill Berkowitz / April 24th, 2025

The Inquisition was aimed at enforcing religious orthodoxy in order to preserve Christian dominance and “protect” the faithful. It was a tool for maintaining religious and political control, using interrogation, torture, and banishment. Several centuries later, in the United States, a country mostly run by White Christians, Trump, claiming “christian persecution,” has launched a twenty-first century version of The Inquisition. Not only is Trump’s “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias Task Force” aimed at marginalizing non-Christian communities, it is clearly geared at promoting a Christian nationalist agenda.

The Inquisition held secretive interrogations; citizens were encouraged or compelled to report heretical behavior. By encouraging anonymity, Trump’s Task Force is emboldening workers to spy on each other; creating a culture of suspicion and fear. The Inquisition was religious intolerance and abuse of power on steroids. Sans brutality and physical initiation, nevertheless the impact of Trump’s Task Force – thus far limited to U.S. federal institutions — appears to be heading down a path of religious orthodoxy.

Trump is escalating its war on church-state separation. Led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, the new “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias Task Force” — established by a Trump Executive Order 14202, issued February 6th, setting up a White House Faith Office headed by televangelist Paula White — recently convened a meeting of the Task Force at the Department of Justice. The room was packed with Christian nationalist cabinet members and framed as a defense against persecution.

Christians now, and since the founding, have held majority power in this country. Trump’s task force is not about ending bias—it’s about further institutionalizing power in favor of a single religion. And one way of consolidating power is by stoking fear.

In early April, the State Department ordered employees to report any instances of “anti-Christian bias.”

This week, the Department of Veteran Affairs sent out the following internal email titled “Message From The Secretary: Task Force on Anti-Christian Bias.” In the message, Secretary Douglas A. Collins encouraged all VA workers to spy on their co-workers and report any thing that a worker might claim to be anti-Christian bias. The memo from the VA’s chief makes no mention of bias against Muslims, Jews or any other religious believers other than Christians.

The 11-point e-mail “Message” declared that the Veterans Administration (VA) “is establishing its own Task Force to better effectuate the Department’s internal review. The VA Task Force now requests all VA employees to submit any instance of anti-Christian discrimination to vog.av@gnitropeRsaiBnaitsirhC-itnA.

“Submissions should include sufficient identifiers such as names, dates, and locations.”

Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana reported that “The email from Collins, a former Southern Baptist pastor and Air Force chaplain turned politician, lists 11 kinds of bias or discrimination — three of which specifically name Christianity — ranging from retaliation in response to requests for religious holidays or religious accommodations to discipline against chaplains in response to their sermons. The email also says the task force will “review all instances of anti-Christian bias” but makes no mention of how to report discrimination of any other faiths” (https://religionnews.com/2025/04/22/veterans-affairs-asks-employees-in-email-to-report-anti-christian-bias/).

According to The Guardian, “The email states that the department will review ‘all instances of anti-Christian bias’ but that it is specifically seeking instances including ‘any informal policies, procedures, or unofficially understandings hostile to Christian views.’

“In addition, the department is seeking ‘any adverse responses to requests for religious exemptions under the previous vaccine mandates’ and ‘any retaliatory actions taken or threatened in response to abstaining from certain procedures or treatments (for example: abortion or hormone therapy)’” (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/22/veterans-affairs-anti-christian-bias).

Soon after Trump’s executive order, Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, “expressed concerns with the focus on anti-Christian bias but not religious liberty when Trump issued his executive order in early February.

“We have strong concerns that this new task force could be weaponized to enforce a theological conformity that will harm everyone’s religious freedom, including those of Christians,” she said. “Today’s action is consistent with inflaming the completely unfounded claims of rampant Christian persecution in a majority-Christian nation.”

The Inquisition enforced its mandate through brutality and intimidation. Trump’s Task Force, which encourages anonymous reporting of so-called anti-Christian bias, is fostering a culture of surveillance and fear. With the administration hell-bent on redefining religious freedom as privileges for Christians only, we’re no longer talking democracy—we’re talking theocracy. This isn’t about “religious freedom” — it’s about Christian supremacy.

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Bill Berkowitz is a longtime observer of the conservative movement. Read other articles by Bill.

 

Maura Finkelstein on Academic Freedom, Being Jewish, Zionism, and Palestine

by Faramarz Farbod / April 24th, 2025

Host Faramarz Farbod talks with Dr. Maura Finkelstein, writer, ethnographer, anthropologist, and author of The Archive of Loss: Lively Ruination in Mill Land Mumbai (DUP 2019). Dr. Finkelstein was falsely accused of antisemitism and fired last May (2024) from her teaching position at Muhlenberg College in Allentown. We talk about the state of academic freedom, classrooms as ethnographic spaces, decanonization, being Jewish and anti-Zionist in the US, Zionism, Israel, misuses of antisemitism, Islamophobia, empire, and the present moment in history.

Faramarz Farbod, a native of Iran, teaches politics at Moravian College. He is the founder of Beyond Capitalism a working group of the Alliance for Sustainable Communities-Lehigh Valley PA and the editor of its publication Left Turn. He can be reached at farbodf@moravian.edu. Read other articles by Faramarz.

Ten Commandments for the New American Century

by John Rachel / April 24th, 2025

First Commandment: THOU SHALT TAKE MONEY OUT OF POLITICS

No money in politics. Zero! First, people should stand up and declare unequivocally they will not vote for anyone who takes ANY money from corporations, lobbyists and PACs. Then, down the road, by having elections 100% financed out of public funds, we can build a democracy where our legislators might actually have some time to legislate. It is common knowledge, most federal office holders spend enormous amounts of time raising funds and worrying about winning the next election, instead of doing the job we voted them in office to do. Let’s end this right now!

Second Commandment: THOU SHALT HONOR CHOICE AT THE POLLS

It’s time to institute instant run-off, approval or range voting. This will allow minor party candidates to run at all levels of government without the understandable fear that a voter is throwing away her or his vote. Our current system has, as Ralph Nader has been saying all along, become a choice between Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum. Without real choice, meaning a range that covers the entire spectrum of political opinion, democracy becomes a sham, and purely an exercise in futility.

Third Commandment: THOU SHALT RESPECT THE COMMONS

Right off, we need to re-establish a commons. So much of what constitutes the foundation for a functioning society has been privatized — prisons, education, utilities, mail, roads, bridges. And it hasn’t worked out well, has it? The nation’s infrastructure is a shambles. There are some basic things we should all be able to have free and open access to, facilities and services which should not be at the mercy of the so-called free market: education, clean air and water, energy, health care, retirement security, the INTERNET, police, fire and ambulance services, nutrition and mental health counseling. This is not socialism. It’s having a country that works.

Fourth Commandment: THOU SHALT PUT MONEY CREATION AND THE CONTROL OF THE NATION’S CURRENCY BACK INTO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

The control and issuance of currency must be returned to the federal government. The Federal Reserve is no more “federal” than Federal Express, and as a result America is now hostage to private banks and we rapidly becoming their serf-slaves. Either nationalize or abolish the Federal Reserve and return creation of our fiat currency to the people of America, regulated by a legitimate, functioning system of representative government.

Fifth Commandment: THOU SHALT LIVE BY RULE OF LAW

We have a two-tiered legal system, a gentle one for the privileged, a brutal one for the rest of us. The oligarchs do what they want unfettered by pesky legal restraints. Sometimes the same laws which should apply are used to oppress and incarcerate the rest of us. Same thing on an international level. Two tiers. The U.S. bullies the world, ignoring treaty obligations and international law, treating other countries as vassal states. But it uses the same legal instruments as a bludgeon, holding every other nation’s feet to the fire with sanctions, UN resolutions, trade agreements — whatever — when it serves our interests, or more accurately, the interests of corporations and Wall Street banks, which are really setting the agenda. This gross hypocrisy is creating enemies everywhere. We are long overdue to again respect the law, apply it equally and fairly across the board, both at home and around the world.

Sixth Commandment: THOU SHALT REIN IN CAPITALISM

A nice breeze on a clear spring day — good! . . . A level 5 hurricane that destroys vast swaths of dwellings and kills countless people — bad! . . . Surfer and swimmer-friendly waves lapping up on a sandy beach — good! . . . A tsunami crushing whole towns with a 100 foot wall of terrifying force — bad! . . . Sunlight from hydrogen fusion nurturing our planet with gentle rays of light and warmth — good! . . . An inferno of hydrogen fusion raining down on cities across the world as mammoth nuclear bombs, destroying the entire human race — bad! We mostly tend to agree that capitalism provides a powerful engine to drive development and progress. But too much of it and societies are crushed, democracies destroyed, vast numbers of people are relegated to serf status. Other countries have strict regulation and state control to check the ravaging effects of unfettered capitalism. Now it’s America’s turn. Either we rein it in or we can kiss good-bye our once-great country as it descends into the dustbin of history. And if the capitalist monster cannot be tamed, then it’s high time we eliminated it completely, replacing it with a system which more incentivizes noble and sustaining human traits than no-holds-barred competition, sociopathic greed, and ruthless exploitation.

Seventh Commandment: THOU SHALT MAKE CORPORATIONS SERVANTS OF THE GREATER GOOD

It will be tough but the whole bogus concept of corporate personhood must be expunged. Totally voided. It was put in place by devious methods and now must be rooted out. In general, it’s way past time to drastically restrict the charters of corporations, such that the interests of people are balanced with the pursuit of profit. This is the way it used to be in the early days of our nation. Back then, corporations were set up for specific and usually public-spirited projects, assigned a very narrowly defined charter and a fixed duration. When whatever was supposed to get done got done, the corporation was dissolved. Maybe we don’t have to return to such a limited implementation in our modern world, but we do have to require that corporations serve the common good. It is entirely legal to dictate that corporations act responsibly and take into account the needs of the community they serve, especially the communities where they reside. We have to elect individuals who are not in the pockets of the corporations and have them re-write the laws for doing the business of America. If the multinational behemoths don’t like it, let them set up in China, Vietnam or Bangladesh. That’s where they already have their factories anyway. Ultimately this will not harm the economy, it will create a society which is healthy and prosperous for everyone.

Eighth Commandment: THOU SHALT PROMOTE PEACE AND BE LOVED AGAIN

America must be taken off its war footing. The high-alert status both at home and around the world is nothing more than highly destructive fear-mongering. It is used to promote a belligerent self-sabotaging approach to international relations. It’s the product of a grossly delusional neocon imperialistic agenda which Americans don’t support — “exceptionalist” chest-beating which fills the coffers of the defense contractors but bankrupts the rest of us both financially and spiritually. We’ve meddled and bombed enough. It has accomplished nothing and created more problems and more enemies than we had before we decided that military force was the only way to deal with disagreements and crises in the world. It has also subjected the American people to unprecedented and unconstitutional levels of surveillance and a gross abrogation of our rights as citizens. Time to try peace and cooperation instead of threats and bullying.

Ninth Commandment: THOU SHALT RESPECT MOTHER EARTH

Enough silly arguing and tiptoeing around climate change. It’s happening, it could destroy the human race. It will without a doubt reduce civilization to a shell of its former glory and sophistication. Let’s get to work. Global warming and resource depletion represent the greatest threats to mankind in recorded history. Responsible use of resources and creation of sustainable sources of energy are not only necessary, but could be the greatest unifying force ever! Brainstorming and planning will create a monumental paradigm shift and the subsequent implementation of our collective ingenuity will create jobs and bring together behind a common purpose, a world which is torn by divisiveness, fear, suspicion, anger. Though time is quickly running out, the challenge of a planet in crisis doesn’t have to end in total disaster. On the contrary, this could be a historic opportunity for a massive global initiative — one of renewal and fellowship.

Tenth Commandment: THOU SHALT LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD

The rich and powerful have had a good run. The party is over. The wealthy should start paying back the country which gave birth to their monumental success. Inherited wealth does not give back to the community, the social and political environment that supported the accumulation of all that money. Tax it at 95% above $5 million. The heirs of the Koch brothers will just have to squeak by on their $5.2 billion. Capital gains? Capital gains is income. Tax it at the same rate as personal income. Speaking of which — time to return to the progressive tax rates of the 60s and 70s. You know them. The ones which resulted in a thriving economy! Massive tax reform across the board is in order, closing of all loopholes, penalizing off-shoring of profits, and the complete elimination of corporate welfare. Do I hear screaming of ‘SOCIALISM!’ out there? Get a life! Yes, this is redistribution of wealth. It’s been going on for thousands of years. It’s what makes a functioning society possible.

I confess, I’m not up to speed on my Bible studies. But I remember hearing at some point, there were originally twenty commandments. I guess our good guy, Moses, lost a tablet or two on his way down from the mountain.

I take this as meaning there’s room on my list for even more. So let’s come up with some ideas for Commandments 11-20. All reasonable and constructive ideas are welcome.

I’ll bet there’s a little Moses in everyone just hankering to bust out.

Come on. Go for it!

Let’s make America serve all its citizens, not just the rich and powerful.

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John Rachel has a B.A. in Philosophy, has traveled extensively, is a songwriter, music producer, neo-Marxist, and a bipolar humanist. He has written eight novels and three political non-fiction books. His most recent polemic is The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World. His political articles have appeared at many alternative media outlets. He is now somewhat rooted in a small traditional farming village in Japan near Osaka, where he proudly tends his small but promising vegetable garden. Scribo ergo sum. Read other articles by John, or visit John's website.