"So Get More Rocks and Build You a Dam."

Exactly. [Read]

That's exactly what I'm trying to help do when I urge readers not just to be consumers of articles and blog posts, but to take a moment--every day--to share relevant links and bypass a media that won't report, or that will, but not the truth.  The only way we happy few have been able to advance things this far is by screaming at the top of our lungs and banging whatever pots and pans we find at hand.  Yet too often, despite what we've managed to uncover to date, and how far we've managed to push that information, the maximum "contribution" to the effort offered by far too many is too leave a naysaying comment telling us why nothing can be done that will matter.

Rather than discourage the effort, and boy, is it sometimes tempting for those carrying the majority of the load to just say "screw it" and go on to more lucrative pursuits, would it kill them to offer an encouraging word instead, and maybe even help out?  Can you imagine the effect on morale if you were in the trenches awaiting battle and the voices of defeat before engagement were telling everyone how futile it was going to be, so why even try?

If the few rocks in the stream have managed to help effect the results we see today, I certainly wouldn't want to be the one to state with certainty that an engineered avalanche would make no difference.

I like the metaphor Mike raises here, and it fits with a thought I had the other day when he was grappling for an appropriate description for his part in things based on what others have said and on what he has done: leader, writer, investigator, citizen...

Here's what I think his title ought to be:

Think about it--like a valve that can impede the flow, that's exactly what he's doing.

In a system of self-government, we all should be government regulators.