[Don Joe]

I disagree. Every problem has a solution. The point is whether we as a people are willing to bite the bullet and do what needs to be done. It's like pulling a thorn from your heel. It's going to hurt like almighty hell. Are you going to live your life in pain or do what needs to be done and pull the thorn out? No matter how much it hurts? There is a solution and it's right in the Declaration Of Independence. The question is, are we willing to do our duty?

I disagree with your disagreement. :)

Not every problem is as trivial as a thorn in the heel.

I have a favorite "ethnic joke" (I figure I can tell it, since it's my ethnicity). It goes like this:

Two Jews -- a husband and wife -- are standing in front of a trench in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII. The trench is filled with bodies -- most dead, some still writhing.

Behind them stands a Nazi guard with a machinegun.

The Nazi guard cocks the bolt of his machinegun.

The husband hears that, and says, "Lousy stinking Nazi sonofabitch!"

The wife elbows him and says, "Shush! You'll make him mad!"

So... what kind of advice would you have for THOSE people? After all, "every problem has a solution" -- and THEIR problem is pretty obvious. So what's the solution?

The wife TRIED implementing a "solution" of sorts -- probably the only one imaginable -- and it serves as the punchline of a joke.

Do they run? No, that won't work. Turn around and fight the guard? No, I don't think so. What does that leave?

Save for the absurd or the impossible deus ex machina, it leaves NOTHING.

Want another example? I got a million of 'em. The passengers on that flight out of JFK a week or so after 9/11. They'd just taken off. Then, both engines AND the tail broke off their plane, and fell to the ground.

I'd say their problem is fairly well-defined. So, what is the SOLUTION to their problem? After all, "every problem has a solution."

I'll stop there, but I could go all day. Like I said, I got a million of 'em. That's because there are an endless variety of problems WITHOUT a solution -- unless "sorry, you die" is "a solution."

[Shaun_MD]

We'll have to agree to disagree :)

I guess I'm a naive idealist. I still believe that every problem has s solution. Sometimes you can't see it and sometimes you can. Sometimes the solution is easy, and sometimes impossibly hard to accept. Sometimes the solution is to just hold your head high and go down with the ship because there is nothing else you can do except put it in God's hands. That is just life. Would you die for your ideals and beliefs?

As for what we were talking about earlier, yes there is a solution. You fight. You refuse to accept the situation dealt to you. You do not blindly accept. The solution is that you try.