The Neanderthals were a communal and peaceful people. They would have most likely developed a more civil civilization than Homo sapiens. Archaeological evidence shows a major contribution to their demise was the Homo sapiens’ capacity for unnecessary violence and greed. An extinct ancestor of ours was Homo sapiens sapiens. I suppose they were a common ancestor long gone before the Neanderthals died out 40,000 years ago.

We are currently plagued by the avarice and insatiable greed initiated by Wall Street during the Dot Com Boom. Those management principles focusing on the almighty dollar are to the detriment of the customer, 401K shareholder and general public. They have destroyed worldwide confidence in Boeing and the FAA.

CBS reported Kimberly Clark being responsible for over 500 health care workers deaths with their defective surgical gowns. Their CEO was televised defending their quality, stating the gowns that fell apart being removed from the boxes were not tested; therefore, they did not fail the quality testing. Wells Fargo fraud is reported to be stealing from migrant farm workers; people who have next to nothing to steal. Sadly, Auburn city government has adopted those management principles.

If we, Homo Sapiens, descended from Homo sapiens sapiens, translated from Latin as “wise wise man,” are we on a negative evolution path? Human knowledge is said to double every 13 months, up from every 25 years at the end of World War II. Overwhelming evidence shows the critical thinking crises is plunging us toward the Earth’s sixth mass extinction event.

Why are we unable to benefit from the exponential knowledge expansion? One has to wonder if Homo sapiens is nearing extinction? Will research reveal Homo stultus is now the dominating species on Earth? If so, how do we remove them from city halls, the Legislature and Congress?

At a very minimum, we need to hold our two new city council members to their promise; make Auburn a better place. A good start will be enforcing the safety standards developed throughout the 20th century building resilience and mitigating disaster. The 320th anniversary of magnitude 9-plus Cascadia earthquake will be Jan. 26. The Oregonian reported core sample data revealed there has not been more than 320 years between events in the last 10,000 years.

– Bob Zimmerman