I am mostly an optimist. But there are times when I wonder if i am deluding myself. Early on this New Year’s Day morning, I read two disturbing stories. The first article addressed decades of dysfunction and mismanagement at New York City’s main jail complex on Rikers Island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx. The second article reported on the rapidly moving and devastating fires in the Denver area that has destroyed as many as 1,000 homes.

The Rikers Island situation has been brewing for decades as have the Colorado wildfires. The question is are we as a society going to take effective action to resolve the underlying factors that lead to instances of social and environmental chaos?