Editor: Is the solution and/or problem to the world's woes simple (Mailbox, Dec. 2)? Or, are these proclaimed issues rather just the stasis of the human condition? Are we evil brutes ruled by "biological" nature as Thomas Hobbes would so claim, or are we righteous and divine as John Locke would say some are? Either way, the webbing of hegemony and discrimination reaches out its branches and infects us all, giving some the belief we'd all be better off without — us. But, without us, we wouldn't be. Obviously. Unfortunately, regardless of ethical or moral code, there will be greed, destruction and ignorance, therefore humans — the greedy in particular — will never just submit to simply getting rid of us all — making this solution not simple.

Those operating in power seem to wish for the death and destruction of all persons and the planet. However, what they truly desire is more power: wealth, status and assets, for example. If power is what causes each one of our issues: racially, sexually, socioeconomically, politically and beyond, it will also be power of another kind that returns justice, equity and autonomous value to these particular issues and persons suffering at the hands of marginalization, discrimination and violence.

This power is information, education, knowledge and pedagogy. It will be the shifts in our education, present and future, that act as our "simple solution." Only — it will not be simple; it will be the most complicated intention our world can set its sights on: uplifting, changing, evolving, empowering, honoring, transforming, nurturing not only the planet, but ourselves and our interpersonal relationships as both individualistic and collectivistic classes of humans through a baseline of both ethical and representation education.

Nicole Stibbard, Sunnyvale