During his Valley Forge speech earlier this month, where he stated this election is about whether democracy would survive, President Joe Biden asked, “Is democracy still America’s sacred cause?”

Words: the foundation of language, simple letters strung together to form a word. Then words are used to create sentences, then paragraphs, and eventually complete storiessharedbetweenhuman beings.

Now, back to the question, “how do you get from atoms to self-consciousness?” Howdoyougetfromtheatomic chemistry in your brain, to a mental thought—maybe even the thought about how fascinating this column is? If we are all just a conglomeration of atoms like the Darwinist, or the atheists, or even some of the Michaels of the world say we are, then from whence doest thou thoughts come? States of self-consciousness are not our brains. The brain is a part of our body. It is made up of cells which are made up of atoms. The brain, and self-conscious states, or we can say the mind, are two different things.

With the convening of a special session by Governor Stitt, lawmakers were brought back to the State Capitol on Monday, January 29, a week prior to the start of the Second Session of the 59th Oklahoma Legislature.

This past Saturday, the world came together to observe Holocaust Remembrance Day and remember the 11 million innocent lives lost, including six million Jewish victims, during this incredibly dark time in history. This evil genocide carried out by the Nazi regime serves as a stark reminder of the horrors unleashed when hatred and prejudice go unchecked. As antisemitism and attacks on Jewish communities increase today, reflecting on this atrocity becomes more crucial than ever.

In my previous article, written after the tragic shooting in Iowa, I described the crisis in public schools related to students with a high potential for violence. Such students represent a tiny fraction of children, but they have a disproportionate, disruptive impact on schools. We know how to identify these children, and they can almost always be helped with intensive interventions, but we currently have few options for them. So, we send them back to home and school.

The Oklahoma House of Representatives will gavel in for the Second Regular Session of the 59th Legislature onMonday, February 5. The House completed bill filing on January 18 with 1,210 House Bills, 12 House Joint Resolutions, and one House Concurrent Resolution.

For you NFL fans out there, if you watched the late game on Sunday, you saw the Kansas City Chiefs come away with a narrow win against the Buffalo Bills. While the game was great, there was one moment that really stood out and it was not on the field.

The 17th century French philosopher René Descartes famously said, “I think, therefore I am.” And what Descartes meant by that was he knew he existed because he was conscious of himself; what is called self-consciousness. Selfconsciousness is a uniquely human attribute that is shared by all non-impaired individuals. However, consciousness, and self-consciousness are two very different things, and the distinction is important. Humans, for some particular reason, are uniquely endowed with both consciousness and self-consciousness.

January is Mental Wellness Awareness Month, at time to recognize the importance of attending to our own personal mental health, especially seeing the significant numbers of the population who deal with mental health issues and disorders, both personally and with loved ones.