The years really do fly quickly, like leaves from the trees—but that doesn't mean they have to be empty.

Recent hacking incidents involving “autonomous agents from Meta, Anthropic and OpenAI” have added to the media frenzy around artificial intelligence (The Guardian, September 8, 2026). Additionally, employees from tech firms increasingly warn that AI could usher in a dire future if it is not constrained.

A few weeks ago, First Ministers from Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland met in Cardiff, Wales, along with Sinn Féin’s representative (HeraldScotland.com, September 14, 2026).

Some may be familiar with the case of Frank Serpico, a former New York detective whose experiences facing police corruption were dramatized in the Hollywood film Serpico (1973) starring Al Pacino. But we need no Hollywood blockbuster to understand the life and times of a man who faced extreme hardship for following the rules and attempting to “swim upstream” against a morally corrupt system.