Witchvox Article

Author: Tom
Posted: July 13th. 2008
Times Viewed: 3,005

What is wrong with us?

Okay, it really was just a joke.. maybe not a great one, but a joke never the less. It seems that not many people really paid a great amount of attention to anything I said so I find it hard to understand why they would now? I was only kidding that we would be better off if we just became simpletons; I didn�t mean for the whole world to step up and embrace it as an idea.

All right, what am I rambling on about? Look around; people are doing stupid things. I toyed with the idea of putting this into politically correct language, but the more I thought about it the dumber it sounded.

I confess that I most likely read way too many news articles from sources that don�t quite care as much about the truth as they do about the profit, but nonetheless there are facts buried beneath the surface.

When you see articles ranging from people handcuffing five-year-old children to placing one month old babies in the microwave because they cried you have to ask yourself what�s up? How have we as a society allowed ourselves to reach a point where things like this happen?

There are most likely many answers to these questions but maybe in our haste to understand and define the problem we have become oblivious to the cause of the problem. To use a friend of mines term �pop psychology� isn�t working here people; if it did Dr. Phil would be in his office and not on TV.

Somewhere along the way we as a people got hold of a bad idea; we convinced ourselves that it would be much simpler to get rid of the so called gray areas and put everything in terms of black and white. How could we have been so naive to think that this would work? Compassion went right out the door with that idea.

What happens when society loses its compassion? Ask a homeless person who is struggling to get back on their feet and you will find out first hand. Does anyone recall the very over used saying �do unto others as you would have them do unto you�?

When the universe gave us this wonderful gift of life I don�t feel that hatred for kindness was part of the plan. How can we even justify that it is okay to turn our backs on one and another in a time of need.

How can we stand by and watch those who have so much take even more without giving any back? How can we promote material possessions over love? How can we turn the other way when we know that is the wrong action to take? Why is it so easy to turn away at the sight of unpleasant situations?

Perhaps a good starting point to remedy these problems would to be for us to look at ourselves first. Each one of us, me included, could stand to change in the areas of understanding. Sure we know that some of the people who ask us for spare change are not intending to use the money for what they say, but then again quite possibly our small contribution could be a turning point on the road to recovery for them. Money is tight for a great many of us, but stop and truly consider how hard it is to start with nothing.

Educate yourself in the workings of so called recovery programs, in the state in which I live just to get to the various places that offer help will cost in excess of twenty dollars a day. You don�t know what the less fortunate are really up against. How much of a role do these obstacles play in the manifestation of even greater problems that in turn lead to us harming one another?

It is way past time that we start to seriously question our elected leaders and their ideas. We spend so much time and money creating new laws and programs that by the time they are put in to use they are outdated and under funded. What is it really telling our children when we instigate a program that pays them to learn in school (and at $8.00 an hour pays more than a lot of jobs)?

Would it not be a little more reasonable to be honest and let kids know that life has many ups and downs, and that there really is not an easy fix to problems. How can children begin to understand the complexities of life if they think they can do nothing until someone offers them money to do it?

And what about compassion? Can anyone be so callous that they don�t feel good about having a positive impact on a person or a situation? Look at how we have conditioned ourselves to accept the fact that only bad news sells. What if we started promoting the kindness in others, what if our country tried to help its less fortunate instead of prosecuting them? What if we all just said enough is enough?

Whatever spiritual path one chooses it takes a lot more than talk you got to walk the walk so to speak. Maybe if each of us who consider ourselves enlightened gave up just one hour a week of our precious time or one dollar of our precious money and put it somewhere where it could do some good it would start to make a difference.

How do you know if your time and money are being used for what you were told? You have to follow up, first hold yourself accountable then the program you are working with. If you get an answer that doesn�t quite ring true dig deeper, make some waves, ask some harder questions and demand some honest answers. We surely have not come this far just to rest on our laurels.

Will we be able to make a change that will be noticed immediately? Most likely not, unless we first make a change in our compassion. If each and every one of us tries just a little bit more then slowly, others will follow. More people follow than lead, so why not promote the following of compassion.

In the words of Elvis (Costello, not Presley) �What�s so hard about peace, love, and understanding?�

ABOUT...

Tom

Location: Atlanta, Georgia

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