Getting Out of a Mess
“The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we
lay waste our powers…” Poet William Wordsworth was contrasting
nature with a materialistic world when he wrote that in the 18th century.
What has changed?
THE BUDGET AND THE "CORPOCRACY"
Can you relate to a budget of $2.77 trillion—one that takes from we the
people and gives to the corporations? A budget that includes staggering
sums for war and security? Whose war? God, Country and Exxon
Mobile?
Whose security? Do you feel more secure now that our borders
are leaking sieves penetrated by drug dealers, cutthroats and who
knows what else?
AN INDIFFERENT BUREAUCRACY
Yesterday there was butchery in the Congo, unimaginable slaughter in
Rwanda. Today, Sudan’s Darfur is yet another deadly wound in the
bleeding heart of Africa. Despite face saving overtures from Western
bureaucracies, starvation, rape and genocide rage unchecked. What
has changed?
SENIORS AND THE REST OF US
Here is a quote from a 1959 Department of Labor Subcommittee on
Problems of the Aged and Aging. “I am an 80 year-old woman and for
10 years I have been living on a bare nothing, two meals a day, one
egg, a soup, because I want to be independent.” In the year 2006
seniors still must choose between health care and food, while trying to
figure out the prescription drug program. What has changed? The
middle class is the backbone of this country. The backbone is beginning
to crack. Feel it?
THEN AND NOW
The problems
facing
the country today seem insurmountable compared
to those of yesterday. But yesterday people thought the same. The
country’s ills seemed impossible to solve for people struggling through
the Great Depression and a savage World War. Good leadership and
the strong will of the people got us through it. Fast forward to Vietnam,
Iraq
and Afghanistan. What has changed?
LIARS AND
CHEATERS
Is it any wonder that some people feel they have no control over their
institutions, their
government and their own lives? They depend on drugs to get them
through road rage, outrage and one sickening “breaking news” atrocity
after another. In the ethics scandal brewing on Capitol Hill, our elected
officials smell like rotting fish. Corporate executives lie about their
credentials and cook their company’s books; students lie to get a degree
and a job. Writers lie about their writing, sports icons lie about steroids,
smart minds waste their talents on planting viruses and stealing IDs.
Is there anything new here besides
the technology?
WHAT GOES AROUND…
Everything that happened in the past is happening now, and will
continue to happen in the future until the individual becomes
responsible for his/her actions. Change has to start with the individual.
Think about it. When we don’t learn from our errors we repeat them.
When we’re absent from history class we suffer the consequences of
war, hunger, pandemics and mass murder. What goes around comes
around because cold indifference is the antithesis of change.
THE INDIVIDUAL IS YOU
There are billions more people on the planet today than yesterday,
competing for the same finite space and resources. *If you were born in
1950 there were 2.5 billion people in the world. Today there are 6.5
billion. By 2015 there will be 7.2 billion. Those who want to make a
difference in the quality of life must begin with themselves. Every
individual has to help him or her self before they can help anyone else.
When you do something to help yourself (only you know what that is)
you are making a difference to the people around you and the
environment you inhabit. Send not to know for whom the bell
tolls… Just do it.
*U.S. Census and the International Data Base
“Simplicity-Courage-Humor-Soul”®
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