So on this Sunday I wish to climb upon my soapbox and will finish with an appeal. No clever writing, links to song lyrics, nor allusions to favorite poetry. No pretty pictures, nor witty nuggets of wisdom from my favorite authors and thinkers. Just a realist's opinion that might seem optimistic and perhaps naive to some...
The world has never been as good as it is now. I know it does not feel that way. I know those who hurt today, or who were hurting yesterday, or even those who will hurt more tomorrow, will cry "optimist" and ignore my claim. But here is my thesis: The world is a hard place; it is not good enough yet for us to not fight harder than ever before for further improvement; BUT it IS better than ever before...
Fewer cops are being assaulted and killed today than 30 years ago in America. Knowledge and new developments are being enjoyed by a population with the highest levels of literacy in human history. Violent crime is on a 30 year downward trend. More people have access to better health care than ever before (globally). Extreme poverty is on a steady decline world wide. Fewer people will be directly affected by the violence of war as a percentage of the population than ever before...
Sigh. The environment IS suffering from 7 billion of us consuming. But we have never been better poised to mitigate the damage as it becomes ever more a necessity to do so. Good god, the inventions that our children have yet to invent will astound us! Our awareness of the world's suffering has never been so great (thank you Facebook and cell phones and 24-hour cable news coverage, and internet). But it is our awareness only that makes things seem worse and out of control...
So this past week we were all surprised by the elections. Ok, Michael Moore was not surprised, but the rest of us, conservative and liberal alike, were shocked. And the news is filled with reports of protests, riots, racial graffiti, and worse. The uncertainty of the next steps is driving people to extremes and the debate on FB has stopped. The name calling continues and there is a lot of "see I told you so" from both sides. The misleadingly edited videos and inaccurate memes are damaging our ability to debate real and hard truths. It has become a full time job to just sort through the misdirection and smoke that all sides are offering in their mis-guided passion...
I do not wish to ask people to come together and sing a round a camp fire; that would be absurd. What would be helpful is to acknowledge that we are the same people we were last week. We have work to do. We have deeply divided values and interests and perspectives in this country and we need to figure out how to strive for excellence so we can continue to be a positive force for ourselves, for our communities, and for the world. It starts with a heathy home. And in America health comes from spirited and passionate debate, from hard conversations which even cause us to walk away at times, but we must remember to return for more. It does not come from holier-than-thou-hand-to-the-face rhetoric...
So my appeal is this. Please stop posting anything other than the message that we WILL be ok. It will take work, as all great things that matter do. The sun did come up today; water ran out of my faucet; and I am hear to listen, argue, debate, and change. It will NOT be easy, but I am willing to continue to put opinion and freedom ahead of all else and I AM willing to fight for that, no matter the cost. I am hoping the few friends and acquaintances who read this and got this far in today's inglorious post will consider only adding forward moving noise to the web-sphere. Truth and hope. These things are not naïveté and they matter. This is my appeal...
Thank you.
-peace & compassion
-peter
No comments:
Post a Comment