compassion.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the number of unemployed persons in the U.S. has increased by 4.1 million in the last twelve months. That's half the population of New York City, or forty times the population of Eugene, Oregon. It's entire towns, graduating classes, families. And we haven't begun to see the beginning of the worst. There is still savings to burn, pension plans to liquidate, homes to sell, unemployment benefits to be had. But soon, there won't be. A time will come, perhaps quite soon, that Americans will have to do something they haven't done in a very long time, rely on the kindness, generosity, and ingenuity of their communities.
I would feel better about this prospect if we, as a nation, had shown some kind of aptitude for either community building or compassion, but we haven't. This is evidenced by our continued support of faith systems and policy makers that divide us based on arbitrary and often harmful stereotypes, greed, and outdated value systems and paradigms.
But we voted for change, and it will not come passively. It is time to fight the good fight.
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ReplyDeleteChange is painful. Change takes us out of our comfort zone and thrusts us into the unknown. Change forces us to confront and adapt to the harsh realities of the world in its current state. Those realities have become more and more unforgiving as society was lead down a path of indifference and greed, spurred on by the whim of those in power. Even today, they continue to battle the call for common sense, compassion for all and common good by pushing their same failed agendas and ideology. If we are to change with any significance, we must change completly. We must not lay down and roll over. Any change worth having is change fought for with everything you have. That's what I voted for.
ReplyDeleteThe thing Americans will soon be forced to do that they haven't done in a long time is eat each others brains. You guys should start with the folks in Oakbrook Terrace, they've had a bad business model for a while.
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