Skip to main content

We pretended...

We know things weren't as good as we pretended them to be. If they were, then Donald Trump wouldn't have won because he campaigned to Make America Great Again, which meant you had to agree America wasn't great. If America was good now, then Bernie Sanders wouldn't have gotten so far in the Democratic primary proposing sweeping changes of our society and how if functions.
Many just want to go back to normal, before the pandemic, but things were not great, and only good on the surface. If we had some deep roots and solid foundations, we would not be hurting so soon in our economy and our society.
So this virus exposed the fake smile most of us have been wearing. Our fears and our angers are being let out (often misdirected in my opinion) and we are trying to stuff them back in so we can pretend that things were good, otherwise we would have to change our lives and perspectives too, not just them.
Some want to go back to the good ol' days and some want to fast forward into the future. I asked two nights ago what is our center? What is the foundation that would help us not just get through this pandemic, but while maybe not making us great, would help all of us smile a little more genuinely and a lot more often? It isn't going to be wealth (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness). It isn't going to be patriotism (you aren't a real American because...). It could be God (as long as you remove denomination, Bible preference, and the belief that God only/always agrees with us).
I think it has to start with respect. Not the if you respect me, agree with me, satisfy me, THEN I will respect you. But seeing and treating every person with a little kindness, a lot of compassion, knowing that we will never see eye to eye on many things and the goal isn't to get them to agree with us, and having enough humbleness to know that we might be wrong.
We are way too busy fighting and screaming at each other, listening only to figure out how to prove them wrong, and dismissing them because of way too many reasons.
We are capable of doing better. We are capable of creating and having a better society and world. We just have to let go that our side always has the best plan or idea. BUT, we do have to believe that every person has worth, is important, and loved.
Labels:
Location: Aberdeen, SD 57401, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Selling Out

 Last Fall, I read a book called, "A History of Burning." It is a multi-generational story about a family that migrates from India to Uganda for hopes for a better future to help the British build a railroad, whose children through education secures a government job, but then Uganda throws off their colonial oppressors and gains independence and turns against the Indians who live there, and they have to migrate again and start all over in Toronto, Canada. It is a sad story of colonial power of the British Empire bringing in foreign cheap labor to build their infrastructure that leaves out the local population. And once Uganda gets independence, the corporations still control much of the economy and fosters division between the Ugandans and Indian to keep the country unstable. It is a triumphant story of human determination in the face of adversity, but only a few make it.  One of the first paragraphs in a Wikipedia search about Africa told me that Africa is politically unstab...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nothing Outside Contaminates

 First we start with the human traditions, not all of humanity, but Western civilization under the Doctrine of Discovery that basically states that any European explorer (especially from countries that were still Roman Catholic) coming upon any land and people that weren't Christian were able to claim the land and people in the name of their king and country. This created human traditions of enslavement and taking what isn't theirs which is still happening today in Sudan with diamonds, the Congo with lithium, and Palestine with natural gas. We continue to the 1980's were the wealthy were given massive tax cuts and the unions were routinely broken up and laws were put in place to make it very hard to create one in the 'Right to Work' states. Our human traditions have created once again a wealthy class that if they lost 90% of their wealth, they would still be the most wealthy people in the world.  It probably started with philosopher Francis Bacon who helped begin th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Contribute to the needs of God's People

  On Aug. 28, 1893, Sen. James Kyle of South Dakota introduced S. 730 to the U.S. Senate to make Labor Day a legal national holiday on the first Monday of September each year. President Grover Cleveland signed the bill on June 28, 1894. By then, a fall holiday called Labor Day was already being observed. Beginning in the late 19th century, parades, picnics and other celebrations took place to support labor issues such as shorter hours, better pay and safer working conditions, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In introducing the legislation, Kyle said that labor organizations were united in asking that the first Monday of September be set apart as a holiday in order to make the observance uniform. This would result in workers enjoying vacation privileges on the same day, according to the Dec. 1, 1965, issue of “The Wi-Iyohi,” a monthly bulletin published by the South Dakota State Historical Society. Prior to serving as a U.S. Senator, Kyle served as pastor at the Congregati...
Post a Comment
Read more