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There are so many things wrong with the world, with our nations, with our communities, that until We, the People have influence in those spheres which effect our lives, we'll not be able to even begin to address creating the changes we need to make.
We appear to have so little influence in what is happening in the world today. Civil rights and protections have been shattered in the name of national security and the threat of terrorism.
Workers rights, pay, benefits and jobs have been destroyed in the name of "doing business" and profit.
Lands and species are being destroyed for profit and "progress."
Most of our elected officials no longer represent We, the People but instead pander to corporations and the "ruling class."
The few elected officials who do represent our interests, have little or now power to make change due to the influence of other elected officials, corporations and the "ruling class."
We can no longer be sure that we are even getting the officials for whom we vote.
Communities are sold out to and destroyed by corporate developers, agri-business, big box corporations and foreign interests.
The corporate media is complicit in hiding information vital to our survival. I for one, no longer believe any talking head, "journalist," or "reporter" in the previously, mainstream media to report an issue without injecting their own political bias. If "knowledge is power," then we have no knowledge and therefor no power.
The rules by which I thought we all once operated are no longer in place. The Golden Rule has been perverted; do unto others before they do unto you; or replace by the Rule of Gold; he who has the gold, rules.
Compassion is ridiculed as "feminization" and therefor weak. Violence as a tool for conflict resolution is applauded as proving how "tough" "we" are; whomever the "we" is. Even the Democratic Party, which I once thought of as the party of and for peace, is recruiting and running military and former military to prove to the nation that Democrats have "balls," too; that we're "tough guys," too. For every poison pen they shoot at us, we shoot one right back at them; for if "we" don't, there's a hue and cry that Democrats are "pussies," or as Bill Mahr once lamented, we've become too "feminized."
Not that any of this is new. It's just that now it's accepted and acknowledged unapologetically as the right thing, the tough thing, the "manly" thing to do.
What we once thought of as "unalienable" rights, have been eroded to the fading shadows we now see disappearing from sight around us into darkness; a new Dark Ages. We are repeating the history from which we didn't learn.
The most urgent issue facing us today...ourselves. I've seen many great actions planned which have received only nominal support. Too many sit back and say "that's just the way it is," "you can't fight the system," "it'll never happen, you can't get people to do that," or my all time favorite "I'm only one person, what can I do?"
It's not popular to say, but have to "become the change we want to see." Perhaps while we "Practice Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty" we could also perform consistent acts of subversion; i.e., deny support to corporate conglomerates one dollar at a time, deny support of violence one compassionate act at a time, refuse to give energy to propaganda one lie at a time, deny support to corporate controlled officials one vote at a time, support and promote local business one dollar at a time, support and promote issues one vote and one dollar at a time, support and promote truth one word at a time, support and promote peaceful resolution one attack at a time, promote communication; start a whisper campaign for peace, compassion and understanding, make hatred and violence ugly, practice zero tolerance for violence and hatred in your home, your workplace, your next bar-b-que...
"Become the change you want to see." ~Ghandi
~Cerridwen
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