Reminder

Hey there boys, girls, and those with a little of both.  Two entries in a week, i think i’m spoiling you.

I read some time ago that rates of suicide skyrocket around this time of year.  That turns out ot be false, but i can see why people would think that.

I look around these days, and i very troubling things all around me.  The economy, first and foremost, is circling the drain.  The government was so loathe to call it that, but hoping it will go away doesnt seem to do much in the free market.  now normally i wouldnt care much about this, and in the past, i’ve ignored it just like most people have.  but this time of year, things are a little different.  I’m the youngest in my immediate family, and i understand a lot of thigns that i didnt when i was younger.  mainly, I understand that there are a lot of times when things are just too expensive.  that said, when my parents say we have to cut back this christmas, i know they’re right, and i’m ok with it.  but then i think about some of my friends’ families, where they’re the oldest, and their siblings are still 3rd or 4th grade.  how do you tell your child that christmas wont be as special as it used to be?  this is where it really hits home for me.  last summer, I worked with some incredible people.  they were good, honest, hardworking people.  over half of them are laid off now, when it seems most vital to have that little extra cash.  it’s heart wrenching, really.

Morality, it seems, is a thing of the past.  I have long been cynical, and it pains me to see that, and I hate to admit it: i’m right.  people are selling senate seats.  people are dissolving democracy to prolong their power trips.  People are killing, maiming, creating orphans and widows.  people are committing genocide.  and worst of all: People are looking at these things on the news, in this land of oportunity and compassion, and they’re turning away.  people are turning off the images of afganistan, sudan, iraq, north korea, chicago, canada and washington DC, and pretending that it doesnt concern them.  this is perhaps the worst crime of all: indifference.  please excuse the cliche, but this seems far too appropriate:

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.

the world around us is dissolving into chaos, and i doubt that we as a people could care any less about it.  our lives are not in danger, we are not being driven out of our homes at gunpoint.  our leader is not a ruthless dictator, we have our freedoms to take for granted.  our sons and brothers arent being recruited into a suicide bombing cult, they’ll get their white collar jobs. why should we care?  I wish i could do something easy, like blame MTV, or youtube, or CNN.  but it doesnt work like that.  this isnt the first time we have been an apathetic nation.  We knew of war crimes in germany before December 1941.  our country has aided terrorists and cruel dictators in an effort to serve ourselves at the expense of the rest of the world.  For many decades, we have been this way. 

there have, however, been moments where our nation, in a chorus with the rest of the world, rose up in such rightous unity, that humanity returned in a wave of fury and outrage. Apathy, greed, and gluttony gave way to compassion, generosity and self discipline, and the sputtering spark that is the hope of the world erupted into an inferno, fueled by men and women willing to stand and do the right thing.  our last opportunity was squandered on a govenment’s secret agenda, but i am convinced, beyond any doubt, that should we as a people take action, support freedom and justice and truth, and if we are willing to once again bear the weight of the free world on our shoulders, then this world will remain free, and we will be vinicated in our cry for world-wide equality and peace.

That was a big one.

Till things are brighter.

nick.