Coming Together for Crisis

As our society roils with many issues, arguments, values and manners enter the spotlight. A lot of that attention displays an ugly side of the American social personality. Anger, frustration and inarticulate arguments make it all seem worse. Much worse.

Here’s what it all boils down to in my opinion. And this is my opinion. Many of you may disagree, but I hope you will stay with this post long enough to see what I’m getting at.

1.      Women continue to be abused and disrespected without a reset of the justice system and social mores; this is just plain wrong. Half of us are women. These are our mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, daughters and in-laws as well. We should respect women. We should allow them the freedom to explore life same as for males.

2.      White males continue to wield more power in our society than any other demographic; they are not even 33% of the population. It is up to the rest of us to insist equal access based on ability and qualifications. Not gender or ethnicity.

3.      The criminal justice system does not work equally for all. It stumbles on for the poor and minority defendant. Others have personal resources or image to help them get better treatment. In any language this is discrimination.

4.      Rich get richer and poor get poorer while the middle class continues to disappear. This means the economy is not working properly, or education, or any number of other institutions in our society. This must be repaired or else we face certain revolution.

5.      Issues of discussion continue to remain separate from one another; rarely are they combined as a holistic reading of our community status; they are part of the whole but are dealt with separately. Thus solutions are rarely found; we must attend to them in combination to make a dent in actual living conditions for us all.

6.      Education continues to be more expensive further eliminating lower income families

7.      Healthcare continues to be accessible by the above average income demographic; those who cannot afford good healthcare continues to grow as a group; this is the face of injustice

8.      Solving a social problem is less and less a problem for government and more and more the business of churches and charities; government still should play an important role here.

9.      Self-medication is on the rise: alcohol, drugs, food, tobacco, work, sex, et.al.

10.   Nationalism or globalism? Shouldn’t these be integrated?

11.   Hunger, housing, joblessness are the realm of the poor, disabled and despised(?)

I think it is far easier to address the problems as a whole than it is one at a time. They are interrelated to begin with. Separating them into different siloes only complicates solutions. Common threads exist in each of the issues. Repair one element in one arena and we are likely to see a solution working throughout many other arenas simultaneously.

We are all of one race – the human race. If we focus on helping each other, we should benefit more and faster than if we only help the blacks, or the browns, or any other ethnic group. It is common sense. We are citizens of one world. What happens in one part of that world happens to each of us – now or eventually.

An easier approach to all of this is to define what we basically hope to build as a long-term common outcome. What would that look like? Rather than separating everything into small cubes, let’s keep the whole together so we do not split our attention too finely in myriad projects.

For my piece of this, my ideal outcome is this:

All of mankind has equal access to a quality life based on their cultural norm; all of mankind has a responsibility to help all achieve this state of affairs.

This standard of living includes adequate housing, food & water, clothing, medical care and justice. Respect for self and each other is a part of this standard of living.

How do we achieve the standard? By all of us pitching in, speaking up, working hard to help, voting, paying taxes, and being involved in the discussions that set policy and legislation.

Watching out for each other does not afford us the duty to look after ourselves exclusively. This is a group exercise and benefit.

It is not socialism or communism. It is common sense and common decency.

September 27, 2018