Monday, July 28, 2014

What's Wrong With Us?

Many who are so quick to condemn Shaka (in the commentary) seem oblivious to their own role in the insanity that creates the environments that nurture and encourage violence. They think it is not their problem, not their doing- unless it reaches out to them in a personal way (ie- they become victim to a crime). Then they are quick to assign blame to others... and demand vengeance (much as he once did). 

Believing it's someone else's problem, someone else's fault, and that you don't have a role in helping to fix and prevent society's problems just ensures that those very problems fester, enlarge and propagate. You can see the results today in every corner of the world. Children from broken homes and broken environments are themselves already "broken" by the age of middle school. But they can be fixed, they can be saved. The question is: are we going to help them while there's still time- or only sit in judgement and condemn them after the fact?

Instead of incarceration, we need affordable housing and education; instead of minimum wage jobs, we need real living wages (as we once had in this country); instead of lies, excuses and promises, we need people who take responsibility- yes, on both ends. Don't blame the poor on the bottom for their misdeeds while those on top are every bit as corrupt and criminal. The question is: are we forever going to assign blame whenever convenient, or strive to recognize and fix the corruption right next to us, all around us, the corruption and injustice we ourselves: deny, profit from and fall victim to?


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