Please take a moment to consider the meaning of the word "awful". Originally, the word meant "the reverential fear of the Living God". In current times it means "bad, totally unacceptable, putrid". So the word has, over time, become a self-contained oxymoron, its own antithesis. What a commentary on the people, the society, and the times with whom, in which, and during which we live.

We humans have become technological giants while remaining moral and ethical midgets. We can travel to the moon and back. We can repair a telescope while it is running around miles above the earth and build a space station in anticipation of the exploration of deep space. We can perform open heart surgery on a baby who is still gestating in the womb of her or his mother. We are even cloning various animal life forms. What we do not seem to be able to do is treat our neighbor with any deference, dignity, or respect. These days in fact, most of us don't even know the name of our neighbor. Nor do we exhibit any desire to know of them or care about them. But being honest, perhaps we should admit that this is no surprise. And in many cases, we truly have even less desire to know ourselves. No time allotted to sitting down and getting acquainted with ourselves. Understanding ourselves. Coming to terms with ourselves. Making peace with ourselves. So it comes as no surprise that we do not know or even care about others. After all, we have groups in this hemisphere whose "cause" is animal rights or ecological purity, in both the U.S. and Canada as well as much of Europe who state that, "a boy is a dog is a fish is a fly". Who believe that trees are more important than persons. Some of them even going to the extent of stating that we humans should have a zero birth policy (not zero growth, zero birth) so that "Mother Earth" can eventually have the opportunity to return to her natural pristine state in a hundred years or so, being at that point totally devoid of evil humankind . I can only wonder how they truly see themselves. But when thinking is that far off the understandable track, I am not sure that I want to know.

It is Marilyn Monroe who is quoted as having said, "In Hollywood they will offer you $50,000 for a kiss, but not one cent for a soul."

We all have seen circumstances in which donations were requested for a family, or a child. This is done every day in the U.S., Canada, and parts of Europe. it is just part of life. However, the author also remembers a few times where a situation occurred in which an animal was injured. And remembers that the contributions to the fund for the welfare of that animal exponentially exceeded the contributions made to the fund for the welfare of the human child. Perhaps some of the readers may remember the utter shock which was expressed by those who were authoring the fund for the child as well as those who heard of the incident. Honestly, this juxtaposition of responses came as no surprise to the writer. It is a sign of the times.

We blame our representatives on all levels for not being able to work together, resolve their differences, and get needful things done. To care more about the people who they are elected to serve than their own interests. Seeing as how we, on our own contact level, don't either, how do we justify blaming them? In our current society, race, gender and national origin seem to have become weapons in a struggle for "mine" and "ours". Our rights, our privileges (which many declare to the their "rights" not acquiescing to the proposition that they are "privileges", our piece of the pie. A question: "what if, in these fights for "our piece" of that pie, we only manage to destroy the pie thereby leaving nothing for anyone". It is the old cartoon plot of two dogs fighting over a steak while a third dog runs off with the steak. And having totally destroyed the "pie" we would not have that to fight over so probably we would commence a fight over whose fault it was that the pie was destroyed, accomplishing precisely nothing. This is beyond ridiculous. It is stupid. It is infantile in the extreme. We tell our children that they must "get along" and "play nice" but then totally forget that this applies to us adults as well, and even moreso because those children are looking to us for their example.

An old "Charlie Brown" strip had Lucy and Linus together. Linus was saying something like, "If we expect the world to get along, shouldn't we expect to see our country get along, and if our country, then how about our community. And if our community, how about each of us getting along with each other." At this point, Lucy decks him with a well placed right cross and says, "I had to hit him. He was beginning to make sense." And isn't that the reaction of many? When it begins to make sense and trample on their firmly (if wrongly) held beliefs, more often than not, the automatic response has demonstrably and historically been to strike out blindly either directly at the source of the common sense or, increasingly and more and more commonly, strike out wildly and blindly in all directions wreaking havoc and damage in all directions, even on those who were not involved in the original problem, thereby instead of adding to the solution, increasing the problem.

One more example, at the end of the movie "Oh God" (with George Burns and John Denver), there is a courtroom scene in which George Burns, representing God, makes a speech to those assembled in which he states, "You ask why I have not made this world a better place. I did. I put you here."

Is there a solution? Unfortunately, as nearly as the author can tell, the unavoidable answer to that question at this point in time is no. And when the solution is revealed, it probably won't be easy to implement. Because he is not the font of all wisdom, the author's purpose in writing this piece is not to offer solutions, I would not be so immodest as to believe that I can play Solomon, rather my desire is to put the situations into clear and concise words thereby affording each individual the opportunity to reach their own solutions which are more closely tailored to their own situation and therefore more implementable on an individual basis.

Perhaps there shall come a day when we will all mean as much to each other as we should. May we all not only long for but also work tirelessly toward that wonderful day. If we are willing to shoulder the task, perhaps our efforts shall be rewarded to an extent which is beyond our wildest dreams. It's worth the try. In the meantime, I have herein reminded myself that I, more than anyone, have a whole lot of work in this area which I must do. And it would appear that I am the only one who can do it if my world is to improve. If you would be so kind as to excuse me, it is waiting for me.

vurdraak@pacbell.net

Opinion Piece # 16

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