Entry #11

​I am utterly and completely DISGUSTED at what this country has become! And no, I am not un-American or unpatriotic, but we seem to be consistently taking our country further and further into the pits of hell. It honestly depresses me feeling that there is nothing positive in America anymore. It is because I love my country that I am upset at what we are becoming.
I do not blame one person or group consistently; I believe we have all had a hand in the demise of the good ole US of A. We seem to have been on this downward spiral for years and now we are coming to a climax of our greed, hatred and plain stupidity. I’m not even sure where to begin; there is a laundry list of things that are plaguing this country. Pollution, gluttony, discrimination, racism, the abuse of lawsuits, health care, crime, education, poverty, obesity, the power struggle, irresponsibility with finance and the economy, war, drugs, religion, money; it’s all present in society today. Not that these things weren’t present before, but certainly not as extreme as today. We have obviously not learned from the mistakes of the past and seem apathetic in even trying to learn from those mistakes. In fact, as I see it, we have taken those already-present bad things and made them even worse. It’s no wonder that you can’t even make it through the news without hearing negative story after negative story.
I think one of the biggest disappointments is that no one has any proactive ideas for change --- real change. We all want to point the finger and play the blame game. The only way we are going to initiate change is to stop blaming others (or even ourselves) and actually do something about it. Change is only going to stem from action. One thing I have noticed is that all of those things I mentioned above are all interrelated. This means that if we can get at the root of these issues, we will take care of several of them at once. We need to get out of this mentality of working against each other and begin working together. When it all boils down, we pretty much all want the same things in life; to be happy, healthy and provide a good future for ourselves and our loved ones. It’s amazing to see how we’re all so eager to get these things as quickly as possible, we are willing to knock someone else down on the way there. What happens in the end is that we all lose.  
The question that remains is: what can we do to begin that change or to simply BE that change? I believe that the answer is simpler than we all realize. We need to go back to the basics, the simple (yet important) values that this country was founded on. If the founders on this country could see us today, I truly believe that they would be saddened at what we’ve done to ourselves. Somewhere along the way, money, beauty, power and greed became our top priorities and we lost sight of compassion, love, generosity and kindness. If we could become unified and work together, we could accomplish these goals much quicker and more efficiently. If we put as much energy into these things as we do these so-called “priorities,” we would all be much happier and our journeys in life would feel much lighter. A chain of kindness and compassion needs to begin; if we cannot empathize and try to understand other people’s woes, we can’t expect others to do the same for us. This very act sends us into this vicious cycle that only seems to create more of these negative energies. I’m not saying there won’t be some who will continue to take advantage of these things in life, but those people would be the exception rather than the rule. At the end of the day, I would rather be known for loving and caring about the very essence of the human spirit (learning more about myself in the process) than a powerful billionaire who cared more about my bottom line than anything else. When we reach the end of our lives, the same thing happens to each and every one of us: we die. Game over. Then what? What will you have left at the end of your life? Are the things you are achieving today going to make a bit of difference when that happens? When you die, what do you want people to remember about you? There aren’t very many people (I don’t think) who want to be remembered for the money they had or the power they yielded. Tell me one thing, though. If that is truly how you want people to remember you, why is money and power (and the like) so important right now? Why wait until the end is near to care about the things that matter most when you can do that now? We all know how fast time flies by. Don’t let it all run out before you actually get up and do something about it.