No kidding — at ALL … (10/23/15)
Oftentimes life will have us simply throwing up our hands and exclaiming a loud “You have GOT to be kidding me” … and it is time such as these when we have all simply GOT to keep on keeping on – for Justice, for Compassion, for Truth, and for Love.
*You have GOT to be kidding me #01) There are more empty, abandoned houses in the United States than there are homeless people … LOTS more.
SOLUTION (partial): Reach out to a homeless person today by renting them a hotel room for the night.
*You have GOT to be kidding me #02) There are currently more Black men in prison in the United States than were enslaved there in 1850.
SOLUTION (partial): Reach out to the minority citizens in your community &/or visit a local jail or prison and extend Kindness to those incarcerated there.
Note: The incarceration rate of Blacks in the U.S. is almost SEVEN TIMES higher than it is for Whites, even though the percentage of Whites & Blacks who commit jail-able offenses is roughly equal. Blacks who commit crime in the United States are far more likely to go to jail/prison than Whites who commit crimes there, and a 2012 University of Michigan study found that jail sentences for Blacks in the U.S. are over 10% longer than White sentences for the same crimes committed.
*You have GOT to be kidding me #03) Not only do over 30 MILLION United States citizens still have no health care coverage AT ALL, those who do have coverage are paying an average of roughly $100 per month (for individuals, not counting their deductible) or $400 per month (far families, not counting their deductible) for health insurance.
SOLUTION (partial): Seeing as how the average American citizen literally cannot afford to become ill these days, it is more important than ever for those living in the United States to switch to a 100% plant-based diet as quickly as possible.
Note: On July 3, 2015, the NY Times reported “Health insurance companies around the country are seeking rate increases of 20 percent to 40 percent or more [for 2016], saying their new customers under the Affordable Care Act turned out to be sicker than expected.”
*You have GOT to be kidding me #04) Despite the FACT that climatologists almost unanimously agree that humanity-caused global warming is a very real and a very imminent problem, and despite the FACT that science has also conclusively shown that animal agriculture is the #1 cause of the same, neither Obama’s Climate Action Plan nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have even faintly mentioned what the United Nations has accepted as FACT since 2010 — namely, that a steady, global shift towards a 100% plant-based diet is an ESSENTIAL component of any potentially successful campaign to avoid the most catastrophic effects of our impending (and now practically inevitable) global climate crisis.
SOLUTION (partial): Go Vegan — and enCourage others to do the same.
Note: Professor Edgar Hertwich, the lead author of a U.N. report on the matter, stated that: “Animal products cause more damage than [producing] construction minerals such as sand or cement, plastics or metals. [In addition], biomass and crops for animals are just as damaging as fossil fuels.”
*You have GOT to be kidding me #05) That the President of the United States, after chronically (& purposefully) destabilizing the Middle East with its unjust wars in Iraq & Afghanistan (and thereby de facto creating the terrorist state known today as ISIS — and thereby de facto creating the immigrant crisis that is currently overwhelming Europe), continues to this very day his patently evil policy of regularly drone-bombing the region.
SOLUTION (partial): Reach out to any & all Muslims in your community and openly apologize to them on behalf of America’s drastically misguided (and highly immoral) “leader”.
Note: More than 5000 people have been murdered by U.S. drones since 2009, and it has now been established not only that this figure is probably much lower than the actual death-count, but also that the VAST majority of these victims were innocent civilians — many of them children.
*You have GOT to be kidding me #06) Despite the FACT that animals have now been proven to be as sentient as humans, and despite the FACT that this means that animals do indeed suffer immensely whenever they are confined &/or mutilated &/or slaughtered, and despite the FACT that human beings do not need to consume ANY animal flesh or animal secretions in order to live a long (actually longer) and healthy (actually healthier) lives — humans still ruthlessly & needlessly murder over THREE THOUSAND innocent animals EVERY SECOND of every day.
SOLUTION (partial): Go Vegan — and gently in-Courage others to do the same … Thank you.
*You have GOT to be kidding me #07) Despite the FACT that Jesus made it very clear that we humans (Christians especially) are simply to actively & humbly serve others (John 13:34-35 + Matthew 18:3-4) — ESPECIALLY those “enemies” who believe differently than we do or make us most uncomfortable (Matthew 7:1-5 + Matthew 5:44-48), the VAST majority of the world’s 300+ million evangelical, fundamentalist Christians (95 million of whom reside in the United States) not only openly believe that they are the only ones who will be allowed entrance into Heaven after they die (arrogance), but also that they are both called to openly condemn the sins of all “non-believers” (hypocrisy) and commanded to passionately denounce & convert all those practicing a faith different from their own (bigotry).
SOLUTION (partial): Remind the evangelicals in your life about the existence of — and the importance of — the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3 through 7:27). While doing so, remind them that — for Jesus at least — Salvation comes from humbly Loving others, and remind them that — again, at least as far as Jesus was concerned — that LOVE is a verb.
*You have GOT to be kidding me #08) The richest 1% of people in the United States of America own more wealth than the bottom 90% combined.
SOLUTION (partial): Give regularly to others all that you possess — your money, your things, your time & your energy. Do so publicly, do so past the point of comfort, and do so for the ‘wealthy” as well as for the “poor”.
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