Choosing the Road to Peace … (07/05/16)
Last year I got quite a bit of flack for sacrilegiously publishing my all-too-accurate portrayal of the United States (linked in comment box #01 below) on its “day of independence”, so this year I thought I would give you all a break on July 4th and not post anything at all — kind of let you sit back and take a day to stick your heads in the sand and just have a bit of fun with friends and family without worrying about all the rampant social plagues that are ravaging your country and indeed threatening the very well-being of everyone you love & everything you cherish … Yesterday was a day of pleasure & comfort — an oasis of encouraged apathy.
There was no need for you to be worrying about Obama’s next drone strike killing all those innocent folks’ children, or Hillary’s next war that will destroy thousands of lives after she is coronated, or the TPP which will either directly or indirectly eliminate your job — or at the very least the job of at least one person you know, or the institutional racism in America that continues to keep minority populations either mired in poverty or residing in privatized prisons (performing slave labor for the wealthy & the “well connected” — Love that money, right Hillary?), or the still-poignant homophobic persecution of the LGBT community, or the rise of Donald Trump-inspired xenophobic violence throughout the nation, or still-rising unemployment & poverty levels, or the annihilation of the middle class, or the BILLIONS of sentient animals we humans enslave & torture & murder every single day for our own superficial enjoyments, or the coming climate crisis (primarily caused by said animal abuse) which will soon bring us to the culmination of the next Mass Extinction Event — a global “cleansing” will indeed wipe out (via starvation &/or disease &/or war &/or drought &/or displacement due to rising sea levels) a vast portion of the human population.
Nah … No need to worry about any of that stuff, I thought — not on a day of hotdogs & beer & fireworks. So I just kept it all to myself and let you all have your celebrations … After all, life is short, and you too have the right to “enjoy yourselves” while here.
That having been said, today is July 5th, which means that reminding you all that IT IS NOT TOO LATE is once again fair game … And it truly isn’t too late for us to DO SOMETHING POSITIVE for those in need:
*It isn’t too late for you to abandon politics altogether and start working with those nearby to build intimate, Giving-based, self-sustainable Community in your neighborhoods …
*It isn’t too late for you stop contributing to the current climate crisis (and to stop endorsing the current animal Holocaust) by going vegan and in-Couraging your friends & family to do the same …
*It isn’t too late for you to openly reach out to those who have harmed you and offer your Forgiveness … and it isn’t too late for you to bring real Peace to your community by treating strangers & enemies alike as members of your own family.
My dear Friends, your freedom & your comfort & your “good life” don’t mean squat when they are surrounded by the suffering of others and when they are directly contributing to the downfall of our civilization.
And yet today is July 5th — a new day — a day of great potential — a day which COULD very well be the beginning of humanity’s ultimate redemption. And yet it will not be such a day unless YOU do your part to make it so — we will NOT know anything new or different unless we each have the courage to wake up each day and choose to walk a very different road … the Road of Compassion instead of the road of apathy; the Road of Kindness instead of the road of isolationism; the Road of Acceptance instead of the road of bigotry; the Road of Forgiveness instead of the road of anger; the Road of Love instead of the road of fear.
Thank you for listening …
… and thank you for helping.
Thank you for going forth today to take the Road of Peace — to simply do your part as purely and as powerfully as you can to bring Harmony to places of conflict, Joy to times of sadness, and Love to moments of terror.
Amen … Let it be so.
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