Preserving our humanity

Inner peace is the most precious intangible any soul can find, achieve or arrive at as a destination.  Each individual must seek to find that often ethereal and elusive sense of well-being that provides that reassurance from a still small voice emanating from deep within that tells them all is right with their World.  This profound inner self-communication is the silent sound of personal humanity.  Many things and many factors may define it from one person to another but it remains the core of our essence as human beings.  If this is ever lost our purpose for living may become a huge void open to subjugation by opportunists whose agendas may be badly lacking of anything resembling humanity.

As Americans we have been enculturated by the desire to look at our government and elected leadership and see a mirror reflection of ourselves.  We have grown to accept what we see in that reflection as what defines our national identity.  In 2018 we find ourselves at an awkward place on the timeline of the nation’s history.  Here we are, scratching our collective noggins and wondering where the humanity we embraced as a core ideal of what we knew as America has gone.  Any soul capable of empathy certainly feels the pang of internal discomfort up to and toeing the line of personal horror when we see policies implemented in our name that lack the humanity that we always thought defined America and made us exceptional, separating us from all the despot-ruled nations.   You know, stuff like separating immigrant families at the southern border and putting children in cages.  Like hostile trade policies that are doing some real damage to our relationships with traditional trading partners and doing some very real harm to local industries.  Like the U.S. Senate ramrodding through a Supreme Court nominee after a sham FBI investigation and disclosure that he may have a serious alcohol problem.  Like seeing open and verifiable corruption at the highest levels of our government and a third of the population being entirely okay with it.  Like the dismissal, condemnation and proclamation of the Fourth Estate as “fake news” and “the enemy of the people” anytime unflattering factual reporting on the current regime is published or broadcasted.  Like watching a campaign rally and the incumbent *President basking in the glow of adoration amid chants of “LOCK HER UP” and declare his opposition “The Party of Crime” and “The Mob” while the U.S. Gulf Coast gets slammed by a hurricane.  Like when the aforementioned campaigner, from all indications, prioritizes personal enrichment and industry profit over national security.  Like having the acute awareness that almost all this stuff has happened in just the past three weeks!

Since January 2017 the Democrats have controlled no levers of power in the federal government.  The State of Oklahoma has been graced with all-GOP control since January 2011.  At both levels we have now have results of policies and mismanagement that most reasonable people consider nothing short of disastrous.  What’s more, it all leaves so many of us with a feeling of helplessness, like there is nothing we can do about it.  Wrong!  There is empowerment and there is validation in taking a pro-active stand on the situation.  The only way we are going to effect change is by getting involved and being socially engaged in the political process.  Moreover, we have a duty to the future and our legacy to do so.

All of us who value humanity, our own and everyone else’s, can vouch that the deliberate and systematic dismantling of the American Republic, democratic process and withering regard for anyone openly different from any traditional norm by those in positions of power constitutes an attack both collective and personal.  Having to face such a rain of destruction day in and day out can wear thin even the strongest and most dedicated among us.  All policies, name calling and outright physical violence are intended to marginalize and eventually destroy the weak in this latter-day milieu of social and political Darwinism.  It is blatantly apparent that MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN is jingoist for undermining all things that made it great in the first place, like being welcoming, kind, helpful, fair and willing to bear any burden for any friend and oppose any foe.  Recorded history is littered with the flotsam of individuals and nations who either surrendered or traded their humanity for monetary profit, social advancement, personal gain or to even scores for wrongs that were too often more perceived than actual.  The proceedings at Nuremburg following the fall of Nazi Germany was a needed exercise in adjudicating criminal liability for such individuals.  For the enlightened among us, safeguarding and nurturing our own humanity has become not only a moral imperative in this time of crisis of national character but a sacred duty.  As tall of an order as that may appear, the unacceptability of the alternative makes it seem a lot less daunting.  Any person or nation that loses their humanity will soon after risk being subjected to loss all purpose for existing.

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Regardless of the depth and rapidity of deterioration of our nation and state, if we can keep our own humanity about us then we will all at very least achieve a personal victory.  How do we do this?  By embracing and internalizing certain factual realities the chief among which is that being happy is a choice (all things in terms of mental health being normal, of course).  If we choose to be happy it will have a positive effect on those around us.  Next, by doing what we must to become a little more selfless.  This can range from daily random acts of kindness directed at total strangers to rededicating ourselves to caring and attending to those with whom we have long histories.  As the soul’s humanitarianism grows and evolves, relationships become of higher and higher priority.  In a humanitarian’s perfect world, all would seek to give a little more of themselves on a daily basis.

On a personal level, this past week Yours Truly made a personal contribution to making a deserving stranger’s misery a little easier to suffer.  After growing it out for three and a half years or so, some lucky chemo/alopecia sufferer is going to hopefully reap a comforting windfall of 12+ inches of unbleached, uncolored natural hair!

Confronting a daily onslaught against our personal worth and dignity as people has sadly become all but normalized in 2018.  Those in power may continue to prioritize profit uber alles in all they do all the while limiting our rights and curtailing viable options for the average citizen.  They cannot however declare victory unless we surrender to them.  We enlightened souls are still here.  We are still who we are.  It seems odd to acknowledge the words of the then departing President Richard Nixon but they are ever so appropriate for today:

“Those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.”

We must continue to do what we do to preserve our own humanity through our perseverance and talents , whatever they may be.  Never forget our lives are defined by our relationships and even though we may not know it, we touch the lives of so many others.  Critics, opponents and outright enemies can and will take all they can from us, but they will never win unless they destroy our humanity.  In preserving it we will ensure that we will forever thrive in a bright shining city on the hill even though it may merely be in each of our individual hearts.