Near the beginning of this year, I commented on the Mayan
prediction that the world was going to end as of today. The big disappointment
is: either the world has ended and nothing has changed, or the world hasn’t
ended and nothing has changed. As many of us have come to realize, natural
disasters will happen, artificial disasters are the ones we create, yet the
personal disasters spun off those natural and artificial seem impossible to
overcome. It’s sad that “change” as a word has been overstated to the point of
loathing, but it seems to me the one thing our society needs, individually and
as a whole. We waited for the world to change, but the world is going to do
whatever it pleases because it is neither man or machine – it is Nature. We,
the People, are graced with the ability to adapt and upgrade ourselves to
whatever means it takes for us to survive. The Land we stand on has been graced
with over 200 years of modern resources to make our country the 2nd
largest producer and consumer of goods and services on the planet (Surprise –
China holds the top spot). Our society was once the envy of every country’s
people, and what is there to envy now? Homelessness, poverty, obesity,
self-loathing, slovenliness, hoarding, infidelity, self-victimization,
entitlement and murder. People once flocked to this country to be liberated
from this persecution, and now we exact them on ourselves.
I’ve thought about the natural cataclysms and random acts of
violence that have shaken our nation in the past 12 months, and it seems the
people who scream loudest for change are the most likely to want it served to
them and least likely to act positively in the best interests of themselves or
the community. We can chant together for change and hope that it comes, or we
can stop waiting for change and start making something happen for ourselves and
for our nation. Very few things in my lifetime seem positively monumental to the social course
of American history, and that is not the legacy I wish to leave for future
generations. What becomes of our country depends on our ability to take the
best ideas of the brightest imaginations, and not only integrate them into our
society, but also to make them better.
Can we stop the sun from shining? Will the waves ever stop
rushing to shore? Someday they will, but that’s not in our control. What we can
influence is our destiny, with pride, persistence and careful planning. Let us
not go into the darkness with fear of the unknown, but with unbridled zeal for an
educated future.
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