Wednesday, August 11, 2010

It doesn’t take much to make someone feel like a million bucks

When I think about respect... R E S P E C T....I just don’t think it gets much more basic than that...because respect...or giving someone your respect..... gets down to such a one on one.... gut level interaction...cut and dry...... that you either truly believe that others deserve to be respected as human beings and it becomes a way you live with others... or... you really don’t believe that others...or some others.... deserve it... so why give it?......

Anyone who couldn’t even give someone some basic level of respect... and feels justified in doing so...or....that they could care less....then.....what has happened..... is that a judgment has been made that they are above you... and you don’t deserve to be respected because you are below them.....or.... that they are just smarter and know better...
This is so typical of behavior in a society that separates themselves by class...the higher the class status the more respect that is given....and vice versa....imagine that...yet if you stripped a person down naked, you know...it’s possible that class...could not necessarily be distinguishable ....but I’m certain they would find a way to tell you, while naked, that they are better than you...

I suppose that there are different levels of respect...depending on the circumstance......but it’s all related...to accepting that others are as important... as you think you are...and have equal worth... and that all experience is equal.

Fundamental respect... simply acknowledges someone’s existence in the world... recognizing that they, like you, are alive...and have as much right to be, as you do..... race, color, shape, size, gender/orientation become irrelevant..... As if we were blind...

If we can’t even get past this one, we are so deep rooted in bigoted beliefs, which is simply....the lowest form of human ignorance.... that... it would probably take a personal or major human catastrophe to reset and/or.... to straighten out this thinking...

Right after the attack on the World Trade Center, on 9/11/01, when those buildings collapsed and the incinerated air covered people in soot and ash, and death... Making them resemble ghosts.... and... we saw first hand... the horror that befell our countrymen and women.... we were instantly galvanized and humbled.... by the futility of our human condition that sometimes...our life.... is out of our control...

That shock brought us together....it was more of a shock wave to realign each other to the reality that separation no longer made sense and we included each other...what happened on that fateful day forced us to afford each other.... fundamental respect.

9/11/01... Though desperately tragic... united our country....much like how the attack on Pearl Harbor woke us up from a deep slumber...collectively realizing... that engaging in a World War was the only way out. The time had finally come to have a singular purpose... and focus our resources, hearts and minds on a goal to save our existence, as we knew it.....and we did it...we executed our plan.

It carried us to great heights...It was an honor to be a soldier, a warrior....The military had meaning...and the United States entered into a “golden age”.....millions of babies were born. The country built itself up from the inside out....life was good and people were more balanced with each other... We respected each other on very human levels...

In time, of course, life after tragedy or significant change.... returns us to normalcy......
Many souls were indelibly impacted by the 9/11 catastrophe and it has caused positive change in their outlook...
Others.......however.... resumed where they left off, as if nothing had changed...and just settled back into old beliefs... the lessons learned and the sense of world community have worn off considerably...and quite rapidly....in the blink of an eye....

In just nine years since 9/11...commonality and momentum, as a nation, has been lost... Military spending and fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan continue at monumental levels never seen before in human history and are sucking the country dry of hope and its resources.... .... and sadly.... it has polarized us, as a nation.

Natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina has had a devastating impact on New Orleans and its residents, the Tsunami in Indonesia, and recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile are physical signs that the earth itself is venting.... the entire Pacific rim continues to shift the ground under our feet. People feel their life is set on sand...right now...in every respect....we are unsettled...

On a personal level....many people have had their world turned upside down ... unemployment is extreme....with the specter of job recovery highly remote....houses and cars have been lost or mortgage obligations have put individuals severely under water.....the financial crisis...has undermined our confidence in our institutions...our collective financial stability has been further split between the haves and have not’s. Bailout out has been for banks and insurance companies, but not for people....

I have never been much of a sailor, but I always thought that bailing out a boat was to avoid it sinking... It’s a temporary fix...you still gotta fix the boat??... yet.... we present a bailout as progress and as a solution..

All this has done... is to further confuse people and has gotten the rich richer and the poor poorer and going down faster.... however... the ultimate disrespect...comes...when we start blaming the unfortunate for their circumstance.....and basically say “fuck them”. Let them die.

Meanwhile, the United States, itself, pushes us deeper and deeper into incurring trillions of dollars of debt. Corporations have become wealthy while people are dying a slow death... The Parents have erred... and yet.... we spank the child...we are headed for a role reversal.....

These signs, since 9/11, do not bode well.....and are perilously pushing us closer to violence in the streets...that will make the civil rights movements of the 60’s, look like child’s play.

What do we teach our children about American and World history? How soon we forget... that our country was born out of revolution.
We are heading for the greatest class struggle ever seen and it’s not confined to our borders now.... It has become a world crisis.

Those who do not remember the past will be condemned to repeat it”... loosely quoted by George Santayana.

These words are as true now as they have ever been...this is the ultimate undoing of society...when we no longer respect each human alive.....and forsake them in the name of progress and the accumulation of wealth and power.

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