The above title is a line
from a song called The Class of ’57 by
The Statler Brothers. The song itself is
not really representative of what I want to convey here but it does speak of
how some people seem to be feeling when you consider that so many are angry
about a world that hasn’t given them what they want in life. The actual Class of ’57, as told in the song, though, did not get in a twist about
it.
They just went on with their
lives, and the song tells what became of many of them. This is not the case for a great many people now. Too many people
are willing to kill and cause a great deal of grief to others as a result of
their not finding a world that will adapt to their personal desires. This is
childish and selfish behavior by individuals who somehow have the notion that
they have some special entitlement to be supported by the world in their
thinking. If we all felt this way human
kind would be much higher on the endangered species list. And we definitely are on the list. It is being
proven to us at a break-neck speed right now that we are.
I cannot tell you here that
this is going to change and we will live in peace and happiness soon. We won’t.
What has happened to our world is what we can expect to continue. No government, no police force and no
religion has the power to change it. I
am seeing that governments have realized that they have no power to turn the
tide of men who are making the decision that others should die for disagreeing
with their philosophy. It doesn’t help that we see our own governments display
similar attitudes. There have been calls for the people to take to the streets
and fight or join military reserves to help because law enforcement has learned
in the hardest way possible that they cannot manage in the face of men who are
willing to kill and die for a perceived snub to their entitlement. To anyone reading this blog who has been
touched by the recent violence in St. Paul, Baton Rouge, Dallas, and Nice,
France, know that my thoughts and prayers are with you, and a day never goes by
that I don’t work in the spiritual realms seeking an answer to what we might
say or do in life to make a difference in what we are experiencing.
Humans are not a collective
like the Borg in Star Trek. Many of
us may have similar feelings about life, the universe, and everything but the
feelings belong first and foremost to the individual. It is being proven to us every day that these
feelings do not mesh well with the point of view in other cultures. On the face of it, it would seem that
immigration should work under any circumstances but this is truly not the case
now. Honestly it never really has
been. America is proof of that when you
consider that we are a nation of immigrants and the fighting here has never
stopped, even when we went to other countries and kidnapped thousands of
people, supposedly because we wanted them here.
Set aside their purpose for this mass crime for a moment and just
consider that we wanted them to be here.
We have never treated them well in an overall sense. The native people who were already here when
white people showed up were treated horribly and eventually exiled to the
reservations. This is how too many
people feel about those who are different. I realize that this seems cruel and
defeatist but if we are going to change our world we will have to take a hard
look at what got us to this point in the first place. It isn’t only the fault of the host country
that the immigrants are coming to. The
immigrants themselves leave their homes supposedly to create a different and
better life, but far too many of them arrive in the new country and immediately
become angry about their former ways of life and cultures being lost to them in
a new environment. Supposedly this is what they were seeking, but if I were to
show up at my neighbor’s house asking to become a part of their family I would
not get much support for an attitude of expecting the new environment to change
to suit what I am used to. This is only
one of our problems. A problem that we
have here in America is a fear of a rapidly changing world that we no longer
feel we have control of coupled with a long standing assumption that anyone
other than a white male is lesser and inferior.
The reasons that this mentality exists are numerous but in the end it
doesn’t matter what the reasons are. As
thinking, reasoning adults we all know better than to behave this way, but we
believe that we are entitled to whatever we want whenever we want it thanks to
the internet and an advertising media that sells us this delusion every minute
of the day. Many people believe that America is the best place on the planet to
come to for a fresh start and a better way of life but I can tell you that many
people who are already here, right here in Memphis, are so deeply in poverty
and hopelessness that they cannot even hope to have electricity in their homes
because it is not affordable. The grass is not always greener.
The universe supplied us at
birth with the tools to navigate this life in the way that we were destined to
do. We are not all destined for glory
and a comfortable life but we always have at our disposal a way to live in the
best way possible for our own individual needs if we are capable of looking for
it without anger and contempt. What is
ours inherently may not always fit a standard that has been sold to us as being
the best but it is always going to be what is right for us. The lessons are not built in to our brains but
they are available to us if we are in touch with our selves enough to listen. Nothing prevents us from finding our answers
as adults if we do not get in the way of it by having too much ego. The road is never truly easy but if we are
not distracted by selfishness it can go much smoother. At the bottom of all violence is an inflated
ego that throws a tantrum whenever it does not get its way.
There is really nothing that
we can do about a culture that refuses to live and let live except do that very
thing ourselves. We cannot participate
in the tantrums being displayed by the weakest of us. You may not readily see a way to keep
yourself out of the line of fire when these people show up in random places
with murder on their minds, but a sincere request of the universe can and does
help you chart the right course so that you may be safe from harm. The help isn’t always given to us in a way
that is readily understandable but if we are true to ourselves we are more than
capable of managing what we receive.
Times are extremely tough and confusing now so understand that the way
out this may be tough and confusing at times, too, but a firm belief that we
are entitled to help and we will only be given what is the absolute best for us
is all that we can truly count on now.
There is no political solution.
There is no group solution. There
is only you and your personal solution that was put in place for you a long
time ago. You may have forgotten it, but
a trip back to the past and to the source of all that lives can bring you back
from the confusion. We will hope that
others will make the same journey and bring back hope to a dying civilization. There is simply no other alternative.
