What the world needs now is love, human kindness and compassion. I don’t need to be an expert or have an advanced degree from some prestigious university to tell you this.
If you take a good look at things as they are today then you too will find this quite evident.
Many of us in the U S A concern ourselves with issues such as diet, shopping, our appearance and social networks. In many other societies these concepts would be beyond their dreams.
Finding adequate food, water, shelter and protection for themselves and their families are their highest priorities.
Their struggle to somehow survive another day is their utmost constant goal.
It’s hard to face the realities of starving kids on the television evening news. Babies with distended bellies are sometimes shown as well as child soldiers along with women and girls captured and taken as sex slaves.
It’s so difficult to imagine that such events really exist in our present-day world.
It’s so much more comfortable of course to just read the menu at our favorite restaurant. “Pass the wine list please. Would you care for dessert?”
Sorry, dear reader, it’s not my intent to make you feel guilty for being on the winning side of the equation; the imbalance between the haves and those that have not. I merely want to show that these conditions exist.
It’s been my experience that on the rare occasion I point these facts out to people, they just get upset and angry with me. “What can I do about it? I pay my taxes. I give to charity”.
They seem to have good points there. They do not wish ill will, poverty, misfortune and despair on others.
There are people in higher positions who hold responsibility for these decisions and conditions that we have such difficulty confronting.
There are governments, religions, charitable and diplomatic instructions such as the U N. Shouldn’t they be able to do a better job?
Shouldn’t they be able to prevent, repair and restore societies from declining into war, chaos and destruction?
Well of course they should. But they don’t. And, too often, when it appears that things may be improving, then another cycle of destruction begins.
It would appear, in examining all these negative effects, that such a force known as “evil” must exist. It is not likely for so many horrors and events opposed to peoples better nature to haphazardly or accidentally occur. It would appear that they may be being intentionally caused, perpetuated and profited from.
Floods, forest fires and natural catastrophes happen from time to time. These we can do little to prevent. But for war you need arms, training, planning and funding. People produce these weapons, bombs, and landmines.
People profit from their sales. People fund, arm and direct rebel groups toward their intended targets. Political groups and nations direct and perpetuate death, destruction and human misery. They do so both overtly and covertly.
Regional powers and nations use their surrogates, (rebel groups), as pawns to wage proxy wars against the surrogates of other opposing nations in a completely separate country.
These actions result in burned out ruins of a former thriving civilization, millions dead and many more millions as homeless refugees.
The governments gain power. The arms industry profits immensely. The tax payers of those countries pay the bills for all the costs.
The innocent men, women and children caught in the middle pay the ultimate price!
The most obvious example of this ongoing sadness is Syria. But there are many others; Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya just to name a few.
Those sovereign countries were no real threat to the nations who invaded, occupied and brought them to ruin. It is such destructive behavior and needless aggression by nation states and NGOs. What else can you call it but evil?
World War One was called by the powers that be “The war to end all wars” Did it? Did it make the world “safe for democracy” as was its stated aim? In looking at the Middle East and North Africa today, doesn’t it seem to be playing out all over again?
If our children were to behave as ruthless bullies, we would not allow it.
We forbid them to use force and violence on the weak. It’s not acceptable. It is opposed to our morals and principles.
Yet we offer little protest when our governments act likewise while using our tax dollars to do so.
Evil is evil and should never be condoned.
What the world needs now is love, kindness and compassion.
What do you think about this, dear reader?
Dan can be reached at danhughoconnor@gmail.com