"Lead on, O King Eternal, til sin's fierce war shall cease, and holiness shall whisper the sweet amen of peace; for not with swords loud clashing, nor roll of stirring drums, with deeds of love and mercy the heav'nly kingdom comes."
While I'm grateful to live in a country with so much freedom, America has made me so sad since I've been old enough to be truly aware of what goes on in the country. We (as a whole, I know there are many people who are kind and good and generous etc. but I say we because I feel this is how other countries view us sadly) are so selfish and hateful and so self-absorbed that we can't focus on what is actually important in life. We're so busy "bettering ourselves" that we're not bettering the country. So many riots, killings, hateful words spoken because of a difference of opinion, hateful opinions and accusations being thrown around because somebody makes a mistake; we're a country divided, and I fear for us. And now we have a new President that many people vehemently speak against, those in support say it's because the others didn't get their way when truly if Clinton had won those in support of Trump would likely be doing the same thing. We raise ourselves up and fail to see that if we were in other's shoes we'd be doing the same thing they are and justifying our actions as quickly as we condemn theirs.
The past few years have been filled with hate against blacks, gays, women, and with TALK about how that needs to change but no ACTIONS to go along with the talk (again, I know that there's exceptions but those exceptions aren't brought up in media outlets enough and therefore mostly unheard of). There may be small groups of people who rally around the victims - family, friends, etc. - but we as a nation don't rally to do anything. Until, ironically, President Trump was elected. We have let rape, shootings in gay bars, hate crimes, etc. go without being so worked up, but one man is elected and SAYS things (I know some things he said were about things he's done but my point is in this particular instance he was speaking not doing anything) and an estimated 1 MILLION people got worked up enough to protest against him in the streets. Now, unlike many people I'm not here to say those people shouldn't have done what they did. One of the many great freedoms of living in this country is the ability to do just that, so yes, go out and protest what you need to, speak up, let your voice be heard, stand behind what you believe. But please don't stop there. Can you imagine if each of those 1 million people donated $10 do Planned Parenthood? (*This is not about me supporting or not supporting anything/one, but bringing up points of the protest.*) What about if even a quarter of those people started up free self defense classes for women? Or how about helping to teach boys how to be gentlemen? Can you imagine 250,000 people willing to go out and teach boys that stuff? "Attendees cited everything from immigration, climate change, foreign aid, racism, income inequality, healthcare, LGBT rights and police brutality as their motivation to be there." I may not know how people could help with those things, but I'm sure there are ways, esp. if they mean so much to you. I know we're all busy but if you can spend an hour? two hours? however long you were out protesting, surely you can take that time and invest it into helping someone or something somewhere. What would happen in this country if 1 million people took an hour out of their day to really help somebody? If we really want to show that we won't put up with what has been happening, or what people in positions of authority say is O.K. then we need to do more than just talk about it and tell them that we think they are wrong. We can talk all day long but at the end of the day it's all just talk, getting out there and actually doing something, like supporting a facility that you care about and is being threatened, is the only way to make changes. And not hatefully, stop focusing on what's wrong and focus on how to make things right. Be loving, be merciful.
