"Well I tell them there are no problems/only solutions"

Yesterday I was watching the wheels go round and round. Two nasty bits of legislation prompted a semi-heated debate with a person I'm close to. It doesn't really matter who it was, or what the legislation was all about. The conversation was cathartic--and sadly revealing. What happened to hope? What happened to belief in democracy? I fucking hate Nixon. This whole mess is his fault. Well, not really...but the nation's morale problem is certainly his fault.

The crux of the converstaion was: if XYZ passed I'm going to COUNTRY B. At first, this seemed resonable to me. You can't fight city hall. Vote with your feet, right out of the country. But then I thought, what would the world be like if Fredrick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had decided "the hell with it" and left for Canada? These people didn't flee from the system when it was broken--they fought hard, and fixed things.

If something in your world isn't right, I think you have a responsability to fix it. Right now, and probably until the end of time, the world is messed up. The only reason it's so messed up is because no one is really doing much about it. Why? Because the problems are so big, and you and I are so small. But imagine if 1/2 the world sat up tomorrow and said "the hell with this, I'm done playing this game...it's time for change." What if soldiers everywhere simply put down their guns and walked home? What would happen if people everywhere made sure everyone was properly fed and clothed? What would happen if...

I don't think there is anything wrong with the world that people couldn't fix. Would the world ever be perfect? No, that's impossible. But the higher you aim, the higher you'll go. Go ahead, aim low...and you'll shoot low...and you'll reach a low goal.

The next time you are presented with an opprotunity to help someone, you should do it. I'm not talking about charity. Charity is just another part of the problem. It's not about what you're able to do, but what you're able to give. Not money, but feelings of goodwill. People get so wrapped up in their own private drama...that they forget that there are other people. That SUV on the highway, that's full of people. With hopes and dreams, people who love them. We forget that, we get blinders. All we see is an obstacle, something to overcome and pass on the road to where we're going.

But how important is the destination? Not very. Someday, the road will end for each of us. That's what people forget. There is no final destination, other than oblivion. We run head first through the bits we're supposed to be enjoying and seeing. The world needs to take a breather, stop and decide what's important and what's triviality.

If you don't like poverty, disease, murder, drugs, abortion, death penalty, greed, theft....whatever, instead of rushing ahead guns blazing--stop and think. I am against drugs. Instead of wasting time and money going after drug dealers, we should try and create a world where people won't want to abuse drugs. Build better schools, with drug awareness programs. Refurbish the decaying parts of town. Give young people role models that are against drugs...how? Be someone's mentor. Lead by example. That sounds like that will never work, and it won't...not 100%. But if people were really serious about getting rid of drugs, that's the way they should do it. Drug dealers can only exist as long as there are people buying drugs. Parents should love their kids more, spend more time with them. Turn the TV off, actually talk to them. Sit down, eat dinner with them.

People always want to make the solution so complex, so difficult. It's really quite easy. Easier, at least, that it would seem. People are like dominos, it would only take a few people working very hard to topple the whole lot--and send this planet's problems crashing down.