What do we do?

Just passed another Fourth of July with all the hoopla that means in the United States, vacations, picnics, family gatherings, fireworks, and a commemoration of the day this country declared its independence and did it in a blaze of glory and such violence that eventually Great Britain decided we weren't worth the hassle. 

Our forefathers then had to work out a Constitution and Bill of Rights, which theoretically would govern this new nation of thirteen states and many diverse ethnic groups. Many amendments later, more wars, here we are today and still debating what they were over two hundred years ago, issues like taxation, rules, religious freedom, etc. 

Does religious freedom mean I have a right to push my will onto you because my religion says I must? Christians are often told by their leaders that they are only one generation away from being displaced; of course, their leaders have solutions on how to avoid this fate by hefty donations to the cause... oh and that business of forcing their rules onto others (sounds more like Sharia law than the Gospels but hey it's for a good cause, right).

The irony has become, what is called Christianity today often bears little or no resemblance to what Christ taught; hence has earned a new name-- Christianist. In just our American history, I do believe this has gone back and forth for what freedom of religion or even Christianity should mean. I am not saying that the christianists don't still talk about Jesus but now he's a politician who likes and supports Pharisees...

I bought a book some years ago called Generations which describes how one generation impacts the next and a culture ends up repeating itself in a system of seven identifiable cycles before starting over again. The authors showed how this has worked through US history with names for each generation and descriptions of what they did. I would be willing to bet such a cycle shows up in other countries also. Human nature impacts human nature and hence things change-- except in the end, on the deepest levels, they really don't.

Today we appear to be in a very violent cycle, and this is around the world. If you read more than your local paper, you see how one country after another-- developed or not-- has been experiencing violent solutions to problem solving.

As an example: three Jewish teen-agers are kidnapped and murdered in Israel. In apparent retaliation, a Palestinian teen is kidnapped and murdered. Of course, none of these kids bore any resemblance to the problem the countries face. That's typical of terrorism which really is mindless. Even more typical is how someone can use an event like those killings to trigger a war they want, which means nobody really knows for sure if the 'other' side even did the gory deeds.

In the United States, the immigration problem has escalated with coyotes bringing up people and especially unaccompanied children from Central America where the the countries are experiencing rampant violence and poverty. In 2008, the rule for dealing, with those from Central America, was changed. They must by law be processed, released and asked to report back to the center in a month with no way to enforce that. Americans who are paying attention see the concern since many of these new arrivals are children whose parents were told the Dream Act would give them permanent citizenship. Their parents often paid coyotes big money to get them up here with the hope that would later bring them. 

By the way, we are not the only developed nation facing this sticky problem. It's ironic if you think about it how this has gone and is: developed world --> underdeveloped and exploits resources. Underdeveloped --> developed and exploits resources. 

So what is our choice? Stick head in sand or deal with this one? Deal with it how? Do we have enough resources to take on all the world's poor? Only those from some countries? Which ones? Considering our own debt and that we are a borrower nation, is there a point at which we break? 

Currently as a temporary fix, Obama wants more money for processing, more money for Central America but can we solve the problem of other sovereign nations? How would we do that? This may not only involve new arrivals who are children but also gang members (identified by tattoos) and the sick. 

Answers? It's not like I said I had any. I could go on with issue after issue, but you get the idea. 

Maybe you saw the article that said stress is catching. I believe that. On the other hand, how do you go around with a Pollyanna face all the time? How do you pretend what's going on isn't? Remember the Dylan song, Blowin' in the Wind-- 'How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?'  and even more devastating-- 'How many times must a man look away pretending he just doesn't see?'

So we talk about it and stress each other out. We ignore it and are responsible for leaders who do nothing (except get their own paydays and payoffs). 

We go me-me-me-me whenever someone tries to tell us something distressing and say it's always been this way even if we don't really know it has. I guess if we think it's always been this way, then we have no responsibility to do anything about it.

It's easy to space ourselves out of the world and it's problems. I do it all the time through writing. Most recently, I've been involved in life problems of families in two different periods in history. One was editing the newest historical romance coming out July 10 where I am back to 1899 and figuring out the problems of young would-be lovers and several families. In the other, I go further back for my work in progress, which takes me to 1867 with again families, love and this time an Indian war not to mention a conspiracy of the sort that crops up time and again including in our own era. 

When I come up for air, I go outside and enjoy my yard, sit and sip some wine, try to forget personal problems, try not to think about the President, Congress, immigration, climate change, war, violence, greed, power, etc. You know it's not real hard to do when it's beautiful outside, when the hummingbirds are darting everywhere. The males are doing their dance to encourage the formation of a second nest this year. It's an exciting time when baby birds get their wings. You can almost feel their new-found joy in movement.

Except my world is not the only world and eventually that other world will impact mine. It's how it works. So what do we do?

Images among those purchased from Deposit Photo as the kinds that sometimes work for me to use in backgrounds, trailers or blogs :)