Warning: OpEd coming ...
Lately I've gotten sucked in to politics. I used to be interested and well read in politics. I read and listened to wise people speak and believed that I was truly making up my own mind. I was not sheep and would bi partisan see both balanced views!! But the truth is no one in the world is informed. The "truth" is buried in lie after lie after shifting of the truth, after lie. The information and communication that the world makes decisions and judgements on is just one global giant adult version of the game "Telephone". But adult Telephone starts with two people in a room shifting the truth they pass on, while they cut a deal with each other. And then the next person adds their manipulation tax. And the next person adds their self serving bit of a slant on the truth to fit their particular need. Or someone omits something because of fear. By the time the so called truth reaches the public, the only wholesome kernel of truth left is a copyright footnote about the advertisement sponsor. Or perhaps a bit of truth is leaked and quickly the media work and spin that truth once again. By the end; by the time truth or politics or opinion or facts are printed and become news, no one really knows who said or did what, if they were not in the room. In the end, we will only end up looking back on our personal history and judging if we acted humanly towards our friends and neighbours. If we opened our mouths to protect our employees. If we tended a sick friend or were polite to the guy on the corner. All of which collectively can have an enormous impact on the world if we chose to have faith in each other. The Political Power People are not listening. Your Constituent voice is not counting. I don't know about you but I didn't vote for certain people and they still got a spot in office. So how many of us are actually being heard? Maybe it's time we started trusting each other more.
I realised about 6 years ago that after leaving a certain large banking corporate that I was blessed to work with some of the BEST talent and awesome people that I ever worked with, but the Executive Management was corrupt and had no idea who their hard workers were. I believe the same thing about world governments. It's not the people. It's not the citizen of countries of the world that are making wrong, scary decisions that are plunging us into world crisis. It's the 1% in power.
The Constitution of the US was brilliantly written to support "By the People and For the People". But the only people who vote are those who get picked for the electoral collage. And not one of those guys asked me what I wanted. So how is The American Government upholding the constitution? How are they proving to me that they are voting the way I asked them too when I see proof of the contrary, All. The. Friggen. Time.
The last few days I've been asking myself how I can be a better person? How can I lead and live with my heart as well as my intelligence and my conscience? Can I trust my governments to make the right decisions based on what they think my needs are? Can I trust them to do the right thing AND protect me? Can I trust them to do the humane thing and protect all those that are innocent, citizen or not? The answer is plainly no.
So who do I trust. Well for starters; I trust you. My friends. I trust that I have a good group of friends and acquaintances that just want to live happy hard working lives. And I trust you to make solid, humane and smart decisions. It's a beginning.
The next step is finding a way to dethrone the powerful, elite. Unfortunately that will probably take organising a very, very large majority out of a paper bag to dethrone a very, small and scary minority. Easier blogged then done.
