LACKING REALITY

The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy has shown me once again what is wrong with our country. Too many of us have become unable to see past our own noses. Too many believe the world revolves around them. They have never grown up past childhood. We want miracles, instant changes, immediate results, even when it will be an uphill battle and the devastation are too deep, somehow it must happen fast because we want it.

This last week I have spent taking electrical outage calls. Once again I have been both touched by the kindness of some people and horrified by the lack of any attempt by others to understand or even care about others. Those who accepted the fact that Hurricane Sandy had left devastation in her wake, and others whose heads could not seem to get past the idea that sixty miles an hour winds are capable of taking down telephone poles, trees, and power lines. They seemed to believe that somehow their power begins and ends at their home and on their street; it is a miracle that arrives through the air by magical means. They do not want to believe in reality, possibly because they have never been faced with it, or when they have they have denied its very existence. It is an inconvenience to them.  

We see it in our Congress, those who have chosen to bully and play chicken, in an attempt to get their way. It doesn’t matter to them whether or not the country as a whole goes under, nor how many are out of jobs. They live in an isolated world and reality is only about them and their group. These people believe their rights are more important than anyone else’s. Everything is always someone else’s fault; they take no blame for their part in it. Nor do they take any responsibility to make it better.

This attitude permeates our country; C.E.O.’s are using intimidation in an attempt to control the votes of their workers. Why? Because it is more relevant to them that they are able to build the largest house in the world, even though they cannot possibly use all of it, then it is for others to have a decent income, or the elderly in this country to be taken care of. They don’t even care that the earth is stripped of life, as long as they have their own way.

They do not know the difference between, a few cells that may one day become a baby, and a child who is living and breathing and without enough food or education to survive in our world. There doesn’t seem to be any care for the living child, only about controlling those things they have decided are wrong. Somehow, they have a direct line to God and no one else’s beliefs matter. Those who believe differently not only do not matter they are evil.

Politicians consider abortion to be acceptable for their mistress’ and not for their wife, daughter, or neighbor. There is talk about those that are mooches on society, and do not look at their own mooching. For they have never gone out and worked for a living, trying to bring home enough to feed and clothe their family. They have never been without, or if they were, the memory is so far in the past they have blocked it from their minds, choosing instead to pretend that state of being is only for the mooches, those that don’t work hard enough.

There are those who continually go out and do things to better the world, their neighbors, and those who have less than they do. Unfortunately, there are many who do not care what they do or say as long as they get their own way. They believe it is alright for them to lie, cheat, steal, or otherwise harm another if they get what they want. Those people are like the woman, I spoke to earlier this week, who said her child would just have to go hungry until the electricity came on, all because she couldn’t bother to move her disabled child to a safe place. It would then be someone else’s fault, for not providing her with a miracle. I have listened to people this week tell me they don’t care if a hospital’s power is up. That even though they had a generator, it was too inconvenient, and the hospital could wait,  their power was more important. Many of these people appear to make no attempt to look at anything beyond their own wants. No sense of reality exists in their world.

I fear for our nation, which has so many people with little care or understanding of what their actions will cause for others, who’s only thought is of themselves and their own wants. I do not say needs because most of them are not in need. Too many do not understand the difference between a want and a need. For those that don’t understand the difference a want is a bigger home for instance, and a need is the ability to feed and clothe themselves and their families.

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