Can We End The Madness?

Blog#10- 12/18/19

CAN WE STOP THE MADNESS?
By Richard Davis

It is not in the best interest of one’s mental health to take in too much news these days. It’s hard to get a clear perspective on national and world affairs because it is difficult to measure current events against past events and because of the proliferation of so many media forms.

Bad things have always happened in a lot of places around the world throughout human history but it seems that either a lot more bad things are happening now and/or we are more easily connected to the information that was not accessible only a few short years ago. Who knows?

I recently took at look at the web site of Human Rights Watch to gain some perspective on the evil around us and what I found was even more overwhelming than I expected. Then the naïve part of my brain, that hardly ever gets used, wondered if there was a way that humans around the world could use the power of media such as Facebook to put a maximum amount of pressure on the bad people in power.

But if leaders are already not listening to their citizens in Hong Kong, Tanzania, Sudan, Darfur, Burma, the Philippines, Venezuela and Syria who can talk more loudly and forcefully? There are too many countries where the voice of the citizens will never be heard because of the oppressive and punitive nature of the government such as is the case in places like China, among others.

Human Rights Watch does a lot of important work all over the world. According to their web site they, “Investigate: Our researchers work in the field in 100 some countries, uncovering facts that create an undeniable record of human rights abuses. Expose: We tell the stories of what we found, sharing them with millions of social media and online followers each day. News media often report on our investigations, furthering our reach. Change: We meet with governments, the United Nations, rebel groups, corporations, and others to see that policy is changed, laws are enforced, and justice is served.”

It is important work, but it is not enough. After the Holocaust in the 1940’s those who survived made it their mission to tell the rest of the world to never forget. It was their hope that a constant reminder of the Holocaust would mean that genocide or any massive human rights abuses would not happen again.

Sadly, their words have not been powerful enough and genocide and state-sanctioned murder and torture continue unabated throughout the world. I want to believe that most humans are good people who understand that we must be good to one another if our lives are to be of value.

But there are too many world leaders who have lost the part of their humanity that is guided by fairness, compassion, equality and justice. Republicans in the U.S. congress are sounding like those kind of people and my stomach turns every second that I listen to the lies and nastiness they are spewing out as they defend someone who should be denied any legitimacy as a member of the human species.

Too many politicians throughout the world, including American politicians and especially Republicans such as Mitch McConnell, have become intoxicated with power and the promise of personal gain and look upon their citizens as expendable pawns to be used as willing and unwilling foot-soldiers to run interference for them so they do not have to suffer consequences for their evil actions.

Trump and his allies have set a tone for world leaders that is being emulated and his toxic form of governing has been legitimized throughout the world. He must be removed from office as soon as possible. But he is not the only culprit and we must rely on others to work to remove the bad seeds that are acting like humans who have been transformed into blood-thirsty predators.

We still have the vote in this country and our only hope for ending the American nightmare is to be guided by hope for a more moral universe when we check off the box for President in the 2020 election.