How will we cope?
In The Unmoving Sky, brothers Artie and Jackson have to deal with their father’s abuse of alcohol to forget their mother’s death and hide his guilt. While their father, a lieutenant, is busy forgetting he neglects his children. Something that had been going on for years. It takes a heck of a lot of earth shattering misfortune to bring him back to a place where he remembers what’s important, and his boys now 17 and 15, are the most important people in his life. His tether to the one woman he loved more than anything in the world. But he neglects them, why?
Anger is all around us. Our society is hacking away at foundations of peace and cooperation and tolerance. Police are killing black men EVERY DAY. #BlackLivesMatter They’re being systematically hunted down!!
It’s insane, and more insane that those in a position of power and MORAL DUTY do NOTHING!
I moved to NYC from Florida because NYC was the melting pot of culture (here in the US) I grew up with a Greek mother and her belly dancing parties. It was often like the United Nations at our house. I love it. I love diversity in ALL its colors and ways. Diversity is healthy. It is Life. (Just like in the plant world diversity keeps the crop healthy) The USA was founded on immigrants. What the hell is going on in this country?
Why such intolerance?
F E A R + I G N O A N C E = a mess
and/or hatred, anger, feelings of unworthiness, self-pity. Not healthy.
I’d wondered about a book I read years ago about the school system: Dumbing Us Down : The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (2002) by John Taylor Gatto, who’d spent years in the NYC public school system. A great book! I read this when my boys were younger. Our family had quite the ride dealing with the DOE in NYC, especially with my eldest son having dyslexia and struggling every day in the system. (A post for another day.)
I can’t help feeling that education is key. I wonder how much of our government wants peace at all, or want people to move out of poverty and ignorance? They strip the schools of funds, making poverty stricken teachers pick up the tab for needed school supplies. Making it harder and harder for kids to learn when the ARTS are taking out. I couldn’t believe that gym was being removed from my kids’ elementary school, only to wind up with an excess of hyper kids—who the school officials wanted to drug!!! OMG. I know when I go for a run or exercise I am fully ready to absorb information and settle down. Why do they shoot themselves in the foot like this?
Ignorance is leading us to darkness, and knowledge is one key for undoing the damage of hatred. We need to expand the minds of others. Ignorance creates fear.
Between the major media outlets supplying excessive fodder to aggrandize the unwitting public, shock and awe of war every hour of the day, whether from overseas or our backyards. It HAS TO STOP. If you or someone you love, needs help managing their anger or finding the tools to cope, there are hotlines. Here's a previous post about < anger hotlines > with links.
And there are books! Read outside your circle of influence. Read others’ perspectives. Reading is just about the easiest way to learn and it’s affordable. You can always check out books from your awesome local library. I’ve begun downloading ebooks from Overdrive and 3M and I'm ecstatic! Here's a little help for those of us with white privilege can do. A very informative < post >.
