Every Day Won't Be Roses, but Damn These Thorns

Photo: Flickr/Yogendra Joshi

    Copyright 2015                                                                                                            Aleasa M. Word

Mama never said life would be easy, but I don't remember her saying it would be this hard either. This world is full of strange variables that simply didn't seem to appear when I was growing up. Then again maybe that was because I wasn't an adult and privy to the ups and downs of adult life. On third pass, I'll stick with...no it wasn't like this at all!!!

If you watch the news, after the first 5 minutes you very well may become depressed. If you go on the internet, the posts on social media can take you from happy go lucky to pissed off and bankrupt within a minute or two.  Everything from cyber bullying, hacking of adultery websites, police brutality, fake baby daddy stories and a race for the white house that includes a guy named "Deez Nuts" running for what was once the most prestigious office in the nation screams at us daily.  All I can say is "What in the name of Sam Hill is going on?" Hmm... Sam Hill... never did know who he was but it was often family member's solution for not cursing and saying the word Hell. 

Children of today don't get the opportunity in many parts of the country to stay out until the street lights come on with just an occasional check in to get a drink of water of or popsicle because it's too dangerous. Drive by shootings, walk by shootings and stand in your face shootings are all around wounding innocent children who don't even know how to hold a gun. Technology pushes workers to move as fast as machines and if they can't they're replaced with the next person who has enough energy to run for a while as older workers are put out to pasture and often found at places like Wawa, Quick Trip or Walmart. At least those places will hire them because many corporations seem to have problems with the over 55 crowd as they get close to retirement and packages become an option.

I'd like to say there is a silver lining in the cloud of this post today but I'm still trying to find it. How on earth can today's kids be focused on education and emotional stability when we adults have allowed the country to go to "hell in a handbasket"?  What do we as adults plan to do to get things on some sort of track that is at least manageable for our children's futures and even ours as we age?  We can blame everyone else and say it is society's fault, but aren't we society? Who is responsible for voting...we are! Who is responsible for investigating the candidates that even get to run in the first place...we are! Who is responsible for changing laws that tear families apart, erase responsibility for dead beat parents and create school to prison pipelines for children....we are! Who is responsible for a wave of fatherlessness when certain populations in the country are set up for failure and then we judge the fatherless kids for being a mess and a menace to society...we are!

It's not an easy road to make changes and these thorns are sticking the hell out of all of us but we have to stop being complacent, saying things like "there's no use" "it's a shame" "why doesn't someone do something" etc and get off our rear ends to be the change that America needs. 

Today's call to action: What will you do THIS day to make a change in your workplace, family, community, prisons, politics or healthcare?

Photo: Flickr/Yogendra Joshi

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