A Kinder Gentler Nation

A Kinder Gentler Nation…

The events of the past couple days have ignited a fire inside of my spirit. What has become of our society? Why do “We the people” get a thrill by destroying our fellow man? After reading the hate post and comments about a very unfortunate incident in a noble man’s life, I realize our nation is one moment away from being a lynch mob. Instead of carrying pitchforks and torches we hide behind our computers and cell phones sitting on our lazy asses, as armchair quarterbacks espousing our criticisms and critiques on the warrior engaged in combat on the battlefield. We are a proud people, thinking we have evolved and come so far as a nation and a people, but really we are deteriorating by the second, heading back to the days of lynch mobs, tossing our fellow man in the arena with the lions. True we do not physically attack people but we stab with our words and brutal judgmental criticisms. We attack our fellow man in such horrendous ways that we leave them and their families ruined, damaged, and devastated. We wipe our mouths, high five each other for the most insensitive and hellish attacks and then move on to the next vulnerable person desperately trying to make a difference. One by one we destroy those with great enthusiasm, mocking and condemning their hearts desire to make a difference. I have seen it for years in the media and now the weapons have increased with the social networking enabling the average person with a stage on which to pretend to be expert on every subject while shooting off their derogatory and hateful arrows, piercing into the souls of good people.

I am honestly calling for a kinder gentler nation. Is it too much to hold our tongues using them to exhort to good works, pointing out the good in our fellow man, instead of resorting to the vilest name calling?  Do we really need to destroy each other in order to feel better about ourselves? Do we really think of the aftermath in a family’s life after we remove our daggers from the corpse we destroyed while moving onto the next?

I recently finished reading Suzanne Collins Hunger Games Series. The inciting incident in the story is the “Capital’s” disregard for human life, choosing twenty four children to fight to death in an arena while everyone watches, placing bets on who will survive.  When too many days past with no deaths the game-master would tamper with the game, adding his barbarities to engage the kids to turn against each other for survival. This pleased the capital residents, giving notoriety to their game, satisfying their insatiable desire for blood shed.  Are we any different? I think not.

I have used Theodore Roosevelt’s quote quite a bit the past week and I will quote him again because I believe it is quite appropriate.

 "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."