Change

Everything we initially learn is provided by our parents, teachers, community leaders and authority figures. We are given opinions from our peers before we can test the theory and way before we are able to determine if those concepts actually resonate as our truth.

I remember in grade school reading the opening preface to a story written by John Steinbeck, Cannery Row, ''Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, 'whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,' by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, 'Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men' and he would have meant the same thing.''

Coincidentally everyone is entitled to an opinion but the catch is opinions are now expressed on the internet. One person's opinion now offends another to the point it is blown way out of context. It spreads hate at an exponential level in lightning speed, Goes "Viral" – a word that originally derived from the word “virus” an organism that causes disease in humans, animals, and plants. Disease - a condition of a person, animal, or plant in which its body or structure is harmed and or a particular quality, habit, or disposition regarded as adversely affecting a person or group of people.

We are consumed in an epidemic that is destroying lives and communities. Normally everyone flees an infected area and seeks an antidote. However "Hate propaganda" thrives, it is fed despite knowing how heinously destructive it is. Hate spreads its poison faster than any message of peace ever could. It is deflating to see how much we have evolved exponentially in technology and yet digressed in our humanity.

Is it a human genetic flaw in our DNA, or are we taught to be intolerant of others who do not fit the play-dough mold we were imprinted with or forced to fit into? Globally, intolerance ignites unnecessary violence and death which has spanned over millennia. It pains my heart because children live what they learn and its even encouraged.

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”  ~Leo Tolstoy

All I can do is embrace the philosophies of thought leaders who refuse to support archaic destructive behaviors and be the change I aspire to see in the world.