Bending History

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

                                            Robert F. Kennedy

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Some mornings

When Finn the dog has nudged me to awareness

I suddenly wonder why I should bother to get up

The world seems like such a hopeless place

Evil rules

The wicked prosper

Injustice grows

Inequity is the mark of our society

In short, things are shit!

And I am just an aging

Wanna be retired wanna be

With no power, no voice

A reed blown in the wind

Buffeted, tossed to and fro

And I want to respond by shutting down

Or if not by shutting down

With anger

I want to attack and diminish those who I believe attack and diminish the poor

The vulnerable

The different

And so I rant and ridicule

And in doing so, allow them to win

Whatever happened to random acts of kindness?

To generosity?

What if I resisted

Not a person, or a party

But resisted evil

With a kind word

With a helping hand

With patience

Truthfulness

Fairness

Compassion

It is not that any of us can stop combatting evil

We must fight against injustice

Oppression

Prejudice

Hate

But HOW we do it is important

Only by refusing to be pulled into the vortex of evil

Do we have a chance

Only if we stand up for what is right

And do so the right way….

Can we send forth ripples of hope

Across the still, dark waters of hopelessness