What Happened While We Weren't Looking?

One of the good/bad things about the internet and cable news stations is that we have all the bad stuff about our world right in our face every time we tune in or log on. When the heck did bad news become entertainment? What has happened to us that we want to watch. Reminds you of when you were in school and the bully beat up the little nerdy kid after school and lots of kids were there to watch. But very few were ready to risk a beating themselves to rescue the victim.

Could what has happened to our waistlines and what has happened to our minds be connected? The emotions of greed and envy seem to have overcome those of self respect and caring. Could it be that our lack of physical activity caused a shift in our thinking as well? We have become a people who watch and not a people that do. I think that has to stop before we can ever have the right kind of world again.

Does it sounds stupid that if more and more and more people would get off their butts and get outside and be part of the world again we could change it back to where it needs to be. If people were outside running, walking, biking, pushing the stroller and any other activity that gets them out in the real world, they could see what is going on. Drug dealers have a pretty much free ticket to do their evil because the good people are inside watching the tube or the computer screen. Gangs are running wild in our cities for the same reason, the good people have given them the street.

We have become such an unfit society that even the most wonderful act of romance between two loving people has evolved into watching others have more and more perverted sex on the computer, the darn Porn industry has joined the gangs and drug dealers as something we have just allowed to happen.

Is it possible that we can make a difference by being an example? Can we make self respect and caring for others become a beacon for others to follow. Can we, by getting out here on the road and changing our own body and life be a light in the darkness.

My regular walking routes are through a lot of low income (even for this area) housing projects. When I encounter another person, and I see quite a few out in the morning coolness, I smile and make eye contact, then nod my head in greeting. I have never once not been given a smile and nod in return. This is dawn and I know all the drug deals and gang activity is over with the coming of the light. But there is good in these people, being poor is not a crime and they to have worth. Can my being there and sharing their morning make a difference in anything, probably not, but I refuse to hide myself from my world, our world belongs to all of us and we should be able to walk our streets without fear.

I had a discussion the other day with a collage professor at WKU. He travels a lot in Europe and he had an insight about how far our society has become chair bound. In Europe people can't do everything sitting down the way we can. Here we can get up off the couch, get in the car, and do everything with drive thru. We can bank, get our fast food, pick up laundry ect..... without ever even getting out of the car. Then come back home park and go sit back down on the couch. We never have to interact with the "outside".

Thanks for reading.

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