SOMETHING IMPORTANT

I wonder if I can write about something very complex and very important in a simple enough way to be understood in a flash of insight that will have a lasting effect. I’ll have a go.

There once, not so long ago, were vast herds of four legged beasts roaming the plains of America. Indians followed them and hunted them as a way of life. Indian and buffalo thrived. Along came European white man. In a short time of trying to kill every last buffalo the herds became very small and have not recovered. The Indians were herded themselves onto reservations. Many starved. The Indian children were taken from their parents and forced to attend schools meant to forcibly absorb the Indian population into the white man’s way of living. Much suffering was felt. I’ll stop there.

Now, based open the above, I want to examine into the question of how could this have been handled differently?

My point is that one group of humans upon observing the buffalo without inquiring passionately  “what has brought this great herd of animals about? What is behind it?” decided to try to annihilate them from the Earth and almost succeeded, but not quite. They made the same incomplete analysis with regard to the Indian population and tried to eliminate all of them without honoring their past. Is this humane?

The people back in Europe had been doing this sort of thing for thousands of years at least. Colonization and slavery practiced by these groups was disgustingly horrible in so many ways to study it would make anybody sick. Such ways culminated in a great war called WWII at the close of which two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan foretelling of a time when all life can be destroyed by a group having the knowhow to make and utilize such weapons. Very simply, what would anyone with a brain expect to be the future of a group who thought and behaved in the way described above? What would anyone with even a grain of intelligence predict? The way described is not only continuing to grow it is spreading all over the Earth very rapidly. How many are waiting for somebody else to tell them what is to be done? Nearly everybody? Do they sincerely hope to use the excuse, It wasn’t me?

I cannot change anyone but myself. What bullet fired has ever brought about a peaceable man? Can I change in such a manner that I am removed effectively from the fate awaiting those who do not? Can I live in peace on Earth with every other living thing? Upon observing life can I humbly ask: What power has brought this about? 

Finally, no matter what happens, will I decide to find out whether I can live peaceably for the time I have left? Is that important to me? How important is it? Humbly, I begin.