Finding our way

Nestled down in the heart of our minds, is our home - a virtual place that exists as a center. It's a complex composite of experiences good and bad that surrounds and sets limits -  that is unique and yet frequently common with others. Part of that shared experience is innately human and part of it has to do with the country, culture, economic position and social groups we are in.

It's in that humanity, that commonality that we have to realize - our boundaries and fears, our experiences in the past won't change and cannot. Only how we perceive them and work through them.

So change becomes difficult as we get older, we pile up experiences and group think pervades. We reflect opinions of some of our friends and influences. We get comfortable with our ideas being "right". And that's all good as long as we keep perspective and understand that "right" for us is just that. Our perfection is not someone else's.

Hold that in your hand for a moment and don't let go, while we switch gears.

People can be preyed upon, when change or perceived change takes them far from their home or comfort zone.

For instance, the president says there's an immigration crisis, even though illegal immigration is at it's lowest rate in years. He says these people are murders and rapists, with some, he supposes, good people. This too is a lie, with no basis in fact.

 This isn't an innocent mistake - this is a campaign to inspire fear and get you angry about an issue that takes many, especially the less travelled, far from home and pits them against people advocating for human rights, trying to show them in a poor light, make them look like they want to invite murders and rapists into the country.  "It's the immigrants that are to blame". Easy put. Call out a common enemy, any enemy and you are pulling those more gullible to your side.

It also angers the folks advocating for Human Rights, pulling them away from their comfort zone.  It divides us and in it, gives a gift to those that wish to pull the wool over everyone's eyes.

This is a propaganda technique that used to be used sparingly. But for two years now, each day brings a news cycle that keeps people on both sides of the fence away from their comfort, with enemies to spare, we become more divided so that we can be taken advantage of. Our fears are exploited and our comforts pulled away. But why?

To distract. To pull your attention away from the draining of the public investment in this government. As each little piece is sold off or rented and funneled into tax relief for the wealthy, underwriting and subsidies for business, as public benefits are reduced. As veterans benefits are reduced. As alliances are made with enemies of the world, to support private ambitions. We start getting angry but the next news cycle comes with something else outrageous, pulling our fragile attention from the matter at hand.
This is all intentional. Even when an issue is real, it is spun to be the news cycle flaming, loud, item, which takes our attention away from yesterday's news. There's only so much outrage to go around. We can only expend anger in bursts - we're not made to do marathon anger in general.

So we lose it. It's why we cannot get anything done with Global Warming. It's a slow moving story. Aids - 32 million HIV related deaths since the start of the epidemic. 1.7 million new infections annually (4,657 people a day) and 25 million people in treatment now. And yet both of these should be headlined every day and instead they are sidelined. As are what's happening to class division. And education. Net Neutrality. The removal of support for clean energy sources, subsidies to oil and coal. Safe gun laws and the failure to do anything about the 385 mass shootings* in the USA between New Years 2019 and December 1, 2019.

And in losing this, we quickly lose what our founding fathers, our Grand Parents and Parents, our military have worked and fought for. We lose our identity as a country. We lose our foundation. We lose our long built government infrastructure, we lose public ownership. We lose our natural reserves and resources. We lose opportunity, which is our signature as a country - as the rich eat the rest of us, as our conservative politicians sell us to the rich, to our enemies, we become less.

We cannot afford to lose much more. it will take years to repair division and remake what we had. It will be a long time before we can get home again on a regular basis. But the sooner we get rid of the maleficence in Washington, those that profit from our division, the sooner we can. The sooner we can get back to being the land of opportunity and become the land of equality.

Don't lose the long view. Keep it squarely in mind. So much is at stake.

*https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mass-shootings-2019-more-mass-shootings-than-days-so-far-this-year/