Trouble

I am troubled today. What troubles my mind is a list of things I can only minimally affect, things that require big change, full progress and many people interested in helping me to ease my troubled mind.

I am troubled by thoughts of a misconstrued apocalypse. Really, is the world ever going to end? Scientists suggest some ridiculous number nearing fifty million years. A religious fanatic predicts it will happen this October. Too much room for error for me. I think I will follow Natalie Merchant’s advice and “let the mystery be.”

I am troubled by a planet that is becoming over-populated, yet equally troubled that the fair distribution of space is nowhere near equilibrium. Have you seen the open countryside? If we could find a way to get jobs and commerce to the “middle of nowhere,” it seems that everyone would have a comfortable homestead.

I am not in trouble often but am troubled by a number of things:

Troubled, by the number of students who opt to drop out of high school. I have read statistics that place the drop-out rate anywhere between 19 and 22% of high school kids. 1 in 5 teenagers won’t finish high school? In the so-called richest and best nation in the world, we let that happen? My goodness, that is a shame.

Not troubled, by similar college numbers – there is much more involved in decisions on the college level. Not everyone is “college material,” and the costs may outweigh the benefits. Let’s face it, we need skilled labor as much as we need menial labor, and college is not intended to prepare a person for all of the jobs we need for society to function.

Troubled, by the rising occurrence of murder-suicides in our nation. Times are bad, I get that. But what ever happened to perseverance? Or, worse, when did it become acceptable to take others out because of your own suffering? Maybe the ultimate act of selfishness is when you can’t see the light so you blacken it from others.

Troubled, by larger issues as well. If a guy from Pittsburgh can comprehend that killing others in the name of religion doesn’t make sense, then why do power-hungry rich autocrats not get that? I ain’t all that smart, folks. It doesn’t take much to see that blind philosophy bent on hatred leads to nothing good.

Troubled, definitely, that my message can only reach those who already know the above to be true. What good is a point if the ones who need to read it, never do?

Troubled, by small things with big implications. Why do we create discounts and tax breaks and incentives for companies to convert corn into fuel when people are starving in the world? Why do so many Americans say “I am starving” when really we are just hungry until our next meal? It is an exaggeration and, sure, we know what you mean. Is it possible to be more sensitive to what words mean in their basic form?

Troubled, that we had to write up hate crime laws to protect the innocent. At what point on the moral compass of humanity did we violate an individual’s right to be who they are born to be? And, if you disagree and think that one is “not born a certain way,” then take that up with your God and leave the rest of us here to make society better through acceptance and understanding. Perhaps (and probably) hatred and its resulting violence has been around as long as mankind has walked its only Earth. Duh! Of course it has.

Troubled, that it took us 2,000 years and more to figure out that bad people come in all shapes and sizes too. They just surprise us more by how and why they strike out.

Troubled, by our systems in this country. It seems that social programs and capital campaigns and political parties and education sectors have all gotten to be too big. Within their colossal scope it becomes more and more difficult to practice control. Not control in terms of who runs the bureaucracy but rather in the context that someone who is running the ship can foresee the eventual outcome of what might come next. (I am troubled that the point I am trying to make here may not be clear enough.)

Troubles abound. I am troubled not by lack of education but by a willingness of people not to care about education. If young people don’t even know they have a chance…then where are we?

Here’s a troubling thought. I have no problem with the self-flushing toilet…but why in the hell did we have to invent that thing in the first place?!? What person began the trend of not disposing of his own waste? That is what troubles me – that the need to invent such things exists because some people are pigs.

I am troubled that teens find more excitement in video games than they do in intellectual curiosity. When did we forget to teach that? It is troubling that we teach to specific tests and “guidelines” and forget that to learn is to think for oneself.

What a troubling thought that marriage is not taken seriously, but yet perhaps more troubling that society insists upon marriage when really it is such a deeply personal decision. Not all people should/ need to / could be married.

It troubles me sometimes that I am a dreamer. We will never get rid of guns, we will probably never stop countries from hating each other, we may very well never be able to endorse the benefits of education to everyone, yet we will continue to have troubles.