We Can Still Do It
When I think about the enormity of human potential, I think about all the advances in science that have made our lives easier, made our lives better. Electricity, penicillin, music, flight. Then I think about the race to cure cancer and other human maladies. Given enough time, I believe we could cure every woe of man. The problem is that, as humans, there is another poison in our thinking. There is greed. There is a lust for power in the hearts of many. These are the people who ask when considering new technology or invention, “Can we use this as a weapon.” I wonder, will we be able to discover the cures for illness or the processes that will reverse the damage we have done to the earth in our quest for more before there is nothing left to save?
Tesla had, almost a century ago, worked out the process for creating unlimited energy with no cost or pollution. His efforts are all but forgotten. The knowledge and understanding he used have, however, been busy. The Manhattan Project was the answer to the question, “Can atomic energy be used as a weapon?” We all know how that worked out. Boom. We still depend on oil and other fossil fuels for almost every energy consuming process in society, but we can destroy the earth a thousand times over with our nuclear arsenals. We can breed fear, seperation, and a sense of isolation in the hearts of man in a time when information can make it around the world and into the brains of every human on the planet in less than a second.
I ask these questions, but I don’t have many answers. Who knows. I know what we are told. I know what we have all been led to believe. Hope is lost. Get all you can while the getting is good and fortify it. Because if you don’t, someone will surely come and take it. In many ways we are the cancer that seems to have no cure. We are the cause of our problems. Maybe not individually, but en masse. The kind are killed while the cruel become kings. I don’t like it. I just don’t like it. Fortunately for me I am unable to give up on this world, on the humans, or our capacity to move past the greed and power lust that have brought us to where we are. I am among those who still believe in the light. Even when I can’t see it, I know it is there. I’ll never give up hope. I know we can turn this thing around. We choose our perceptions and our reactions no matter the case.
Today I’m not happy with where we are, but I am happy with the evidence thus far that we can overcome. We can stop being a human “race” and start to build a more human “place.” We have to start. We have to stay at it. Meekness and kindness can make a stand in the face of evil. I think those who feel they possess no strength are wrong. There is strength and resiliency in purpose and living for a cause. I assure you the cause is just.
