Thought for the day
April 30, 1999
It's the last day of April, one-third of 1999 is over and I'm in a malaise. There is so very much wrong with the world we live in that it's tempting to give up. I read today about Hillary Clinton's taking on the government of Afghanistan. She is trying to get them to change their policies towards women. You see, after we helped install an Islamic government there to force the Russians out, the conditions got much, MUCH worse than they were under the commies. At least women were considered human beings. What Mrs. Clinton was upset about was the new rules forbidding doctors from treating women. (Yes, you read that right) Oh, and they also forbid teaching girls. One woman who operated a home school was executed in front of her husband and child for refusing to stop schooling girls.
Then I read about all the religious extremists right here in OUR country. Guys like Dan Quayle, Gary Bauer and Pat Buchanan, their idea of bringing America "back to traditional values" is enough to make you want to puke.
And the bloodshed in Columbine High School is still on every channel. My son's Middle School had a "drill" today to prepare students for their own massacre. The paranoia is so thick that I had to write a letter to the principle telling them to layoff. Not every kid with long hair and a Marilyn Manson T-shirt is planning to kill all the bullies and asshole-administrators.
So, what's the solution? Give up? Move to Montana and hope the retard-Y2K-apocalypse fringe is right?
Look, I know it's bleak sometimes, Ken Starr is still the official "inquisitor" and the Republicans still hold a slim majority in the Congress. But we can't give up now!
If there is something you don't like, you'd better get off your ass and do something about it. It might be to give money to the right causes, it might be to help someone in need. Maybe it starts with trying to spread the truth that this world, as flawed as it is, is a whole-lot better than it's ever been and things are still improving.
Our next big hurdle is to get past 1999 without allowing the doom-sayers to destroy too much. They want so badly for their cruel and evil god to come down here and get even for all the things they don't like. When the phantom doesn't appear, they're going to assume "he" wants them to take action to help things along. This is what the cult in Japan was trying to do with nerve-gas in the subways and our cults have announced that they think this too.
So in addition to trying to remain calm and hopeful about our future, try to start doing things to help make that future worth living for. Help out, get involved. Hell, smile at your spouse and kids and tell them you love them.
It's a long way from here to the kind of future imagined by writers like Asimov and Roddenberry, but look how far our species has already come. Wow! Together, I think we might just make it.