IJMC - A Rant

This is not going to be particularly light-hearted nor is it likely to be 
extremely well thought out or even particularly logical. I wish to rant, 
this is my list pretty much, so I am going to bluster a bit. Read if you 
like, or enjoy the next one instead if you so choose.               -dave








You were warned, whether you needed to be or not, well, that is your 
decision. 

I am tired. I am tired of searching for role models and finding so few in 
my life. I grow extremely weary of living in a society which chooses to 
disobey and squander its own rules and laws. I suspect that approximately 
90% of the people in this city take the law into their own hands and 
willfully break the same laws almost every day, and easily more than once 
a year. I have to include my mom, my dad, and my sister in that group.

Why? I wish I knew. Is it for some greater purpose? A "Civil 
Disobedience"? If caught, would they stand up and protest their innocence 
in front of the law? If asked, would they say that laws are a bad thing, 
that they disagree with the entire process? If they were honest, would 
they say that their reasons for violating such laws were good and just?

I wish they would.

But no, most of the time they are just speeding. They want to get to 
somewhere faster, they consider themselves better than the laws that they 
helped to create and which they continue to support the enforcement of. 
They will say they consider themselves a good and safe driver and they 
can handle the speed. Sometimes, just sometimes, they will ask those who 
obey the law if obeying the law feels "safe" among all the law-breakers. 
The speeders. The criminals. Those detrimental to the very society which 
they live and exist within.

Am I sane? Questioning a law as miniscule as speeding? Yes, I quite think 
I am. We wonder about the collapse of our society. We wonder how we got 
to where we are, living in a world with deception, manipulation, and 
dishonesty not only running rampant but accepted as commonplace.

We expect politians to lie.

We expect people to steal.

We expect companies to deceive.

We expect governments to mislead.

Why? Again, I do not know. Again, I look for a role-model. Someone who 
stands up and demands what they know to be just and right. Yet how would 
someone like that exist? Everyone berates that person when they do what 
they feel is right.

People complain if you are mischarged for a purchase and in asking for 
compensation, the line moves a little slower. 

People curse at you for slowing them down when you are one mile per hour
under the posted speed limit. 

People lie to police officers when pulled over for speeding. 

People hire lawyers because they cannot speak the truth without help. 

People help support the corruption that has become American society.

I am tired. I feel I fight alone and that people get angry at me for 
fighting. I wish I knew a better way. If only there was a wand I could 
wave and make everything better without annoying anyone. I am tired of 
annoying people for what I feel is right.

We live in societies. We make choices. We can support the societies we 
live in or we can choose not to. Too many people today seem to be 
choosing to do what is right for them and them alone. They do not concern 
themselves with what is good for everyone around them. Perhaps they think 
that no one else takes them into consideration so they have to look out 
for themselves and themselves alone. So they end up perpetuating the 
feelings they themselves feel.

I wish I had an answer, other than to say, "do what you know is right." 
Without an answer, many ignore the message I try to convey. We, you, me, 
the person who is reading this at the same time you are, we can make a 
change. We can get past our fears, we can start to get to know other 
people again. So many people today hide behind "privacy" and "anonymity" 
because they are afraid what others would think of them if others knew 
what they were really doing. So my message is this:

   Only do what you are comfortable doing,
   what you can handle being caught doing.

I wish I did not feel so alone. I feel like I am the only one who wishes 
to live in a society of many, not a society of me. Am I alone and 
shouting to the void? Are you going to continue to speed past me on the 
road, with dour looks and sometimes angry words? I am so tired.

I am not perfect. I still do things I regret at times. But I am willing 
to stand trial for those things, to admit I made a mistake. I continue to 
try and improve myself. I used to speed. I used to do things I was not 
proud of. 

I have lied. 

I have cheated. 

I have stolen. 

I have deceived.

I am not perfect.

I cannot even say I had good reasons for doing any of the above. I was 
foolish, I did not think things through. It happens. But I cannot use the 
fact that I am not perfect to excuse such behavior on a continued basis. 
I cannot continue to perform such behavior just because others around me 
do. 

I cannot continue to go on ignoring or allowing such behavior in others.

I do not have to tolerate other's decisions to think only of themselves. 

I live in a society that I want to see work well. I believe it can exist. 
I want to see it exist. I want to live in a house with no locks. I want 
to know that doing so is safe because others share such an interest and 
look out for one another even when it perhaps inconviences them a little. 
I want the lying, the deception, the theft, the aggression to be 
something that happens rarely, not an expected occurance.

I am tired, and this is not about speeding.

David Price Thompson
aka dave

dave@ijmc.com


[Please, if you believe in what I have written, send it along. Otherwise, 
do what you will, I can only hope you do what you feel is right. -dave]