Community: Revive the Village

I woke up this morning with a loop in my head of Bob Marley singing, Gonna Be Alright (Three Birds).  I need his optimism since I received bad news yesterday.  One of my closest friends is very ill, and there is no way of knowing what will come today, tomorrow or the next.

Now I have a new perspective of what is and what is not important in life.  If we lived in Europe, the answer to that would be a no-brainer because they live on people-time.  The need for green and status in this country is so bad, that we have forgotten all the important things our parents and grandparents taught us.  Family, happiness and health.  I look around and see children without their parents after school, because we can't afford to live on one income.

It horrifies me, that our brothers and sisters who are ill, still need work to chase the morality-corrupter we call money.  It seems that if a person has less time on this Earth than the norm, they should rest and enjoy what they have now without judgment.

What has happened that we live in a world where people care less whether another human being lives or dies, as long as they get their money?  All of the leaders throughout the years that worked to make things better: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Jimmy Carter were either killed or oppressed so much they died before their ideas took shape.

Having said all that, I still believe that we, as a nation, can rise to humanity and become the communities we once were.  The saying, "It takes a village..." came about because we were a village.  We took care of each other.  Take a lesson from our ancestors, and I know we will one day be the humanity we once were.