To Break the Bubble

For a dominant species, we’ve got a lot to learn about power. For a social species, we’ve got a lot to learn about social justice. We’ve got a lot to learn about fairness. Equality. And, quite frankly, we’re pretty stupid when it comes to generosity. We call ourselves human, and yet where did the giving go? To all of you in whatever walk of life you may come from: do you want our children to grow up in a world like this? Do you want our children to look up to us as the villains of a children’s book? While good-intentioned, Instagram stories and Twitter retweets can only take us so far. We must not let our cause die if the trend ever does. The amount of respect I have for those who take action against maltreatment is immeasurable. There are no words I can write to show my appreciation for those both on the frontlines of both the pandemic and the demand for action. For someone who’s always enjoyed dystopic novels for a majority of my teenage years, the world’s drawing awfu...

Being a bystander is just being another part of the problem. There’s no space, no time, and no need for inaction in a world where the media controls justice more than the policing forces of our world. Is it not sad that violent protests operate as a means for shifting the perspective of the enforcers , the proponents , and the so-called  advocates for justice? Is it not sad that a media storm — spanning our endless reach of social media — was necessary to effect change? I want to believe that peace can drive away violence. I want to believe that George Floyd will be the turning point — the last crack in the dam built up by years of bribes, hate, apathy. Lies. And I want to believe that you want to believe that, too. “The way things have been done” needs to end. If there’s a lack of funding towards our social policies — a neglect for equality, for equity, for justice — we need to stop patching the walls with bandaids. We need to rebuild the whole thing. Remember this: Geo...

“There are leaders, and there are followers.” Are we so one-dimensional that we can so easily be sorted into such boxes? Do we lack the depth to be anything but a leader or a follower? Of course not. The problem with much of the leadership today is that many enter the global scene with a certain mentality. I am a leader. I’m expected to be strong. A good leader is a strong leader, and we elect strong leaders. If I push for the goals I stand for, I am a good leader. In this leader mentality, there is little room for followers. Because it makes us… passive? Weak? Submissive? As the Earth continues spinning along, our world is constantly changing. In a time like this, we need to reconsider. We need to rethink how we lead. Because many of the leaders we’ve chosen would rather butt heads than work together. How does that make sense when we all seek the same goals? If you are part of a voting country, voting is one of the most powerful tools we have to accomplish this. On the wor...

The most important part of a marathon is the first step. The first step towards a solution is a plan. And the best plan one could ever make is to have no plan. Don’t come to the table with one  solution. Bring everything you’ve got to the table. The world needs our solutions, our stories, our hardships, our triumphs. As I have yet to enter the adult workforce, I’m realizing that it’ll soon be our generation’s turn to inherit many of the jobs which either exist or will exist in the next few years. And with them, the problems of our world. I’m sure, in time, the collaborative mindset will become less of a mindset, but more of a reality. The world will be our group project. If we ever want to stop making the same mistakes, we need to tackle everything together. There’s no space for slackers. We need to think boldly. Creatively. Together. The constant damage that is done to the environment won’t wait for us to “get it together.” We need to stop playing a game of political Min...

There are no winners in a situation like this. Unfortunately, that’s not the way some people see these things. There are always more opportunities to get ahead. There are always more profits to make. There is always more land to wrestle away. There is always, always, a scapegoat to blame. We’re absolutely, incredibly, extremely talented at making excuses. At fabricating explanations. When we really want something, rhyme and reason become clay at our hands — molded and twisted into any situation we desire it to fit. In the world in your head, everything makes sense. Unluckily for you, that’s not the world you or I live in. This isn’t a world of simply good and evil. Rarely are many things either one or the other. I’ve been called immature or idealistic for believing the world is full of good, yet misguided people. It’s been a heavy point of criticism — I believe too much in goodness or I trust too easily — and maybe in this world that’s weakness. I’ve come to know that we ne...

Any one can’t do everything, but everyone can do anything. The time to physically come together has past, but we will meet again. That time will come again. There will be a day where our faces light up as our best friend or a long-lost sibling sits down on a park bench, next to us. There will be a time where pixels, lighting up a screen, will be replaced by genuine smiles, illuminating our lives once more. There will be a day when restaurants will open, parades will go on, and schools will resume. These times will come again. But for now, I encourage you to take a chance. When this is all over, you and I will be different. The human race will not come out of this the same. That’s guaranteed. But we can guarantee to ourselves how we want to come out of this. You can guarantee how you want to come out of this. Let’s not allow political borders and climates, the fact that I am a man or you are a woman, or the difference in my age and yours divide us any longer. I am a hu...

If any of you can explain to me why people are capable of good or evil, you get a gold star. I’m kidding about the gold star — I don’t have any. Would a Nobel Peace Prize suffice? A few years ago, I learned about what people thought about good or evil. John Locke presents the tabula rasa — the blank slate — in that humans are born neither bad nor good, but their character is based upon the environment they grow up in. Now, what does that say about our so-called civilized world? Do bad people reflect a similarly maligned society? Rousseau and Hobbes propose the opposite. Rousseau suggests that humans are born inherently good, and Hobbes suggests that humans are naturally bad. While interesting theories, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Whether or not some are inherently good and some are inherently bad — the environment one grows up in will /always/ change their character. We can fix our society, and therefore we can save our people. I have always believed there will...

The world’s filled with all sorts of people. I’m lucky to be privileged enough to view the world and its entire spectrum of people. I’m lucky to be alive in a time of social distancing and isolation. In a world where the infodemic reigns alongside the pandemic, it’s important in this confusion of misinformation and widespread panic to realize how we want to emerge from this chaos. The silver lining is that we get to confront ourselves — to get a good look in the mirror of who we really are, and get a good long look at that. Like an oxidized onion, we’ve got a good chance to get back to who we really are, underneath all the refined layers. And from this emerge three important questions we need to answer in this time. Who are we? I’m not talking about individuals  — I mean the entire human species. What have we done? And what will we do? Now that we’ve been effectively been grounded by nature — rebuked and told to go to the corner and think about what we did — it’s a good tim...

History repeats itself. We call ourselves intellectually superior, or deeply moral, and yet, before we know it, we find ourselves waging the same wars, persecuting the same peoples, ridding the same land of the same resources. It’s strange. We call it progress — the new phones we buy, the figurehead promotions we receive, the innovative processors we develop — but if we keep making the same mistakes, our existence is nothing but cyclical. We’re still riding the same train on the same tracks — all we’ve done is upgrade the ride. We need to remember. We need to remember what has been done in the past. We need to know how to escape the same pitfall stations we seem fated to reach again and again ever few years. We need to remember the names, the faces — those who lost their lives for the sake of a better world. We need to remember those who gave up their livelihood so that we all could live lives in a future of one man who had a dream. We must not forget how many names — how man...

There are no exceptions for injustice. There are no excuses for hate crimes, murder, malice, mistreatment. Who am I? Am I so much more different than you that I deserve death?  Are you so much more different than I that your word becomes a death sentence? We are all the same. Why it is that we’ve let the issue of inequality persist into the 21st century, I will never know. But, know this. We are all the same. We’re evolutionarily related to countless other species. We share similar DNA with most primates, and we even share 90% of our genes with house-cats. And yet, in the same stroke that we open our doors to a stray neighborhood cat, we just as easily close our doors to a homeless person. We close our minds to those who are not “like us.” But we are all the same. This is more than a squabble. This is more than a casual remark — a featherweight imprint on the sand that will likely be forgotten, come the next tide. These are footprints on the moon. And our actions in t...

We grieve together for Ahmad Arbery. It shouldn’t have been him. It shouldn’t have been anyone. Justice was, eventually, served. Eventually. And we’re angry. Many of us are confused. Most are deeply upset. Disappointed in ourselves. How many deaths will be enough? How many more names on the wall do we need to engrave in our hearts before we learn to change for the better? Why did we need to rely on a media storm to ensure that the guilty won’t walk free? And to those that so blindly and wildly deal out hate crimes? There’s a certain irony to those who call themselves human, yet lack basic humanity. Did they ever stop to ask themselves, “why?” If there’s anything we can do, we can make a hell of a lot of excuses. Among them: “It’s how I was raised.” “Why change what works?” “It’s the way I am.” “It’s how things are meant to be.” Amphibians evolved to take their first steps onto terrestrial soil. It’s not as if they started off there. Tadpoles spend their time maturing i...

Childhood, I’ve learned, is very much a bubble. The bubble protects our children from the horrors of the world by painting an illusion of a world not quite so different from ours. In the bubble, conflict to a child is but a hazy memory. It’s a TV channel they might skip to find a more interesting show. Injustice is more of the same. Perhaps hate crimes might be imperceptible hairline cracks embedded in a window-pane? Everything outside this seemingly opaque bubble seems to be something a child might glance over and ignore. Our child may never know what’s outside, as it only shows itself when their parents are there to cover their eyes. Naturally, we try to protect innocence for as long as we can. It’s funny that we call maturity a coming of age. But what really is maturity? To be mature, must one be proper? Must one know to look both ways when crossing a street, or how to tie one’s shoelaces? I’ve learned that what they call “maturity” is simply the breaking of the bubble. Li...

Many times has it been said that we live in a bubble. Many times has ignorance gotten in the way of progress. We read about it on the news all the time, and just as soon, we close the window, looking for yet another source of interest. Now more than ever, our choices speak volumes. Now more than ever, it is imperative that we tap into the same human connections that unite us all. In a world dominated by wants and desires, it’s easy to be distracted. It’s easy to maintain the same stereotypes, the same opinions, and the same perspectives. It’s important that we remember that in our own individual uniqueness, we are all human. Despite our laws and beliefs, we are unified by principals of kindness, principles of hope, and principles of love. This blog contains the ramblings of yet another passenger along for the ride.