“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
~ Barack Obama
Changing my alarm back to 5:30 was delightful. There’s nothing better than waking up on your own, at the crack of dawn. With your cat at your feet, returned from the vets 🙂
Everything felt sort of slow motion this morning. And as I looked through the photos I shot, it was hard to say whether this morning was about the sunrise, or the clouds.
Life is like that … So much of either this or that. Right or wrong. Black or white.
It took a while before thought revealed itself, and I realized my mind is still troubled about an article I read and posted yesterday: “What the Mainstream Isn’t Telling You about Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman”.
The average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day. That’s 28 hours per week, or 2 months per year, or 9 years out of 65 year old person’s life.
Compare this to the statistic that the average time a parent spends having meaningful conversation with their child in a week is 3.5 minutes. 54% of children age 4-6 when asked if they would rather spend time with their fathers or watch television, chose television. The average kid spends 900 hours a year in school and 1500 hours in front of the tube.
An 18 year old high school student has witnessed 200,000 violent acts on TV, and an elementary student will have seen 8,000 murders.
“The United States is becoming or has become a nation raised by the TV. We have the potential to be a mindless populace that cannot wait to get home to sit down and start getting pounded by an onslaught of violence and consumerism.”
Desensitization to violence is a key development that is particularly dangerous. The effects of a massive delusional culture are everywhere. People trample over one another to acquire some plastic good made by slave labor. Instead of helping others in need, the smart phone is whipped out and the suffering is filmed. Instead of addressing the root causes of violence and murder, groups are divided into US’s and THEM’s and told that they must support Zimmerman or support Martin. Instead of calling for an end to war, fears are stoked and wars are expanded.
It’s no wonder my mind can’t seem to let this all go. I’m brought to think again about the Dalai Lama talks I attended. We know the problems. We just can’t seem to take the steps to change all of it. I read through 21 quotes about changing the world this morning. I honestly laughed when I came across the quote by our President. I am completely dismayed at his own words regarding the Trayvon incident: ‘If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon’. Seriously … Are those the best words you can offer the nation, torn apart by a media induced circus ?!?!
Quoting both Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
And MLK: “If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.” (he didn’t say go pick up your guns and start killing the white man as retribution for injustice).
As a yogi, I’m taught to remain peaceful – in my asana, in my own OM – while the world around me tumbles in chaos. My heart aches.
I feel that pull towards joining a movement for social change …. I have my pen and my computer. But I’m turning off my TV set in the meantime … I don’t need them to tell me right from wrong … ❤
Source: http://www.realfarmacy.com/what-the-mainstream-isnt-telling-you/
