Love in the face of darkness

There is a lot of turmoil in the world right now. A lot of people are eagerly waiting for 2016 to end, after it has brought us tragedy after tragedy. And yeah, it has been a pretty rough year with the constant celebrity deaths, Brexit, Trump, DAPL, and everything else. There a lot of angry and hurt people right now, and I can’t blame them. I’m angry and hurt too. Every time I read the news I find something else that upsets me. Here in Canada, I can pretend to be apart from all the problems, I can easily bury my head in the sand and say that these global issues won’t affect me.
      I know it’s a lie, but it is a nice lie.
     The truth isn’t as nice. The truth is hard and heavy. All these events have global ramifications. And we all have the responsibility to admit that and understand that. To the South we have a rebirth of fascism and a resurgence of racism. To the East we have one of the oldest powers in the world slowly crumbling under the weight of its own failings. Just passed that, we have Russia casually sticking their fingers into multiple pots, watching the reactions and waiting. The Middle East is continuing to be the battleground it’s been for generations, and North Korea has upped their blustering.
       We can try and pretend that things are not as bad as they seem, but that would be a lie. Things are bad—no, they’re terrifying when one actually thinks about it. There’s a president-elect who has been officially endorsed by the KKK and the Kremlin. The American police are brutishly attacking peaceful and legal protestors—including one young woman who may be facing amputation from the police’s “non-lethal” methods. When we live in a world where protestors can lose limbs from the police’s non-lethal methods, we really need to reconsider…well, everything.
          Our ancestors fought for our freedoms and against tyranny in two brutal world wars. They sacrificed everything so we wouldn’t have to deal with a dictator taking away our freedoms, and we have repaid them by democratically electing a person who idolizes dictators and ran on a platform of hate. We owe it to everyone who fought and died in the world wars to stand up right now. We owe it to them to stop all of this before it escalates any farther. They fought and died so that everyone would have peace and freedom. They fought to liberate the Jewish people, and now their progeny want to get rid of the Jewish people. We have unprecedented numbers of people openly calling for white supremacy, and many of these people are so-called Christians who have apparently forgotten everything Jesus ever said.
        The point of this is not to depress or anger, although I can easily see how it could do both. We need to stand together. History has shown that we can defeat Nazis through force, let us show future generations that we can defeat them through unity and love. We as a people are better than this, we know our history and we should not be repeating it. We need to stand together against hate. We need to show the Neo-Nazis taking over America that their ideals are not the ideals the modern world has been built upon. We need to stand together and show Russia that bullying isn’t something that we will tolerate. Together we can prevail against the darkness invading our societies. Together we can show that love and acceptance is the proper way to go.
       There has been a lot of bad this year so much that it seemingly overshadows the good, and it is okay to feel that way. So much has happened this year that it can be hard to keep track. Dozens of major terror attacks in Europe and the Middle East. The Pulse shooting. Natural disasters. Ebola. Zika. The deaths of so many influential people. Suicides in Northern Canadian communities. Things seem so dark right now, and a lot of people are saying this is the worst single year in history. Honestly, I’d almost be inclined to agree with them.
        There has been good this year as well though! There have been countless medical breakthroughs! Endangered species have seen population growth! Worldwide crime has dropped, even if that’s hard to believe. Disparate groups have banded together to stand against ISIS. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets to support Black Lives Matter. This year, hidden by the thicket of bad, we have shown solidarity. In the dark, we have stood together to shine our lights.
        Together we can bring down the darkness. The fight will not be easy, and it will not be over quick. Things are bad, and they may be bad for a while yet, but as long as we stand together in love and unity we can prevail.
       To the Christians reading this, Jesus taught that when struck on one cheek to turn the other one towards the striker. He leaves what to do next vague, but remember what happened when he found the vendors in the temple: he chased them out. All these Neo-Nazis and Fascists are vendors infringing on the temple trying to corrupt the holy. Chase them out, and stand with all your brothers and sisters: the Muslims, the Jewish people, the queer community, the Black community, the Latin community, the Asian community, the disabled community, and everyone else that has been hurt by hate this year. “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Too many forget what Jesus considered to be the second most important commandment. It’s time to remember.
       To those of other religions reading this, stay strong and stand together.
       To the atheists reading this, remember to practice love and acceptance to all.
      We will win. Love will trump hate. Love and peace to you all.

Infinite Hope

                I’ve started and erased this blog five times now with two different (three counting this) topics. None of my words are sounding right. None of my topics seem good enough.  I don’t know. Just happens some days.

                I started talking to my friend about faith last night. Not faith as in religion, just faith as in belief. It’s an odd part of human nature: the need to believe in something. Before you jump at me and say lots of people don’t believe in anything. That’s a lie. Everyone believes in something deep down. Whether they believe in a higher power, or they just believe that they’re gonna make it, they believe in something. They have faith in something. Faith is believing in something intangible, that’s it. My belief that humanity can better itself is a form of faith. My belief that I’m going to make it through all the bad in my life is a form of faith. I have faith in those things because I can’t prove them! I can’t know for sure that humanity will better itself, I just have faith that it will! I know that humanity can, I’ve seen that it can, but will it? There’s always that question that lingers over everything.

                What does faith do for us? What can believing in something that we can never prove give us? It gives us hope. Hope is something powerful and wonderful! Hope is beautiful! Hope can get us out of bed in the morning and hope can change the world. Faith is a beautiful thing. It can give strength to those who lack it, it can give people a sense of family when they don’t have one, and it can lift the fallen back to their feet. Faith can give us hope and life.

                Faith can also destroy, and lead to fanaticism. I know this, but I’m not going to talk about it, because I want to stay positive. It’s my blog, I can do what I want.

                I told my friend something that I have faith in, and she told that it was risky. But that’s what faith is. Faith is a risk. Faith isn’t a sure thing! It can blow up on you at any given second; something can happen that can shatter it. But that’s the point of faith. If there were no risks, we wouldn’t need faith. If don’t need faith, that means we know all the answers, and if we have all the answers, what’s the point?

                Faith is the great adventure. Faith inspires us to new heights. Faith takes us to new things; faith leads us to new discoveries. Faith can change the world. If we have faith that the world can change, we can make those changes. That may sound controversial, but it’s true: why would someone try to make a change if they didn’t believe that it could happen?

                I have faith that the world can become a better place. I have faith that people are inherently good as a whole. I have faith that the good people in the world outnumber the bad. I say all of this in light of the all the recent tragedies. I say this in full remembrance of the Paris terror attacks, of the terror attacks in Egypt, Nigeria, Turkey, Chad, Niger, Pakistan, Iraq, Cameroon, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Israel, Australia, Canada, USA, and every other country. I say this in light of the 729 terror attacks that have happened worldwide in 2016. I say this in the light of the recent hate crimes against my community. In light of all the racial tensions. In light of all the hate. I say this in light of all the bad that is happening in the world. I have faith in humanity. That faith is tested every single day, but it remains.

                If I didn’t have this faith in humanity, I would give up. Who would want to live in a world like this if there was no hope, no chance, of change? I believe there is hope. I wake up every morning believing that the world can become a better place. I have to.

                As Martin Luther King Jr once said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”