by Larry Johnson
What kind of a year is 2024 going to turn out to be? For America? For my community? For me? How much control or influence do I have? What are my choices, and do they really matter?
Our current political climate is generating a flood of negative emotions — anger, fear, worry and despair. Many people are losing hope, feeling depressed, ready to “throw in the towel.” Are you feeling that way? Have you given up on America? On your dreams? On your hopes? What can you do about it?
The very first thing you need to do is to stop watching and listening to the negative news on TV, on social media, and from your acquaintances. Try instead to start thinking about and talking about how to solve problems, and not about whom to blame for them.
Try to focus on offering words of encouragement, not discouragement, to your family, your neighbors and friends. I suggest that you try exploring with your family, your friends and your neighbors those ideas and concerns that you can agree with them on. Seek out common interests and common concerns. Aim for harmony and compromise. Just imagine, if only members in Congress could learn to listen to each other a little more and remember the power and value of compromise, it would be absolutely amazing how much they could get done. Former president George W. Bush offered a great piece of advice when he said: “Don’t confuse being soft with seeing the OTHER guy’s point of view.”
Whoever you are, whatever your station in life, know that your words matter, that your attitude matters and most importantly, that your vote matters.
During this year, if you are registered to vote (and you should be), you are going to have the opportunity to express your opinion about whom you want to become our future leaders. We will have the choice — the choice to speak up and speak out or the choice to remain silent.
Ah, but, you say, does it really matter what I say or for whom I vote? We have frequently heard the claim that all government, all politicians are bad, corrupt and untrustworthy. But wait a minute. Who is government? Government is us. And as Plato said: “The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government is to live under the government of worse men.” So, in the end, it turns out that it is us, all of us who are to blame. We are all in this mess together. We created it and only we can fix it. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
It’s our choice. Do we want to live in a kinder, more civil, more loving America? Author and lecturer Ken Keyes Jr. said, “A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world; everyone you meet is your mirror.” And so, the substance of his message is that we each create our own world — hostile or loving. The question is: what kind of world do we want it to be? And that’s how I see it.