Saturday, July 3, 2010

The state of affairs in our World today

It's Saturday night and I'm sitting here wondering what to do with my evening. I am at a sort of crossroads in my life and many of my options are getting harder to access.
So I guess one way to deal with this is to blog about it and see if anyone notices or pays attention, or responds!
The first thing at the top of my list is the overwhelming amount of negativity showing up in the world regarding the disenfranchised: refugees and immigrants, homeless, addicts and alcoholics, mentally ill, and other folks with limited clout in the world.
As I read news articles and postings on social network sites and other places I have begun to realize that the pendulum is swinging back away from a position of care and concern.
There are a lot of angry people out there in the world who feel entitled to express their hate and disregard for the less fortunate of the world. So many people who want to blame everyone else for what's wrong and not make any effort to help correct the situation.
I read about a group of people in a town in Tenn who had a town meeting to refuse to let some homeless people pitch their tents on a man's property. They didn't just object, they spewed hatred and discontent from a church proclaiming to be "Christian".
I won't start a diatribe on false Christians here, just a recognition of the fact that just because people profess a particular faith doesn't necessarily mean that they practice what they preach, or that they preach according to the Word of God. I think Jesus called this kind of people hypocrites.
So often in my years of working with the various populations mentioned above, I found that the community in general was very judgemental and uncaring about the welfare of those people.
It was not uncommon for the people I served to be treated like lepers and the program I ran to be left with less funding and support than was needed until we faded out.
What is happening in the world these days? Not to be an alarmist, but I am wondering if the end of the civilized world as we have known it is perhaps upon us.
How many times have my programs struggled for funding only to be closed and the funds gone another way.
How many programs have ended over the past couple of years due to lack of funding and support? Where are the people going to get the help they need to overcome their difficulties. Most of my programs were aimed at teaching people to become more independent and care for themselves. Much of what I believe is important today in helping people accomplish their goals needs some opportunity to learn how to do things and be successful in doing them.
Like when I first wrote a curriculum for working with welfare to work mothers, I included the need for support for job training and education, clothing, transportation, child care, creating work values and ethics and teaching work behaviors, etiquette. Did that all get included when they finally wrote and approved the proposal? No. There was an expectation that you just give people a job and they will know how to behave, how to dress, how to interact with co-workers, etc.
What is the solution to this experience? I have to find some people who are loving and caring and provide that kind of atmosphere in which people can heal, learn, and become more truely who they were meant to be.

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