I've been sick lately, so this may be nothing more than the emotional wrecking ball that accompanies the flu, but I despair for our species. If I see one more stray dog wandering along the highway or walking through a town looking for affection, I'm going to have an emotional breakdown. Seriously, what is wrong with us? How can we be this low, this bad, that we don't even take care of our pets?
I think you can learn all you need to know about someone if you observe the way he treats those who are the most vulnerable. Someone who takes in a dog, then treats the dog badly, cannot be trusted. Someone who hits a child or deprives a child of food or health care cannot be trusted. Someone who sees a person being hurt by others and does nothing to stop it cannot be trusted. The people with the most power are obligated to help those who are the most vulnerable. If they don't, the rest of us are obligated to step in. But how often does that happen?
On New Year's Day, as trite as it is, I was thinking about the future and trying to find reasons to be optimistic. I was actually thinking about my own personal goals and how to achieve them, but eventually I expanded my reflection to include all of humanity and our relationships with each other and with other species. I've spent my entire adult life working in and for public schools and I think I've just about reached the limit of my patience with them. Let me rephrase that: I don't know if I can continue working in public schools if we're going to follow policies that force us to do things we know are wrong. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I've been saying things like this for several years and that I've threatened to change careers more than once. I can usually talk myself out of it or find reasons for hope that allow me to continue. But this time, it might be different.
I feel like I'm living through the Dark Ages of Education, when everyone has forgotten everything he used to know about how children learn and grow. This is absolutely personal for me, because I have devoted myself to education and I am currently at the mercy of bad public policies. Anyone with a child in public schools right now knows what I'm talking about. It's worse in some states and in some communities, but it's tough everywhere these days. And how did we get to this point? Where did we go so badly off the rails? Well, I'm guessing it was when we decided to let the unlicensed people do the driving.
Honestly, I don't know if I'm up to the challenge of fighting for education anymore. But it isn't just education that has me feeling so despondent. It's the fact that we have so many people living in poverty in such a wealthy country, and the fact that we have shootings in public places for no apparent reason. It's the way that we are so good at ignoring sorrow and suffering when it's right in front of us, but can express outrage over being charged a higher tax. I'm as guilty as everyone else, but I want to do better. It might seem small, but I want to start with dogs. I understand dogs and can give them what they need. The rest of it is just too overwhelming right now, but I can help dogs. At the very least, I can help the dogs I see that need help. I know it's not enough to do "the very least," but that's where I'm going to start. People are just too tricky for me these days.
