IS YOUR C\GLASS HALF FULL OR??

 

IS YOUR GLASS HALF FULL OR ?

I have a friend that grew up very differently from myself. He is black and I am white. I grew up in the 40’s and 50’s in Texas. I worked with black men at various jobs but each of us ignored each other. When I was in the army, I roomed with a black guy from Louisiana and we both discovered we had more in common with each other than we had differences.

I cannot identify with my current friend as I have not had his experiences. I do not know what kind of problems he has suffered due to his skin color. I can only recall once or twice in my entire life where I felt unwanted because of my white skin. I do admit that a white kid in the 60’s had a better shot at various things than a black kid in the same era. I am not, nor have I ever been a racist unlike my parents.

I have raised my sons to appreciate people for their character not their status or skin color. I am proud to say that I have many friends of various nationalities, religions and cultures that I am glad to know. I have been in a number of prisons with church groups, and I have the same problem with convicted people. I don’t know the reason they were there or their circumstances. What advantage did I have that they didn’t? I’ve never been convicted and had to suffer all that conflict or the cause of their conflict and issues with society.

I have had very few people in my life who encouraged me or tried to help me. My parents were certainly not there for me; they were divorced as soon as I left to go to Korea for the army. The FBI told me about it when I turned in the paperwork to go to OCS. I don’t think we were ever close.

All this to say, life is hard. Mankind is hard. Humans have had conflicts and inequality since the beginning of time. There have been wars since the dawn of time. Countries invade other countries and cause changes that affect everyone. There isn’t any country or society in history that has been perfect. Power, envy and jealousy are the corruptors of all mankind in every society that has existed or exists at this time. If there is any country in which this doesn’t exist, I certainly don’t know about it.

All countries and all civilizations have made mistakes. We have all made mistakes. Slavery was a mistake. Lots of things have needed correction throughout the years. But we have made progress over the past 250 years. We let women vote and own property. We passed multiple civil rights acts. We still have a long way to go. The system obviously needs tweaking and adjusting as the years go by. It seems frustrating and slow, but we are a civilization of some 350 million people with different experiences and different viewpoints from each other. Ever serve on a committee and try to get something agreed to the first time? Then you know what I mean.

We all know the problems; there isn’t any sense in repeating them over and over. There is error, misjustice, unfairness, prejudice and bias on all sides of the political spectrum. We are all the sum of our own experiences along with our successes and our failures. We have to live with ourselves and the decisions both good and bad that we have made in our lives. Did we help or hurt more people throughout our years? Those are the kinds of thoughts that should concern us in our days ahead.

I prefer to look at the glass as half full and see the positive side of life. Just look at these monumental events that have happened in our world in the past 150 years or so:

Wright brothers first flight- 1903

Woman’s suffrage- 1920

End of World War II- 1945

First organ transplant- 1954

Civil rights act- 1964

Man on the moon- 1969

DNA discovered- 1953

Berlin wall comes down- 1989

Insulin discovered – 1921

UN created- 1945

Polio vaccine discovered – 1955

We can play the blame game all day and night long with each other and either side has both good and bad points of view. I choose to look at the positive sides of our world and try to communicate with those who don’t see things the same way that I do. Unfortunately, the media of today operates on a mantra of “if it bleeds, it reads”. So, the more blood, gore, sex, and negative information that can be put out there, the more their advertisers are seen. The more discord there is, the more attention it draws to the source.  Follow the money, see for yourself.

I believe we all have more in common than we have differences so I will not refuse to discuss with those with opposite opinions. I think talking about all sides is healthy and good for all parties.

Having only one side and refusing to consider any other points of view is counterproductive in my humble opinion.

See you next week. Subscribe today….it’s free…Peary Perry