basic human decency

Most of us would call ourselves decent human beings.

Definition of decency

plural decencies

1 archaic

a : fitness

b : orderliness

2 a : the quality or state of being decent : propriety

b : conformity to standards of taste, propriety, or quality

3 : standard of propriety —usually used in plural

4 decencies plural : conditions or services considered essential for a proper standard of living

in the UK,  behaviour that is good, moral, and acceptable in society:

So being a decent human being is not exactly a concrete thing.  It is based on the society in which it occurs.

So, cannibalism, the ritualistic kind performed in a handful of places, most usually to honor the dead, is an act of basic human decency to those participants. (while we love our tales of starving people resorting to cannibalism or tribes killing and eating tourists, most cannibalism has involved ritualistic eating of either deceased loved ones or the hearts and livers of enemies from wars.  Vegetarian sounds pretty good right now).

In our current struggle with globalism, multiculturalism, and politics, many of us find ourselves somewhat at a loss to actually decide what is and isn't decent human behavior.

We have long considered killing, maiming, torturing, the people who we are at war with a necessary act.  We have not considered destroying their homes or their schools or their hospitals indecent.  They are the enemy.

But how are single individuals in distant lands that only want to continue to live their own lives and run their own countries our enemy?  Who made that decision.

Most of us would consider the golden rule to be a pretty good definition of decency--and a rule capable of making it across global boundaries--offending only those that think they have the right to treat others like pawns, like trash, and like rubes.
I'm pretty sure that those people are not decent.  

We are seeing a shift in what is considered decent.

"ME TOO" is bringing to light an acceptable practice in our society, of expecting women to put up with certain behaviors in order to get ahead, or at least stay employed.  The "acceptable" practices we label sexual harassment  has not been legal since the 1980's.  
So what made them continue to be "acceptable" for 35 years after the supreme court said they were wrong?

The same thing that made a charitable event in the UK invite only men and hire only young  hostesses to serve the men.  The same thing that made so many of those men think they had just been presented with a gift, the right to touch, fondle, demean and proposition those same young females--wealth, power, and a sense of entitlement.  Why do men get together and treat strange women like trash and playthings?

Do they treat their wives and daughters like that?

Why do our police officers treat the wealthy, and powerful with respect but the poor and struggling like trash?

Why do teachers expect more or less from some students than they would expect from their own children.

Who determines what is decent behavior.

Who determines who doesn't deserve to be treated with basic human decency.

Perhaps we all need to be reminded frequently, "treat others like you want to be treated".

All others.

Everyone.

No exceptions.

google it!

Truly, if you prefer Bing or Yahoo or any other search engine, that is fine also, but....in this strange time of memes and tweets--look  it  up--- look up everything!

My morning paper, in honor of the completion of a year in this Republican Presidency, chose to interview average joe, joelene, joelette, joseph, hoseph, whatever.  This being the state that came closest to a unanimous vote for the great and powerful wizard of Oz, there were almost no individuals willing to comment publicly against him.

The majority of my fine, upstanding peers were overjoyed because the economy is booming as proven by the stock market.

😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑

About 25% of the citizens of the USA are stockholders.  Soooo, if Oklahomans follow that (which is purely wishful thinking, our state is forever dragging the bottom economically) then 75% of those people loving the new, improved status of our economy need to explain what has changed for them, personally.

Did they just get a HUGE raise?
Were they promoted?
If they were unemployed, did they just get a new job that paid much better than the one they lost?

Oklahoma Oklahoma Data Series Back Data June 2017 July 2017 Aug 2017 Sept 2017 Oct 2017 Nov 2017 Labor Force Data Civilian Labor Force(1) 1,822.5 1,817.1 1,819.4 1,827.4 1,835.6 (p)1,841.6 Employment(1) 1,743.6 1,737.9 1,737.9 1,745.6 1,755.1 (p)1,764.5 Unemployment(1) 78.9 79.2 81.5 81.7 80.4 (p)77.2 Unemployment Rate(2) 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.5 4.4 (p)4.2 Nonfarm Wage and Salary Employment Total Nonfarm(3) 1,656.8 1,665.1 1,668.8 1,668.0 1,672.1 (p)1,668.3 12-month % change 0.6 1.0 1.2 1.2 1.2 (p)1.2 Mining and Logging(3) 46.7 46.4 46.1 46.5 46.8 (p)47.7 12-month % change 6.4 7.2 8.0 8.9 9.9 (p)12.5 Construction(3) 78.9 81.2 81.9 82.1 83.2 (p)81.8 12-month % change 2.5 4.2 5.1 5.0 8.1 (p)6.5 Manufacturing(3) 131.7 130.5 130.3 130.1 130.6 (p)130.9 12-month % change 2.7 2.4 2.2 2.2 2.6 (p)3.2 Trade, Transportation, and Utilities(3) 299.0 299.2 301.6 304.7 303.7 (p)301.4 12-month % change -2.3 -2.3 -1.8 -0.7 -1.4 (p)-2.1 Information(4) 21.1 21.2 21.0 20.9 20.9 (p)21.2 12-month % change -1.9 -1.4 -1.4 -0.9 -1.4 (p)-0.5 Financial Activities(3) 80.5 81.1 81.2 80.7 80.9 (p)81.0 12-month % change 2.8 3.2 3.4 2.9 2.4 (p)2.7 Professional & Business Services(3) 185.5 185.3 184.6 182.7 181.3 (p)181.0 12-month % change 2.9 2.8 2.6 1.3 0.1 (p)0.7 Education & Health Services(3) 235.6 239.0 239.6 239.8 240.0 (p)239.2 12-month % change 1.5 2.2 2.5 2.6 2.2 (p)1.8 Leisure & Hospitality(3) 163.8 166.6 168.4 167.3 169.8 (p)169.3 12-month % change 0.2 1.8 2.7 2.3 2.9 (p)2.9 Other Services(3) 60.0 60.1 60.2 59.1 60.1 (p)60.5 12-month % change -3.8 -3.7 -3.8 -5.6 -3.7 (p)-3.0 Government(3) 354.0 354.5 353.9 354.1 354.8 (p)354.3 12-month % change 0.1 0.3 0.0 0.1 0.4 (p)0.3 Footnotes (1) Number of persons, in thousands, seasonally adjusted. (2) In percent, seasonally adjusted. (3) Number of jobs, in thousands, seasonally adjusted. (4) Number of jobs, in thousands, not seasonally adjusted. See About the data. (p) Preliminary Data extracted on: January 12, 2018

Look at those 12 month % changes, only 2 are above the stagnant 3% left from the recession, and represent mining and logging (in Oklahoma--say oil and gas, an industry so propped up by the government as to be a drain on all other state provided services; and construction, which is down from last month and cycles up and down in the best of times.   Together those 2  represent the jobs of about 2000 people.

Our unemployment continues at the same >4% number it has been.

There is nothing on this chart that indicates a booming economy.

The cost of living in Oklahoma (OK) is lower than the nationwide average. The average yearly pay in Oklahoma is $42,457.00, which is lower than the U.S. average annual salary by $7,351.00.

As of 2013, Oklahoma had about 60,000 workers making minimum wage.  Minimum wage jobs ( https://www.minimum-wage.org/oklahoma

https://www.minimum-wage.org/oklahoma ) are notorious for not providing medical insurance, paid vacation, paid sick leave or access to a retirement plan.  A full-time minimum wage job pays less than the national poverty line by about $1000/year.

Oklahoma has 5 billionaires among its residents. (not sure they actually spend much physical time in Oklahoma but who knows.)
Harold Hamm, worth more than 13 billion dollars.  OIL & GAS.   Hiland Partners and Hiland Holdings,  Continental Resources.  He created "fracking".  (My doorways thank him)

George Kaiser, worth more than 7 billion dollars. OIL & GAS and Banking (Bank of Oklahoma).  Tellers and Banking representatives still make under 15$ and hour--their the most numerous jobs in banking.

David Green, worth more than 6 billion dollars, HOBBY LOBBY.  ( no one at minimum wage, and no one with paid birth control, so yay! and Boo!)

Tom and Judy Love, worth more than 5 billion dollars, LOVES TRAVEL STOPS and COUNTRY STORES.  They have 112 locations in Oklahoma.  They hire mostly truck drivers and hospitality workers and retail clerks. Oklahoma has about 300 jobs available from them right now and many already employed by them, but, alas, also not high-paying jobs.

Lynn Schusterman, worth more than 3 billion dollars, OIL & GAS, and Investments.  Focused on philanthropy now, so except for some foundation employees, no big help for our unemployed or underemployed.

About 25% of jobs in Oklahoma are tied to energy.  But that includes wind and solar energy.  In the oil and gas industry, most of the jobs pay under 30,000/year.  Roustabouts, equipment operators, etc. require a high school diploma and are basically on-the-job trained.  The better paying jobs require engineering degrees, business degrees, and science degrees of various types.  While Oklahoma has multiple universities that provide that education, our public schools are not providing the universities with a lot of students that are ready to excel in those fields.

So.
Is the economy better?

If people think the economy is better and so buy more stuff they wouldn't buy if they thought it  wasn't better, does that make it better?

Is this all about self-fulfilling prophecies?

At least we know their are 5 Oklahoma families that have nothing to worry about--their economy is just fine.

atrocities

Atrocities.

an extremely wicked or cruel act, typically one involving physical violence or injury:

"war atrocities" ·

[more]

synonyms: abomination · cruelty · enormity · outrage · horror · monstrosity · obscenity · violation · crime · abuse · barbarity · barbarism · brutality · savagery · inhumanity · wickedness · evil · iniquity

• 
  

  humorous
  a highly unpleasant or distasteful object:
  "the house was a split-level atrocity"

Apparently we humans can be a bit dramatic.  I don't think many architectural failures could ever meet the level of abomination that the Third Reich reached.

But we have plenty of things, both in war, in our government, in our news, in our schools and hospitals and homes that could be considered atrocities.  

We have people with mental illness and drug addiction creating such things  and people with great power creating them.

We have criminals creating them (over 10,000 murders a year--be aware, if you are killed in the commission of a felony, your fellow partner in crime is now guilty of murder, no matter who did it), and those that are supposed to protect us that are creating them. (about 1000 unarmed civilians a years for at least 3 years {couldn't legally track this before that} that are shot in the commission of--well of misdemeanors, of "see the man about", of routine traffic stops for bulbs out over license plates and flickering taillights and breakdowns on the road).

We have human trafficking in the USA, up to 800,000 individuals a years-globally with about 50,000 into our own country, most underage, most female and most placed into the sex-trade although child labor, service jobs and factory jobs are being implicated as participating. Greed and self-gratification are apparently enough to make normal, everyday humans take advantage of their fellow human travelers.  This is not counting the locally born and not free to leave individuals that end up in the sex trade.

We have the lives lost to addiction: the opiate crisis--striking people that turned their nose up at those being laid low by heroin and methamphetamines and crack cocaine are now hooked through the nose by prescription medications.  Our war on drugs is more of a war on those individuals that can't cope with life and need substance abuse/addiction treatment so we offer them prison and the opportunity to provide slave-labor due to a quirk of the 13th amendment.

We have School Officials covering up crimes against children to protect their own jobs and reputations.

We have Corporate Officials covering up crimes against women to protect their upper management team and their buddies.

We have running jokes about the casting couch and sexy old actresses declaring the sexual demands just good fun and rather complementary.

We have people telling jokes about cigars and white house interns.  

We have recordings of powerful men bragging about being so powerful that they can grab women by the genitals, kiss them without their consent, kill someone on tv, and still be powerful and successful.

We have everyday atrocities.
We have children raised so isolated from view that no one notices that they are malnourished and their growth is stunted.
We have homeless people freezing during January.
We have livestock living so packed together that cutting off beaks is seen as protective.
We have people picking vegetables that can't afford to eat vegetables and people selling groceries and clothing and dogfood that can't afford to shop where they work or live near their job.
We have people dying of illnesses because they can't get preventative care, can't get early diagnostic work-ups and can't afford any medications they might need to live with the illness they have.
We have people with IQ's in the genius level that can't make it through high school due to their home demands and the lack of support, so forget about college--a loss for all society.
We have second graders that get their first toothpaste and toothbrush from the school nurse during the dental hygiene class.  (if she is the only nurse in 6 schools, then chances of being in that class go down.
And we have atrocities by neglect--the person that sees abuse and decided its none of their business, the person that watches a person in power abuse that power, the person that knows about a worker embezzling, knows a boss that is always touching an underling, the person that always looks the other way when something is wrong with how things are being done..
When you watch a real life video showing something bad happening, someone was there and did nothing.  If they notified authorities before filming or were truly scared for their lives but wanted proof of what they saw.  I get that.  But to just stand there and record while something horrible happens in hopes of a viral post or getting paid for the rights--that is atrocious.
And the person that watches wrong for years, the person that "knows that the person doing wrong is deep down a good person" so decides it's ok,  the person that just doesn't want to get involved.  Those people are culpable--if not legally, then morally--of the same atrocities they have ignored.
So before eviscerating the architecture of a new home or waxing poetic about the kid next doors prom dress, ask yourself--am I stopping atrocities, real ones, or ignoring what is important while playing into the hands of those that want me to stay superficial, shallow, and pointless in my life.
We simple individuals have not only the ability to improve the world around us, we have a moral imperative to stop atrocities when we see them happening.
That doesn't make you a hero.
That makes you a good person.