The power of one.

This blog began with my feeling of powerlessness at where the world was going.  I made some suggestions--I rarely even take them--and I became more aware of what is going on around me.

Now, I'm annoying to many, but my world is becoming populated with other people that are also more aware.  I have windows into the lives of people from other places and people with different experiences.  My job has even become more diverse and less 60-year old working WASP.  And we have survived and thrived under a biracial president and have a democratic socialist running in the current election.

During this time, we have had ugliness in the news, although much of it is more like the pimple coming to an obvious head than like any new ugliness being found.

Our PC is no longer just theater make-up to make everything pretty.  We are having discussions about institutional racism---and while black comedians have gotten a lot of mileage out of  "______ while black" jokes, that is not funny when it is true.  For those of us with our eyes open, we know that stuff happens on a routine basis.  We work with people scared to walk past black men on the street, that expect every Native American to be intoxicated and that never see danger or criminal when the person looks like them.

We have had the influx of immigrants from south of the border that was predicted with such dire warnings in the '70's and '80's that has created a need for hispanic translators--the best I have met is hispanic and born in my home town so she is as comfortable in one language as the other, and we have seen a browning of our population from wars and coups and just plain hate.  They have improved our selection of foods and given us a broader view of what it means to be a good person.  We have seen the growth of the first group of internet children, and they are not quite as easy to lead by the nose.  They can find other sources for their information and they can look at multiple conflicting stories and know that they are not all right or all wrong.  Our schools may not be teaching them good critical thinking skills, but the choices of sources of knowledge is available and being well used by many of them.

So what does any of this have to do with the power of one?  Nothing and everything.

Each of us change and grow individually.  We are all responsible for our own self-awareness.  We are each voting, everyday, every minute for what is right, what is needed, what is good--or not.  And we will all move forward as quickly or slowly as the individuals in the group that is all humans, progress.  I do not allow for us to not move forward, although, I realize there have been time that progress was so slow that it looked like regression.  I do think that I can see some movement.  I think that when an entire planet of souls are causing movement, sort of like Brownian Motion, it is hard to get a clear view of what is happening, where we are heading.

But, I am hopeful.  The people I meet these days generally give me hope (perhaps those that don't have just lost their ability to scare or shock me) and the internet, with its many accesses and sources, gives me hope, and the knowledge that most people, the vast majority of people just want their loved ones to be safe and happy and able to keep living their lives. 

No fear--we just all need to do what we know is right in our souls. 

That is the power of the individual--the power of one.