Easter Misalignment

The street was so quiet today, at 8 am on Easter Sunday.  I guess people would either be in church or still be in bed.  I am guessing that this pleasant quietness would soon disappear as people would go out to celebrate Easter. 

Somehow I am not feeling very celebratory today. Yes Jesus has risen from the dead - just like he has every year, around this time. Time to go to church and fall asleep during the priest's homily.  Time to hunt for some Easter eggs afterwards.  Somewhere in the bible Jesus told us to do that. 

Bah humbug!

Before anyone calls me the Easter Scrooge, let me stand to differ,  Unlike Scrooge, I am not feeling grumpy.  I am feeling misaligned.

I saw just yesterday, in the eve of Easter, the news about the mass death of hundreds of thousands of fish in the coast of Florida. The coast was filled with silvery carcasses, so many that no trace of sand can be seen in the photo.  There are several theories behind this.  The water is getting warmer and the fish can't stand it.  The salt water content is getting diluted by the dumping of dam water to the river. There are some other theories in the article that I do not remember.   

When I saw the news I thought to myself: How am I, as a human being, supposed to feel about it?  Isn't that event some sort of environmental warning that something is going seriously wrong? Wouldn't I be freaking out if hundreds of thousands of human beings drop dead in one day for whatever reason?  Wouldn't we all be in an emergency mode? 

Oh wait, the news channels no longer mention it today, so the problem is gone forever.  Jesus has risen from the dead. 

There are so many other massive problems going on that has come and gone in the news like they never happened.  The Fukushima nuclear disaster - the threat of contamination of the water still continues but the world seemed to have forgotten.  The plastic waste accumulating and getting bigger in the ocean.  The irresponsible logging and destruction of forests, the pollution of water and air by the irresponsible corporations. The irresponsible mining activities everywhere.  They're still happening at full speed.   Is this what humanity is all about? 

But wait!  Today is Easter, the time to celebrate. 

No to Democracy, Yes to People Power

What is this thing called DEMOCRACY?  If there is any word that defines how messed-up, confused and lost humanity is, it is this word.  

It is defined in the dictionary as "a system of government in which all the people of a state or polity ... are involved in making decisions about its affairs, typically by voting to elect representatives to a parliament or similar assembly"

Ever since the 20th century and continuing until now, The United States has been overthrowing governments, waging wars, invading other countries and intervening in other nations' affairs in the name of spreading democracy.  Here is a country that was created when the white immigrants from Europe VIOLENTLY took over a land from the native american people 3 centuries ago. It is a country that is, at the present age, still very far from acknowledging or fixing this mistake and its other mistakes in the past.   Today in 2016, it is a country that is still obsessed to vote for the defender of status-quo like Hillary Clinton, or a tabloid quality bully like Donald Trump.  

How could the USA fix the past problems if they can't even acknowledge it?  Clearly, the current leadership of the country is as delusional as ever.  President Obama did not seem to learn from the errors of the past in intervening with other people's governments and toppling its leader; instead he wanted to do it once again in Syria. Meanwhile he continued to make ignorant statements like "we are the greatest country in the world".  The only past leaders who speak like that are those who has chauvinistic illusions.  I can imagine Donald Trump doing that if elected president.  I thought a non-white who has had the chance to live overseas in the past would be wiser than that.  

So there it is, a country that goes around the world preaching democracy like it invented it and owns it. I am sorry for this brutal analogy, but a country that invades others in the name of democracy is no different than a murderer who kills because he/she feels spiritually more enlightened than the victim.  It's beyond crime.  It's mental illness. 

But I should clarify my view: Just because the USA hijacked the word democracy and made a mockery out of it does not mean that the idea of people power itself is bad.  People power, which is the original essence of democracy, makes a lot of sense.  People power is a better alternative than mad dictators or monarchs. But the process to channel the power of the people into governance differs in every society.  Each one of them is not perfect, just like us humans.  Therefore nobody should try to impose one's way on others'.  Just like the best of human nature, the process of channeling people power into governance will continue to get better as long as the society keeps trying.