But I ultimately choose not to speak.

For many years I have felt the desire to speak more but as I look around I often choose to be silent. The world that we live in and the environment around us is more toxic than it has to be. Everyone has a voice and that voice is used to express how they feel. But the majority of people do not want to hear how anyone else feels or things if it is not within their realm of comfort.

I say comfort because some people just do not know but they can know. Some people do not care and do not even want to care. We have different world views and different experiences as we are all living together yet see things differently.

The news is often based on the views of the audience. People can hear the exact same words and see the exact same video yet have polar opposite reaction to what is presented. And that is what causes the problem. Everyone collectively will say they care but the actions they exhibit will demonstrate that they do not care. As individuals we can only change the things immediately around us. But if we can find others who want change we can come together and collectively generate change that reflects the change we want.

We want people to be housed, then we need to work on the housing problem currently impacting various places around us. We want people to have healthy food, then we need to work on the food crisis that has so much bad food around us at lower prices than the good food, and make it available at reasonable prices.

We can do many of these things via the election process. But we collectively do not provide action towards doing these things. We have elections where 40% or more often LESS come out to vote for elected choices. Once the election is over we walk away and do not hold the elected official (regardless if we cast a vote for them) account for their votes cast.

I hear people so often demand term limits for elected positions and that people should not be older than some specific age or that people should not be able to be elected for 20+ years and I just wonder, and I ask them, why do we have elections just about every year if we cannot vote them out? People just do not have the WILLPOWER to vote out a incumbent. Voters have more power than they believe. As a individual a voter is often powerless BUT collectively voters can demand so much. Yes people that make large campaign donations have power over a elected official for casting votes one way or another BUT the people that elect officials have the power to remove them for voting against their best interest.

This post started about me being silent. I speak up within my own self, but I do not speak up to others, because they rarely are listening. People will ask how you are doing, but they really do not want a answer to that question so they accept ‘fine’ replies. Not everyone is going to divulge all of how they are feeling but more than likely they will appreciate the kindness of someone sincerely asking how they are feeling and not just asking as a formality. There is a difference.

Have a great one, make sure that you tell your friends that you love them, not just your family.