Have You Had Enough Yet?

The newspaper reporter asked the CIA agent how he was able to carry out assignments that might harm other people. I’m paraphrasing his response, but the agent said that he joined the CIA because he was attracted to the authority it gave him. He became addicted to that authority, and ultimately he was devoured by it, leaving him without conscience or any misgivings about whatever he was assigned to do. What intrigued me is that this pattern is not limited to people who have license to take another’s life, but applies to every one who has the means to affect someone else’s well being.

There’s the police officers who claim they’re unaware that most black youth will run rather than wait for a  confrontation. They assume that said runner is guilty of some crime, and take immediate action to contain him. After fatally shooting the suspect, they still maintain their job. No diversity or sensitivity training is mandated, so they walk away with the same mindset along with a possible proclivity for doing it again. Being able to gain control over someone else leads  to a sense of power. If left unchecked that power will make one feel justified in doing whatever  they can get away with.

We all know the politicians who  promised to make things better for their constituents. However, as time passed by, they started receiving money for voting in favor of whoever  provided them with it. Before you knew it they were ‘living large’ and their major objective had become to extend their power base. In the meantime they’re claiming that everything they do is on the up and up.

Of course there’s the celebrities who are acquiring all the creature comforts that making millions of dollars allows them to enjoy. Yet they’re giving little if any attention to the harm their public images are inflicting on those who are trying to emulate their behavior. They’re accepting degrading movie roles, displaying unnecessary and tasteless modes of undress, disrespecting their mates and loved ones, and it’s all being done under the guise of “I gotta do what I gotta do to make a living.”

But what about the rest of us? We are well aware of the atrocities that are taking place, yet we stand idly by cause we’re scared we’ll rock the boat and possibly cut off our own blessings. We’ve  been attracted to something that makes us feel that the more we get the better off we’ll be.  Whether it’s money, position, or a sense of power, we have become addicted to what it can supply us with, and we are now being devoured by the drive to get more of it. We have unawaringly become all those people which I spoke of earlier. 

“Not you huh? You feel that you’re not the one using what you’ve got  to harm others right?” Well, take another look and ask yourself how you’re addressing the police brutality that’s become rampant in the past couple of years, and is constantly being  inflicted on black folk.  What are you doing about the miseducation of our youth, and how are you addressing the gentrification that’s displacing your less fortunate neighbors. If you’re not at least considering playing a role in eliminating some of these injustices, then you’re a part of the campaign to acquiring more for yourself at the expense of endangering and destroying the lives of others

Let’s look at our situations from a spiritual rather than secular perspective, and stop thinking, “It’s all about me”  Let’s stop kicking people under the bus and start realizing who it’s really all about.

I’ll holla...

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