To the Editor,
When I was much younger, the injustices of society made me angry, now they make me sorrowful. These sorrows come at all levels: international, national, and local.
Internationally we have wars in the Ukraine, Myanmar, Yemen, the Sudan and Ethiopia. We can not imagine the suffering these wars are causing. And the refugees created! It is estimated that there are 90,000,000 on this planet at this time. Ninety million people with nothing: no homes, no possessions, no future. Most of these refugees have been created by conflict, some climate related and some economic.
Also there is the poverty, illness and the ill treatment of women and children.
I need not go abroad to find great reason for sorrow. Look around us. Look at the poverty in so many people’s lives. What does this do to one’s mental health? Will I have enough money for rent, electricity, heat in the winter, food for the day or a repair if my car breaks down? There is so much. We know this disproportionately affects the Indigenous and other people of color.
Another very serious reason for sorrow is the great increase of hate. Most every day we hear evidence of it, but also every day we are aware of it even close to home. Even I have experienced hate talk and hate mail.
It felt very undeserved and hurtful.
How can this be? Most of us have been taught that we are made in the image of God. We Quakers believe that there is that of the Devine in every person.
When we see the Divine in every person, it is very difficult to hate or harm them.
Long ago my best friend gave me the book entitled “Let My Heart Be Broken By Things That Break the Heart of God.” I myself am in that stage now.
In sorrow,
Harvey Benson
Harmony, Minn.
Retired says
Wars started by our corrupt government . Imagine if our government would become honest how different world would be!!!