"Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present."

It gets harder and harder to stay optimistic about the world I'm living in.  I've been making a conscience effort not to give in to the distractions.  I don't want to let myself become so overwhelmed with all that's going on, that I end up becoming one of those people that just don't bother anymore.  I look beyond the local "news" of auto this and auto that; beyond the NBA and NHL playoffs; Kwame's text message scandal.  All the things have taken over and completely saturated the local news.
Once in a while, I come across an article in the Free Press that I'll actually read all the way through.  Like today.  And, as usual, I just shake my head.

When 2004's election came along, Michigan was one of the states to have the yea or nay vote on gay marriage.  I don't see how that's even something that should be on a ballot, but I wasn't about to abstain from voting on it simply because I don't think that marriage in anything that should be defined in a constitution, or that the state should even have a say-so in defining marriage to begin with.  However, I knew it would never pass.  For those people that think Michigan is a Democrat's state - think again.  Michigan may sometimes appear blue on that Red State-Blue State map they always unfold on Election Day but that doesn't mean that this isn't still, on the whole, a very conservative state.  And the Michigan Supreme Court is certainly no exception, as they made clear with their decision yesterday.
Public employers are barred from providing health care benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian employees, a divided Michigan Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.

(I think it's fairly important to point out that the Michigan Senate approval for banning smoking in public is getting 4 times as much attention as this article.)

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For all the hoopla that goes on from democratic countries and governments on their attempt to laud themselves as protectors of human rights, I have to say that the older I get, the less I believe it.  Take for example, just the name...Democratic Republic of Congo.  False advertising, if there ever was any.
The optimistic and idealistic side of me still has hope that there will one day be a world without wars.  But the realistic side of me knows that as long as there is greed, envy, pride, and at least one person's insatiable need for power, there will be wars to fight.  And as long as there are wars, there will be victims.  Or as some have come to call them, collateral damage.  A victim is still a victim.  If for no other reason at all to not wage war, the victims should be reason enough.  And whether we in the West want to face it and admit or not, what may seem like the mundane to us, is in effect supporting a war.  Our need to accumulate all these things we don't need have started wars for hundreds of years.  It's been much more than just about oil.  The gold, the diamonds, and (as I just learned today) the coltan.  All these things that get put on the market after being smuggled out of their respective countries because there's more money to be made this way, rather than the regulated trade market.  Greed and pride lead to instability which leads to civil wars which creates unnecessary victims.

The Greatest Silence

Victims like the women and children in this documentary I watched this evening.  Of all the documentaries I've watched, whether they were about the past, present, or the possible future, this one was one of the absolute hardest for me to watch.  Not just because I'm a woman, but because there is no justice and very little, if any, help for these women.  Yet, at times, you can still see them smile.  This film is, IMO, what a documentary is supposed to be - it's gut-wrenching and heart-breaking, and it serves the purpose of being eye-opening, thought-provoking, and raising awareness.

Something for me to definitely think about next time I'm about to give in to that urge of buying stuff I don't need...where is this stuff really coming from?

All the more reason for me to keep with the new plan.
The one that's kept me pretty quiet lately.