I recently read this post by Judith Warner from the NYTimes.com who talks about how many younger people are seeing the success of the historic struggles of equal rights as establishing rules that can be bent to favor some over others. The answer is to cheat wherever possible to get ahead. It gives the particular example of high school students reaching back generations to find a minority in their blood so they could mark their ethnicity other than 'white.'
Our democracy has become a meritocracy. Everyone is in competition, and only the strongest (or most deserving, successful, cheat-savvy, etc.) survive to compete the next day.
In another blog by Dan Schnur, I read about how the campaigns are turning negative, trying to prove their opponent is not trustworthy as president of the U.S. In this situation, we have lost all trust in our fellow brother and sister.
In an age when we're closer to our IM buddies than our neighbors, we need more person-to-person, face-to-face time with each other - for discussion, for dialogue, for discerning our communal call to be a people of faith and love and hope (1 Cor 13).
Whatever life deals us, let us encourage one another in the faith, that God is the giver of Light of all good gifts (James 1:17), and God is there with us through the muck AND the open road. May be thankful, may we be humble, may we be hopeful for a better tomorrow for all beings everywhere.
