Janese Johnson

My focus in writing this column has been to alternate between worldly events and our personal self-exploration. Oftentimes I feel that the lines between the two are not so distinct.

How we are as interpersonal beings relates to what is going on in the world. It seems that these days it would be easy for me to go on quite a few political rampages and scream about how we are losing our rights, and corruption is spreading like a contagious disease.

Although I find this last statement to be unfortunately true, I also believe that if we took a deeper look at our own selves, we would find that even though we can point the finger at all of the wrongdoers, we too have areas that can certainly be fine-tuned in our level of compassion and commitment to a kinder world.

Today I read a blog that deeply touched my heart. The blog was written by a 27-year-old man about an experience that his girlfriend had recently. While she was grocery shopping, she saw an elderly man in a wheelchair dropping food from his cart.

She went over to help him, and she noticed that he was buying only the food that he was able to reach from the bottom shelf. She offered to help, and he declined out of pride.† She went on with her shopping, and came back to see if he was OK.

She found him in the same place, still alone, and trying to reach for potatoes that he could not get on his own. The shocking part of it for her was when she saw others around him going on with their shopping by grabbing food from around him, and not even noticing that he was there or offering to help him.

You might be wondering how I can even compare the governmentís greed and corrupted nature to that of ignoring a handicapped man. Yet both are coming from disregard for another. Whether it is disregard for one or many should not matter. These actions are coming from the same mindset, just at different degrees.

The breakdown of our nation has been happening for a long time, and it seems to stem from the breakdown of our sense of responsibility that we have with one another. We are not acting, talking, and thinking from the same ideals. Gandhi suggested that ìhappiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.î

Most people are so busy coping with a very stressful life that it is quite difficult to go outside the immediate family and help others. But just one minute with one simple action or word could make worlds of difference in someone elseís life.

One elderly man will be grateful to have potatoes for dinner, and would not be having them if it hadnít been for a thoughtful woman who took a minute out of her time. A simple change in our daily mindset could snowball into a greater concept for many.

We someone have lost that sense of community, and the larger picture of that loss of value is showing up in all areas of our life. Whether we are talking about children and their education; health care; elderly care; mental health; affordable housing for all; freedoms and rights; and many other areas in our life, we can see a break down and lack of support for those less fortunate. We can change this by first being more available in helping those who need it, while standing up against the many injustices that continue to happen. In my opinion, we must first cultivate a greater community mindset over our personally absorbed mindset so that when we are standing up to the many injustices and betrayals of human rights, we would carry a lot more credibility, than if we only show up to yell about the greater infractions against humanity while the lesser infractions are continuing before our very eyes and sometimes done by us without realizing it. Mother Teresa has often said ì Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person-to-personî.