This doesn't apply to most of us, but it certainly does to enough of us.

Recent events have got me thinking.

I am beyond glad that there have been so many relief efforts, but there is still so much hate in our world. We dwell on the past, a history that's already played itself out, and we can't let go of such personal vendettas that we've built our lives upon. It saddens me to think that people still live with so much hate, even today. In a way, as much as we pride ourselves on being superior and industrialized, we have become so much more inferior in terms of human faith. We've forgotten that at the core of everything, we're all just human. When you peel away the politics and social stigmas, we're really all just people, trying to live better lives.

One of the most important lessons I've ever learned was from a HumCore class, one that I've never really applied to life until the past year. This professor told us that rhetoric moves the world, and only such a world would change for the better. But honestly, how can we change if we're holding onto historic anecdotes so tight that there's no energy left to move?

If we store a little piece of hate for every time someone does us wrong, how long will it be before there is no more room for anything else but negativity? It's appalling how many Americans, in the wake of a natural disaster that impacts humanity, feel nothing more than satisfaction that Japan's "finally getting what they deserve".

So this is it, then? People deserve to die? We're all just playing into the hands of political history. It goes so much deeper, but no one realizes that. People don't think anymore, that's basically what karma is. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Cliche? But that's what it's coming down to. You bombed Pearl Harbor? Well here's a little piece of "karma" for you! It's not just America, much of China has reacted the same way.

But we forget where this hatred is directed. It's easy to say when you're on the other side of the world, safe and sound. Such feelings are directed at the country, but it's the people who DYING. Can you imagine thousands of dead bodies? Can you REALLY? Imagine your lecture hall, the biggest has no more than 400-500. Can you imagine lecture hall after lecture hall filled with people?

It's easy to throw out these words of hate, because we think words don't affect people. We think that this justifies everything that's gone wrong in history, and saying such things give us a sense of superiority, because we're tired of feeling ashamed and inferior and helpless. So when Mother Nature unexpectedly comes around and helps us along, gives us that energy we need to move forward a little bit, we take it. We bask in the feeling of the avenged. Sound familiar yet? This is how the holocaust happened.

We go around saying we can't let history repeat itself, but it's repeating itself everyday, right in front of our very eyes.

And what are we doing to change it?



You know who you are. Please. Just let it go.

Sit for a moment, and think about what it means to be a human. Regardless of who you define yourself to be politically or socially, think about what it would feel like to witness death by hundreds. What it would be like if you lost the ones you loved in a situation so helpless. Because in the end, we're all at the mercy of the Earth, and our own biological clocks.

Edit: found this via a friend. FB is slow at x-posting this post.


"你们知不知道在大自然面前
我们人类是一家人"
"Do you know that before Mother Nature
We humans are one family?"