The Best of Times...or the Worst of Times

The Solution

In the months and years after the jetliners crashed into the World Trade Center in 2001, the American public was introduced to greed and corruption on an unprecedented scale that brought about the collapse of Enron first, then one Fortune 500 company after another after another until business failures on a large scale became almost passé. In recent months, we have seen the collapse and bankruptcies of companies that made those failures seem paltry by comparison. Along with that has come a litany of sex scandals among our top political and religious leaders that has most of America and the rest of the world wondering where the hell does it stop, and how much worse can it get?

Personally, I don’t know where it stops on the grander scale, and things may well get worse before they get better. But I do believe that they will get better eventually, and that it has taken such massive breakdown on all levels and resulting hardship to get our individual attention on what’s most important. WE are what’s most important. By that I mean that we as individuals matter in that overall grand scheme of things, and the only way that we can hope to make a difference in creating a truly “kinder, gentler nation” and safe world to live in is to give back to one another instead of taking blindly whatever we can from a nation that is essentially bankrupt.

I don’t know if we’re on the “brink of collapse,” as so many people are saying, but I know that I can at least stop contributing to the breakdown by paying more attention to how I go about my daily life, and by how willing I am to reach back and help others. If you don’t think that will make a difference, consider how all those people were able to keep their charades going for so long. We allowed that to happen…all 300 million-plus of us at every level of our “get-ahead-at-any-cost” culture. Those planes flew into those towers not just because a bunch of Islamic Jihadists had a grudge against us. It happened because we stopped caring about others on a massive scale…and we allowed our political, military and corporate leaders to take whatever they wanted from other countries and from us. Collectively, we contributed to the process in some way or other by allowing it to happen.

I’m not going to take issue with the powers-that-be, or side with radical elements who want to bring the government down, but I damn sure will start paying more attention to what goes on in my life. The only thing I can do of any real substance, even if it’s tiny by comparison with what a general or a Senator or CEO of any of the remaining Fortune 500 companies can do, is to reach back and help someone else get through what is going on now. Just that act alone makes one person at a time feel better and more valued, and begins a process of rebuilding confidence and caring that, one at a time, builds to the point where more people are paying more attention to what goes on in their lives and who we put in office and whose products we buy.

We got ourselves so caught up in making a living and getting ahead or just surviving that no one paid attention to some trends and patterns that now in hindsight seem pretty obvious even to un-trained eyes. Those people got away with the things they did because we let them, and we ignorantly allowed ourselves to believe that we couldn’t do anything about it. We just went along with it, believing that it didn’t affect us.

I know that it doesn’t seem that any individual can make much of a difference, but we have to begin somewhere…which can and should be with ourselves. Each of us can make a difference by the examples that we set and how we impact others with our thoughts, words and actions. Consider the movie, “Pay It Forward,” and how you felt after watching it. Of course it was “just a movie,” but it had a profound impact on just about everyone who watched it because it showed how powerful one simple idea, properly implemented, had the potential of changing masses of people at a compounding rate.

You can make a difference. You need to make your voice and your intentions heard among those over whom you have any influence or control, and you have to commit to making a difference, no matter how small it may seem to you. Mentoring, caring, guiding and re-directing others on any and all levels can and will restore balance and sensibility in an insane world. At no time in history has social order and disorder been in such an amplified state. But we have the Internet, satellite TV, computers and many things that will vastly accelerate the process, which can make these the best of times in the face of the worst of times.

Don Kirchner
ReturnToHonor.org