You can’t turn on television without seeing it and hearing it. You can’t be on Social Media without massive exposure. It appears the amount of anger, hate, discontent and violence in the world is escalating and we are being bombarded with it. Once in a while a story surfaces of a hero or a good deed done by a stranger. Those stories are a breath of fresh air in an otherwise trying era for our country and our world. Everyone has an opinion. We sometimes forget we may not have access to all the information. Sometimes we jump to conclusions and think the worst of people without knowing the entire story. It’s easy to do that in the age we live in.
As I was waiting to check out my groceries yesterday, I had a nice chat with the checkout clerk. The lady in front of me had to go to her car to look for her wallet. The checkout clerk remarked, “I can’t tell you how many times this has happened this past week.” She commented so many people forgot their wallet or purse or had misplaced them. I thought about the events of the past week. There had been bombings and stabbings. There had been police shootings. All were still under investigation. I looked at the clerk and said, “I think people are stressed from everything that is going on in the world.” She agreed. “People have enough going on in their own lives and have enough to deal with aside from all the other stuff going on.”
She’s right. Everyone is on overload. Today is International Peace Day and it couldn’t have come at a better time. It is a good time to be reminded that as the world struggles with so much increasing hate and violence, many people are struggling with day to day needs to just stay alive.
The challenges are many as a large number of the world’s citizens face poverty and the things that go with it: homelessness, lack of employment, and hunger. Many in the world deal with a lack of potable water, environmental issues, disease, racism, corruption, wars, economic issues, and diminishing natural resources.
International Peace Day was created by the United Nations to work towards alleviating many of these problems. Peace frees the resources needed to overcome many of these issues. At a time when mankind should be working together, ongoing conflicts work against the needed collaboration to help make life better for the world’s population.
Is there anything we as citizens of the world can do to impact the need? Yes! Be kind, don’t judge. Don’t participate in the hate frenzy. Recognize that every race of people and every type of profession has a few bad apples. Don’t judge everyone in that group based on that. It has been that way since the beginning. Most of all, be grateful! Grateful? Yes, be grateful for all you have as you consider the conditions under which many of your “brothers” across the globe are living. International Peace Day…it’s a day we need to have every day of the year.