stand up | breathe.

Let me begin by saying, I am eternally grateful to have been born in the United States. I have been given privileges and advantages people can only dream of. I have fresh, running water, food – all easily accessible to me. And most importantly, I have opportunity. So many opportunities and chances to do something special with this life.

That being said, my heart BREAKS for my country. Tears roll down my face for my fellow countrymen. What in the HELL are we doing? SO many things are already planted firm in our hands or just barely out of reach and we choose to continue letting our country go in this direction. Police brutality, discrimination against sexual orientation and race, war mongers, corrupt corporations, ethnocentrism, propaganda, OVERALL bad manners…. We are living in the LAND OF THE FREE, and yet, I feel so trapped by the views of my country.

Before anyone gets offended, I know it feels like this is a direct attack… it’s not. I know a majority of us see this, feel this, but we feel like we cannot do anything to change it.

“My VOICE means nothing…”

“I won’t be heard.”

“MY VOTE DOESN’T EVEN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.”

But the way I see it, at this point, we have no choice but to stand up. If we don’t stand up, who will?

There are countries all over the world leading revolutions and making change. For example, since 2008 Iceland had been working on overthrowing its government due to a banking fraud scandal. They wanted to prevent corporate greed from destroying their country. And guess what? They succeeded, and since then the citizens of Iceland have rewritten their constitution (*). (I find it amazing that our media didn’t have any mass coverage of this). Regardless of how we feel about some of the revolutions around the world, they are happening. Countries such as, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Yemen, Syria, Jordon, the list goes on. And there are plenty more on the verge of revolt. Including us.

So this brings me to the point of my rant…

I don’t expect any of us to stand up to the military of our country, I don’t even expect us to overthrow our government. All I ask is that we STAND UP for what is right. If we, as citizens of the United States, see something that is morally, ethically, JUDICIALLY wrong, we must STAND UP. We can’t just sit behind our computer screens anymore and watch these brutal videos and think there is nothing we can do to prevent them. We have the ability to make a video of a cat riding a vacuum go viral. The ability to hoax an entire nation of a celebrities death. The ability to share a video of a man being choked to death by the police after pleading for his life (**). That’s what we have, THE ABILITY. We are able to reach out and communicate with each other in ways unimaginable to those before us. Can we please start harnessing this tool in a positive way?!

Next, OUR FOOD SUPPLY. Why are we choosing to feed ourselves poison? Everyone, as much as some would like to deny, knows that the majority of food being pumped into our citizens is either jacked up with GMOs, preservatives, MSG, and on and on. Large corrupt companies are slowly trying to take over the food and water supply of the world. (***) Who in their right mind would want to deny someone their basic necessities to live? This world has plenty of resources and options to live sustainably. The media, once again, prevents us from hearing about alternate choices for food and energy. We are constantly having a mask put over our eyes by the people supposed to be guiding us in the right direction. We can no longer let GREED fuel our lifestyle. The world is hurting. The people of this world are hurting. Instead of being a beautiful being of evolution we are an infection to this planet.

(****) (side note article/video: what about the bees?! Poor babies.)

I challenge all of us, as BROTHERS AND SISTERS, to begin to be the change in our individual lives. Our individual life, in the sea of millions, creates a ripple that affects the whole ocean. Stop sitting back and thinking the voice of one can’t be heard by the ears of many. If something is going on that isn’t right STOP IT. Don’t be afraid anymore. The more people that are part of the SOLUTION, and not part of the PROBLEM, the closer we will be to living harmoniously in an incredibly fruitful country. We need to stop thinking that OUR individual opinions outweigh the opinions of others. We all believe in different things and it’s not our place to judge others for their differences. We need to start working TOGETHER if we ever want to survive together. Make an effort to be the change everyday. Whether it be by recycling, helping an old woman across the street (that happens to be a different race), preventing a police officer from wrongly treating a citizen, STOPPING political officers that have greedy motives, being the voice for someone who cannot speak, STANDING UP for someone with a different sexual orientation, random acts of kindness, telling someone their beautiful, helping someone step away from the edge. The smallest action can cause a GIANT reaction…