The Weight of Democracy

Sometimes I think about how the world is tilted on an axis, making it crooked, and how that technically means we are all a little bit crooked. Human beings are strange. If you take apart the term, the second part, being, means “to be”, and I always think about how we are here almost accidentally yet think we are the center of the universe. There is some truth to that, since there is actually no center of the universe at all, making everything and everyone the center of their own universe. This can be dangerous for humans because when we get to the center, we don’t want to leave. Think of the politicians who have the most power in our country; do they want to step down once they have a position of power?

I believe that in general, most of us humans want to help each other and make things easier for each other. For some reason, though, it seems that so often when certain people gain certain power, they will do anything to hold onto it no matter the consequences, kind of like a black hole. For those of you who are not familiar, black holes have so much energy and such fierce gravitational pull that they suck everything inside them, and not even light can escape. They store information, but also destroy it, and possibly even spit it out on the other side… kind of like humans. If a politician is a black hole, that means they have the ability to share only what they want with the public without having to be transparent. We can’t even see into them. For the rest of us, that means we often don’t get the support that our government promises. We see this with any type of person, anywhere in this country, but especially for those of us with learning differences. Why is it that when the average person goes to the government to get help, the government simply ignores them for as long as possible? Our government has grown quiet, simply because they want to keep their power.

The government's job is to “govern” meaning to guide the people. The more hiding they do and the less guiding they do, the more our democracy goes down the drain. As a country, we have forgotten how to lose gracefully and how to show people to lose without hurting other people. How are we supposed to be kind to one another (especially those we don’t have anything in common with) if our politicians are demonstrating such bad ethics? It frustrates me endlessly that those in power have left the most vulnerable people out to fend for themselves so that they can hold onto their own power. If we can learn how to lose gracefully and support those in need, then our democracy will be the Atlas, holding up the world on his shoulders, and we can be proud as a country that genuinely supports people of any age, race, background, and ability.