One of the characters in some of my older novels became famous for saying, “This county is going to hell in a handbasket.” He was referring to the “unusual” incidents I had to create to tell a story. (More)
Well, the incidents weren’t all that unusual. They happen everywhere all the time, but this little county seemed like a place removed from all of that … on the surface. It was a kind of joke with my readers, and they loved it.
But I’m starting to feel like that character as I read the news day in and out. “The world is going to hell in a handbasket.”
Israel is invading Gaza. I read lies about refugee children from Central America bringing diseases that have only been documented in Africa, and many want to deny them the care that simple human decency requires. I see that separatists shot down a passenger plane over the Ukraine. The president is being sued with taxpayer dollars by a Congress that refuses to do its job and has no goal other than to sink the presidency. Armed people are walking our streets, into our restaurants and department stores, claiming they have the right to terrify all the rest of us. I read about a party that refuses to help the poor among us, preferring instead to increase the wealth of the wealthiest. And no, ordinary Americans shouldn’t have health care.
And let us not forget our changing climate, which is going to kick us in the butt no matter how often some say it isn’t happening.
So yes, it could seem like the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
Except that in reality little has changed. We’ve been fighting these battles for a long time. Little more than a century ago, we had Robber Barons. Then we had union organizers beaten and killed in our streets. Two thousand years ago the Romans realized that handing out free grain to the people prevented civil unrest. (I guess they were smarter than we are.) Over two hundred years ago there was a revolution in France because the people couldn’t get bread. Three hundred years ago we had the Inquisition. Seven hundred years ago the Little Ice Age brought famine and disease to Europe.
History is replete with examples of how often life gets hard. It’s equally replete with examples of how often we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and set about improving things.
Difficult times and difficult challenges are tough. But they also provide an opportunity to show our true stuff. The thing is to never give up. The world may be going to hell in a handbasket, but we can pick up that handbasket and carry it in a different direction.
Vote. Donate to the needy. Help your neighbors. Welcome the strangers who come to your door seeking aid.
What we do in our own backyards adds up to heaven or hell. The choice is in our hands.
Thank you for this, Winter. 🙂
The news can seem hopeless at times. Part of that is simply the nature of news. We want (and need) to hear about challenges and dangers. Local stories of ordinary people doing good things for each other get tagged on in the final segment, after the sports and weather and before the handoff to the national news. Those stories rarely make the national news unless they’re truly exceptional … and most of the good things ordinary people do for each other aren’t exceptional.
The result is a very biased view of the world. During an election, we hear all about this gaffe and that negative ad. We get chapter and verse on a feisty debate or any whiff of a scandal, and rarely a word on the tens or hundreds of thousands of people who are making phone calls and knocking on doors.
Most of those contacts are courteous, friendly conversations, even if the person on the phone or at the door disagrees (or doesn’t care). But say the word “politics” and “courteous, friendly conversations” are hardly the first images that come to mind.
The news is about local and world events, but the news is not about all local and world events, or even a representative sample. When the news gets too ugly — and it sometimes does — we need to take time to sample the other events that weren’t in the news …
… including making those calls and knocking on those doors and having those courteous, friendly conversations.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
Interesting perspective. 🙂 I had a rather different one and I enjoyed reading yours.
Thanks for taking the time to reply in such detail.
I loved this and thank you!
I have noticed that the hand basket in which we are going to hell is often filled with something different every week or every day. We have lots of short term crises and if progress is made, we rarely hear about it. I couldn’t find the link but in the last couple of days I remember reading about progress in the talks with Iran. The hand basket seemingly has no room for good news.
The problem with only putting crises in our hand basket is that we lack the perspective of progress. Plus when we next look in the basket we say, “Oh no. Now this!” Meanwhile, good people are doing good things for their families, friends and communities. There is no room in the hand basket for them.
Thank you, Linda. 🙂
There’s plenty of room in that handbasket, and the news isn’t the only thing capable of moving it. We need to pick it up and move it ourselves, in a totally different direction. Only if each and everyone of us tries to improve the world right around us, will the world start moving in a different direction.
“Congress that refuses to do its job and has no goal other than to sink the presidency.” is busy drilling holes in the Ship of State.
Sadly true, Jim. Which is why Crissie is right about canvassing and getting voters to the polls. Each pleasant conversation could bring us closer to a better government.