“What happened to us as a country?”

My question today is what happened to us as a country?

We use to love and help our neighbors, I remember my parents, they were always helping out our neighbors. People would stop and take the time to talk, to lend a hand, to get to know your neighbors.

Now we are so busy with our own lives, with keeping up with the Jone’s that we don’t even know who the Jones are, so how the hell can we keep up with them?

We have become a selfish, self-center world, it’s all about me, what have you’ve  done for me for lately? It has become a what can you do for me world and it’s not getting better, in fact it’s getting worse. We have raised a whole generation of ungrateful, you owe it to me, I don’t have to work for anything because it’s coming to me, bunch of ingrates.

Great job and we wonder why the world has become like it is now.
Where is our love and our compassion? When I bought my first home, we were the youngest couple on the street. After Hurricane Wilma we went house to house with each neighbor to help the fix the next house.
We cut down trees, we made sure they were okay, had food and water, tarped their roofs, then we all moved onto the next neighbor until we did the whole block.

That was truly a show of love and compassion but do we have to wait until a tragedy to do that? No, we knew our neighbors before that, we helped each other out long before this, because that is what you’re supposed to do.

When I moved into my new home as a single mom, my neighbors came by, helped me with things I couldn’t do and we’ve become fast friends since then. When I am cooking, I will bring over their favorite meal, when one of my neighbors recently move, I was the first to come and help pack and move him.
My neighbor who was a stranger at first is now my guardian angel, he even came to my rescue during hurricane Matthew while I was out of the country and my girls were here alone. He boarded up my home, brought everything in and made sure my girls were alright. This man who at first was a stranger is now my hero.

Yes, these are the things you just do because you have basic human compassion. When my new neighbor moved in I invited her to a party to meet everyone in the neighborhood and we are great friends now. We also got yet another single women across the street and as soon as she moved in we went over and told her if she needed anything we were there for her.

This is what you call a neighborhood, we all know each other’s names, we keep an eye on each other, we lend a helping hand, we have love and compassion for each other. This is one neighborhood, so why can’t we do this is every neighborhood, in every town, every city, every country?

Why is it them vs us? I live in a predominantly Spanish area, I go to a predominantly black church, I don’t see it as us vs them, I see it as a people loving each, other no matter what color, what religious beliefs, what sexual preference, people who all bleed the same color. What is so hard to see here?
We all bleed the same, we all grieve the same, we all love the same, we all want the best for our families so why can’t we all see this?

Why must there still be racism so many years after Dr. Martin Luther King speech?
Why are we burning our neighborhoods and our flags because we don’t like who is president? Why are we getting worse and not better after having our first black president? Why are we going backwards and not forward? It’s because we have no love or compassion, that’s why.

So today my friends, remember love and compassion can take us a long way, it can make you know your neighbor, it can open your heart to others struggles and want to help out. It can turn hate into love and we can really use some love today…be the first one, take the first step and like I always say at the end of every blog…be the change you want to see, it all starts with you.

“Be the change you want to see”