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THE TIRING SEARCH FOR MEANING TO LIFE IN THIS AGE OF RAGE

Well, I am in the winter of my life and I must admit that I am tired & I am frustrated. I am sick and troubled by everything I see around me in this age of confusion. I am sick of waking up and spending the day in useless pursuit of what this person or that person wrote on Twitter or Face book or other social media. I am tired of having my value system challenged every day by what I see and what I read. Yes, now in my seventies, I feel I am a true conservative but given my age I fear what the coronavirus has done to us and I hate the Lock-Down and while I thank God that I have so far survived the virus, I certainly don’t like what the future holds for me and for the people around me. I’m troubled and tired of all the struggles I see by the people I care for and those living in close proximity to me and my family here in Canada.

HOW ABOUT YOU? ARE YOU TIRED?

I am also tired of the daily trials and tribulations of the American election that is splashed in my face every single day. I am obviously not a Republican or a Democrat. But I’m sick of both parties because they have created an incredible divide in their country and they have affected the entire world, which means all of us including those of us living next door to them in Canada. As a conservative, I should obviously like to see Republicans make headways but to be honest I don’t give a damn. I’d rather see stability, safety and common sense prevailing than to cheer to whoever will be in power.

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP PRIORITIES?

I want for myself and my children the right to speak and to say that I am sick and tired of anybody who wants to silence us ( and there are so many). I am a man of faith but I still feel completely exhausted and discouraged by those that ridicule my faith. I certainly don’t ridicule their lack of it. I’m tired and frustrated that we have millions upon millions of people each with their own social media and each with a different point of view on every subject and issue and each of them thinking that they have a monopoly on truth. Each of them so certain they have the right answer (and that includes me by the way). I am certainly exhausted and dismayed by this relentless use and abuse of the racism card. I am upset by those who play it for their own purposes and agenda but couldn’t care less about the true victims of racism. You know, the ones that are truly affected in the ghettoes and in the poor areas of the world. These victims will not benefit at all from the anger and riots and destruction. In fact the same poor people are the ones who are going to suffer the most from this turmoil.

HOW CAN WE RESOLVE THE RACE ISSUE?

I’m also very frustrated with the lack of understanding of people about the roles of the various segments of society to create a true civilization. It is the fault of the complex structures we created for governments that makes it so difficult for ordinary citizen to relate to the structure. No one seems to be able to give a simple explainable structure that the average person will comprehend. This is the reason why all the three main branches of any government deserve the lack of trust and the lack of confidence that people have. This is true with all three bodies, the legislative body, the judicial body or the executive body. People like me are tired of waking up every morning to discover the legislator has put more laws and more acts and more bills that usually mean limiting people freedom even more. I am tired of the judicial system that seems to cater to some groups and interests and not to others and at times apply the law inconsistently. And lastly of course I am most upset with the executive group particularly the politicians and all the central role they play, lying to us, deceiving us and confirming to everyone of us how crooked they really are. I am also sick and tired of the government institutions that are there to enforce laws but they do so using force without mercy and without understanding the purpose of the law. This includes all policing, investigative and security "services". These institutions at times care more about enforcement than service.

WHAT GOVERNMENT FORM AND STRUCTURE IS BEST FOR YOU ? But by far I am more angry with protests that lead to toppling monuments, riots, looting and burning. I am tired of some people who simply think that that is the only way they can get their voice heard or it is the best way to accomplish their agenda even if that mean you erase heritage and remove works of art and culture. I am tired and sick of the High Tech firms that control the Social Media. They are Platforms not publishers and they should stay that way and allow all viewpoints. I am so angry and tired of the incredibly biased mainstream media that succumb to the political parties and becomes their instrument of misinformation. I am sick and tired of those that want to blame me for the sins of my forefathers, generations and generations ago. I am tired of having to explain plainly why you cannot judge all people by one opinion, and why some bad apples have to face justice but not the whole innocent segment of the population.

SINCE INFORMATION IS THIS AGE ' CURRENCY, HOW DO WE GET THE TRUTH?

I am tired of hearing references to the hyphenated populations. I am tired of saying I’m a Chaldaean- Canadian and he is a Asian- Canadian and she is a black -Canadian etc. I love the Jamaica Moto they have on their coat of arms that says: out of many, one people. I wish every country with diversity issues would do that. I wish everybody would live with the Ralston College motto that states: SERMO LIBER VITA IPSA
“Free Speech Is Life Itself”. I am tired of those that want to silence the lambs. Those who will silence the marginalized and those people who want equity of opportunity whether from the left or the right.

WHAT ARE YOUR VALUES AND PRINCIPLES?

I’m so tired of the damn virus and of the noise and of the elections and all the huge divide that separates people and that make people distant from each other that soon we will forget the meaning of the words: Reach out and touch, or to hug someone. I am sick of not being able to hold my grandsons in my arms and to kiss them tenderly. This makes me not only sick but very sad as well.

HOW DO WE FEEL ABOUT SOCIAL DISTANCING?

I am sick of all the stupidities about the elections and the games played with voting and how to use fraud to win. For heaven sake you want to vote for whoever, then vote for that person of your choice but you don’t have to shove it down my throat by force or by cheating. Do you want to convert to a different religion? your choice, do whatever ! Believe in whatever! worship whatever even if it is a stone but for heaven sake don’t hit me with that stone. Everyone of us want to live in peace. Everyone of us wants security. Everyone of us wants a good life and everybody wants to be special to someone. We all want these things so why don’t we all work to accomplish all these things and join hands. Surely we can accomplish them better if we work with each other than against each other. I’m not suggesting for a moment that we all have to have the same thoughts or the same objectives but for heaven sake let’s all respect each other’s point of view and realize that we may not always agree with what the other person sees and we may sit down to discuss and have a beautiful debate and we may arrive at some conclusions or we may not. In my life experience, I always discovered that when I cannot agree with someone we can at least agree to disagree and then part company. it is the civilized thing to do. We must accept and understand that each of us is an individual, a person, with the ability to imagine the entire universe with a single act of thought. So, do not for a minute expect that what you think and what I think and what the other 7+ billion people think would be the same. In fact, we were not even created to be the same. We are different and yet we are ONE human race. You don’t have to agree with me. I don’t have to agree with you. But, as the old definition of freedom of speech states it: "I will fight to the death for your right to say what you want even if I don’t agree with it".

WHAT SHOULD WE DO TO LET PEOPLE EXERCISE THEIR RIGHTS TO DISAGREE?

In the final analysis we only have one limited journey on this planet that is for most of us around 70 to 80 years, givern the average life expectancy. Let’s spend every year working, trying, helping, loving our neighbour and striving to leave this World of ours to our children and grandchildren better than how we found it when we first came to this earth. That is the beauty of our existence. It should have meaning to ourselves, to our offspring and to humanity.

WHAT WOULD GIVE EVEN MORE MEANING TO YOUR EXISTENCE?

drshallal 6 June 22
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3 comments

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Past generations did not have the internet, cable TV, talk radio, and a right-wing political machine priming their outrage 24/7. I suggest that you tune out. Your generation's constant moral panic has finally manifested a reaction from the 18-40 year olds, who now have the numbers to make their power be known. Your generation has squandered prosperity and treated possibly the most peaceful and educated generation in modern history like they were criminals from the day they were born and they are rightfully pissed.

You sound like one of them. Yes I know we did not have all the tech tools. It did not prevent us from marching "peacefully" against the Vietnam war or the Kent State U tragedy. We did not riot, loot and burn or topple statues and monuments. Please don't feel sorry for us old folks who still have values and principles we inherited from our past generations. We built on these values to arrive to the best civilization the world ever known till now, 2020. We squandered nothing. We did make the mistake of trusting that our academic institutions (and I was once in few of these) will educate our kids. Unfortunately, the new "most peaceful and educated generation in modern history" are indeed behaving like criminals, and this include people in my extended family. I will not tune out, but thank you for the defeatism suggestion. I do agree with you that we are in a moral panic, because we have been there and some of us have seen the horrors of wars and insurrections. This "rightfully pissed" generation has not. I thought we can learn from history so that we don't repeat the mistakes of the past, then comes along people like you, sir, to teach us wisdom that you don't have. Politely, as we were always taught, Thank you, but NO thank you.

@drshallal 66 years ago, very fitting words were spoken to a right-wing demagogue Senator. I'll paraphrase: Let us not assassinate this generation further. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?

@WilyRickWiles I remember it well, is this you Joseph McCarthy coming back to haunt us as Wily? It is really strange that you would use McCarthyism, a vociferous evil campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy in the period 1950–54. Many of the accused were blacklisted or lost their jobs, although most did not in fact belong to the Communist Party. Today, no one wants to assassinate this generations, They are our children But those leading them astray, they use the same exact evil technique under the flags of BLM and ANTIFA (AND YOU) but this time it is the Socialists / Marxists that are doing it to the center liberals and conservatives alike. How ironic. WAKE UP ....WAKE UP...LISTEN..... RIOTERS, LOOTERS, ANARCHISTS .... HAVE YOU NOT DONE ENOUGH? HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY? but, I don't think you will listen.

@drshallal You have it reversed. Those were the words of Joseph Welch, the Army lawyer admonishing McCarthy. Guess who McCarthy's lawyer was: Roy Cohn, Donald Trump's mentor. Your generation has allowed the nativism of McCarthy and the John Birch Society to consume our politics. You have made history repeat itself only this time the young people are not naive hippies or radical dilettantes. Please hear his words.

@WilyRickWiles ENOUGH. I have it straight not reversed. I did not say these were the words of Joseph McCarthy. I vividly remember the old man / lawyer that uttered these words and the admiration I had for him was immense. I know who Roy Cohn was as well. But that is irrelevant to my post. This is a strange world that I get lectured on the very topic that I detest with all my heart, McCarthyism. No the young people rioting and fire burning and toppling statues are NOT naive hippies but they are most certainly radically indoctrinated. I should know, because i talk to quiet few of them. Who should I hear? my generation brought you what you saw in Jan 2020, Will your generation do better? lets wait and see, but since I am so old and there is a Coronavirus waiting for me, I doubt that I will see the future you are trying to describe. But, I wrote my post as warning to the next generation. "Study the past, if you would divine the future." CONFUCIUS.

@drshallal You did accuse me of being Joseph McCarthy reincarnate for using those words. Nevertheless, your final warning to study the past is well-received.

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I get tired, then I snap out of it: I'll sleep when I'm dead.

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Faith - Faith is the belief in things unseen; the hope for things to come.

I stated that in my post. I am a man of faith.

@drshallal The ONLY thing that can give meaning to life is a belief in something greater than ourselves. Literally everything that is available to our senses - hear, see, touch, smell, taste - is temporal and spacial. In other words constantly moving and changing form - human beings and our institutions like politics, education, religion, etc are in a constant state of flux, building, falling, prospsering and failing in a never ending cycle of death and renewal of the physical universe and all it's parts. The ONLY thing - the only "constant" (for lack of a better word for it) by which we can navigate life and find meaning is to believe (have faith) that there is something Greater - a Creator, as Source of Life itself that will be there for us in the ether.
Without that there really is no reason for any man to "be good" to "do good" but only to live selfishly and hedonistically. Faith - Faith is all we have to keep us on a righteous path - if only we all could do that.

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