Today's Titans

Today’s Titans

In times past we have, as Americans, risen up at the sight of great injustice. We have battled the forces of evil, those very forces that would divide our nation, and destroy the beliefs of equality and justice that we hold dear. These conflicts were numerous, and the titans of these revolutions are still remembered; Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr. to name but a few. We still fight diligently against the evils of racism, and the injustice of gender discrimination, but we refuse to acknowledge our countries greatest demon; the ever-widening rift between our countries richest individuals, and those that we deem “untouchables.” A Russian proverb states that, “If everyone gives a thread then the poor man will have a shirt,” but at what point did we decide as Americans to cease giving threads? I’ve heard many excuses as to why we stopped, “They’re just scamming the system,” or “They’ll never learn to work hard if we help them.” At what point were we given the power to pass judgment on those facing hardships? I know there are people out there who will use the loopholes and make a life out of welfare payments, but should welfare be destroyed because of these people? Can you tell that child that you expect him/her to grow up into a productive member of society, a society that denied them Maslow’s Base needs and then had the audacity to take their parents from them, because their parents couldn’t afford to feed them, or to give them a doctor’s visit? I can not. I can not accept a society that would. I can not accept a system in which a government protects the rights of the rich to destroy the lives of the poor. I read somewhere that “all men are created equal,” that “they are imbued by our creator with certain inalienable rights,” do we still

believe the words in our Declaration of Independence? Do we still believe our Bill of Rights, our Constitution? Our Constitution was not created to protect the rich; it was not created to uphold the majority. No, it was created in order to protect the minority from the majority. At what point did it become more important to keep taxes low, to keep your wallet full, than to feed your neighbor, to love your neighbor? We are reaching the point in our society that we all clamor to the top of the pile, pushing down those who are weak, using them as stepping stools to advancement. We must change this, if not to help others, then to help ourselves. There comes a day when all men are weakened, when even the strongest among us will fall, as we currently stand our society would simply swallow these men and women and forget them. We must change this; we must realize that we are strong for only a while and that while we are strong we must pull those who are weak to the top of the pile with us, so that when we fall, and fall we shall, they will be there to support us. This day we must change from looking to ourselves, to looking to our neighbors. We must embody the change we wish to see in the world. There are no more titans to shoulder this burden. We must now all, as Americans and as mankind, stand up together. We must fight, and we must prevail, or I fear we will not long survive without lapsing into pseudo-slavery, a caste system, where birth will determine everything and honesty, courage, and hard-work will account for nothing. The titans are gone, but we can rise up and accept the challenge, we can be titans.