Thanksgiving. We are all here. That is a blessing no matter what our circumstances are. We live with hope because we live. Yet the world we live in is at once a painful, confusing, beautiful and unconscionable place.
So much cruelty to people and pets. Attacks because people are different from one another. Asking why sounds so trite. Yet I do not understand more than I understand. Is it the emotional have-nots who destroy lives and souls?
My husband as a boy unwillingly took on the head bully whose gang relentlessly pursued him. Richard won the fight. After that the bullies became his protectors. How does that make sense? The bullies saw strength as they defined it. But Richard’s true strength has always been in his kindness and respect for others’ feelings. One’s emotional core can be an empathic force or a force of destructive brutality. Our world, our government, our American neighbors are divided along these two forces.
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And look at what is happening. We are destroying one another. We are destroying our Earth, our home. We more often seem to choose bullying rather than empathy. We turn from hope and feed anger and jealousy.
The worst in us seems to have come out from under rocks. We force others to fear being themselves. That is each of our rights to be oneself and choose one’s life while not being cruel to another for that choice. If one cannot find strength in kindness, one needs to understand one’s weakness. Inflicting pain on humans and animals is not strength. It is truly being a coward and hiding behind the bully mentality of neediness and resulting cruelty.
So as I wish each of you a meaningful and healthy Thanksgiving, I make my wish for the human race.
Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow, Lakeview
Peace at Thanksgiving
As we celebrate Thanksgiving and all of the blessings bestowed upon us, let us hope and pray for peace among individuals and nations. To achieve this, peace must be pursued and worked at. We are all linked on this planet we share. To ignore this fact, we do so at our own peril.
We are on this earth for a brief period of time. We should try to live in peace and harmony with the other living creatures that inhabit the earth. Everyone and everything in the world is connected.
Ned L. McCray, Tinley Park
