Making A Difference Over Time

It is one thing to look at an issue or event and only see what it means for our lives today. It is quite another to analyze those same issues and events, and their potentially lasting impact on our lives, the lives of our children, our grandchildren tomorrow and beyond. We are all too often consumed with “living in the moment” where a short attention span and instant gratification rule the day.

While there is value in looking at events from today’s perspective, the more we observe, the more we realize that broad, sweeping and lasting changes and conditions develop over time. The seeds are often planted long before we see the nature and kind of fruit — good or bad — that define the harvest.

It is like raising children. What they ultimately become is a result of the kind of experience and nurturing they encounter over time. However, that does not mean that sometimes we have spontaneous, temporal, life-altering events that permanently alter our perspectives about life, even life itself. Normally, those are the exception, not the rule.

I think each of us needs to take the time to frequently find a quite place, whether it is at the end of a day, or sitting or driving on a Sunday afternoon, to ponder the long-term implications of what is going on around us.

History is replete with men and women who took the longer view and worked for lasting change. Mother Theresa knew that she could not rid Calcutta of the ravages of the extreme conditions of poverty on its most vulnerable citizens in a week, a few months or several years. She spent a sacrificial lifetime trying to break its interminable grip.

When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. took up the fight to rid this country of racial discrimination, he knew he was not dealing with a condition that occurred in a short time period. He also knew that real change did not nor would not happen overnight.

The more they saw and heard, the more they could not turn a blind eye or a deaf ear. They knew the meaning of the “Times” of their lives — as we must become acutely aware of the “Times” of our own.

Now is the time to ask what has changed significantly (for better or worse) over the last 10, 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years in your community/surroundings? Regardless of what major changes occurred, or failed to occur, we need to ask “Why?”

More importantly, what can we expect in the future? And, what can we do about it, in both the short-term and long-term?

What is our agenda to bring about lasting change?

Every now and then, we get a blatant and ugly reminder of how far we have NOT come — a racist banner amid a demonstration, an ethnic slur, or a derogatory remark. A stereotypical image colors and dictates how we perceive or relate to a stranger, where we sit, where we go to eat, and where we take in a show.

Often, the reminders get a little worse. Some one is beaten or killed because of how they look, because of their apparent or blatant sexual orientation, or their religious beliefs.

Then there are the less obvious crimes on humanity that are with us every day through some form or another — disenfranchisement born of the disparity between economic classes, the healthy and not so healthy, the educated and the uneducated.

Daily, we have someone denied a job, a home, a loan, a seat in a classroom, or even a meal.

Thus, the real question is, will we be resigned to let such conditions continue to define the times of our lives?

Would leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Theresa, Ghandi, Cesar Chavez, Susan B. Anthony, and Harvey Milk sat silently by, as these horrendous crimes occurred?

Doubtful.