Category: Right and Wrong

Rights

In America, we all have rights.  The constitution offers the rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  If you notice, some things never ended up on the list.  The guarantee of happiness is not present, only that you may pursue happiness.  Also missing is your right to walk over another person’s rights.

If I am a store owner, I can refuse the right to serve someone who I felt was threatening my patrons or me.  Threats could include someone who may be intoxicated, pointing a firearm, or potentially threatening my store with a bomb or a possible biological agent that could be deadly.  In this country, one person’s rights do not negate anyone else’s rights.

No one gets to yell ‘FIRE’ in a crowded theater.  You cannot start target practice on Main Street.  You cannot steal a car or kill someone and not end up pursued, and arrested. And, if there is a deadly virus that is threatening your area, and you refuse to follow the rules, you might not get service.  The store owner has a right to deny you service if you do not comply with the protective needs of society.

I Understand the wish to do whatever I wanted.  At the same time, I know the need to do what is right for the greater good of all.  I am not an island unto myself.  I am part of a greater community.  I must balance my rights with the needs of everyone.  If I fail to do so, the entire basis of my freedoms is at risk of failing.  Then, I would have no ‘rights’ to protect me.

Thank you for being with me today.  I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Good or Bad

No person makes it by themselves. The poets and the singers got it right.

It is incredible, when we think of it, that for all the foibles and failures in our society, we actually function best with a community. As a matter of fact, lack of community only serves to stunt our ability to grow and do better. Although I focus on emotional growth and growth of knowledge, health and physical well-being are also often compromised.

A community is not for sissies. Just like Yin and Yang, there are positives and negatives in anything. Being part of a community is no exception. You will find much good in interacting with others, sharing, and learning as you grow within the community. At the same time, you do open yourself up to emotional pain. You find yourself open to some negative people. And not everything that you learn will turn out to be true.

This does not mean we’re better off walling ourselves off from the community. For good within the community far outweighs the bad. What we need to do, is to go into the community as I believe one great person put it, “as gentle as lambs, and is wary as wolves.”

The real trick is to absorb everything you can and then weigh it. Do your research to know what’s true or not. And, do your considerations to understand the meeting of what you have learned and whether it is good or bad based on the morals of the community, and more importantly within your framework of right and wrong within life. Only then, do you really know if this knowledge is relevant, accurate, and helpful.

Utilize and grow with the right and confident knowledge. Do not dismiss or flush out of your system the false and harmful knowledge. Instead, keep a file in your mind of things that are negative or untrue. Having the record on hand helps you from having to relearn or possibly remaking the same mistakes.