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.