Who is walking the walk and who is talking the talk?  And by what standard do we measure this?  Did you know how many people are even afraid to start trying because so many others are judging against a false standard?  Judgement.  It is killing the efforts of those of us that are working so hard to turn this country, community, ourselves – around.

Your social skills are paramount in social and environmental change.  Your critical thinking skills are paramount in change.  Your compassion is paramount.  If you can’t change yourself, how will you change those who are afraid?  Angry?  Apathetic?  If you can’t first change yourself, you can’t change anyone.  We need to have more diplomatic conversations with those around us and save our judgement for the corporations, governments, organized religions, and institutions that need that kind of force.  We can do far more powerful things with love and compassion in changing one’s mind than we can trying to beat each over the head with our ideas and who is right.

That’s what is happening in Israel/Palestine now.  That structure of thinking is barbaric and doesn’t work.  If we want to keep our communities intact we must learn to think better, compromise more, and be diplomatic with those around us.  There are far too many other factors out there that make this so important.

Although the video (below) left out the Native American’s (Iroquois Confederacy; the 6 Nations) huge influence on our constitution and much history that goes with it, I wanted to share it because it has such a great message.  We’ll talk more about Native American’s in a minute.

Human Rights start with how we treat each other as people. How we treat life. It comes with how we judge others with hate, or compassion.
Human rights are the little decisions and thoughts we make when someone wears something we don’t like, or when people say something we don’t like.
Are we treating each other with Human Rights? For anyone that believes in a better world, it all starts with us! Can you respect people who oppose your views even if you don’t agree with them?  That is the true test of a strong person and a strong community.  Friendship must come first.  How does it hit you when you think of gay people, queer people, women, people of color, children, unruly teenagers, politicians, immigrants, Israelis, Palestinians, the President, someone who has offended you, someone who just cut you off in traffic, your ex-girlfriend that totally f*cked you over, your ex-boyfriend that verbally abused you?  If you abuse back, you’re not practicing Human Rights.  You’re practicing the right to shut another person down.  (However, self-defense is an entirely different subject).

With that said, I would love for you to check out a video below about our freedom to believe whatever we want, which so many (of us) try to take that away from others.  Think about how you practice human rights while watching it.

Now that you’ve watched that film, I want to get back to the Native Americans.  It’s important to note that much of what we’re told about Native American history is only half-true. This is important to remember because we are one of the youngest countries to corrupt this fast. And if you don’t think our country is corrupt, it might be time to start inviting some other perspectives into your mind and just see what you think.  There is a shit ton of information out there.  If your entire life is created on a half-lie, how would that change all the decisions you’ve made?  Do you think if our country is created on the (whole) truth, we’d be making different decisions with our government today?

According to this article, many European settlers were defecting to Native American tribes and their cultural ways because it was so much realistic than Europe’s methods of survival. So this video is understood in the context of (some) European people coming to terms with Human Rights, which never happened here in the States.  Our country was built on blood not peace.  That short video doesn’t go into the different contexts of indigenous cultures, which I find unenlightening.  And this is because it’s not that we’ve tried to evolve all of this time, it is very clear in history (which this video does not mention) that certain groups have a harder time allowing free will than other groups.  And that is the foundation the U.S. is built on.

The Iroquois Confederacy (according to this site) heavily influenced the Constitution, but in reality, the government has tried to stamp them out and their way of living in this world by removing all of their free will, their land, their rights, their weapons, their food, and everything that was important to living this sort of lifestyle.  And in the process of this genocide, they’ve spread messages to all the future generations to do the same.  Even to this day, kids in school are still learning the same crap we did 30-40 years ago.  A history that leaves out the foundations of which it was supposedly built on.

Many people in the United States and other countries believe our problems are an issue between Democrat or Republican, Right or Wrong, Capitalism or Communism or Socialism.  This is not the issue.  Many indigenous tribes made it blatantly obvious that groups, and even large groups of people can live together in harmony, everyone getting what they need without destroying animals and the land.  If you are still thinking of things in terms of this or that, please turn off Facebook and other programming like TV and radio and start looking for factual information and not things created (video, music, movie, writing) without the full truth, such as the video above, and start adopting critical thinking skills so you can check all information on your own.  With the internet, there is no reason we can’t take time to do this and work together spreading truth.

Unplug from the system and think for yourself!

If you are going to spread (share) information, make sure its correct first, or write a warning.  Such as, “This information is awesome because it promotes a good message, but it sucks because it left out the most important part of history.”  That is, people’s rights, human rights, are still being stamped out, and have been all along.  Our country’s government was responsible for the stamping out of human rights with Native Americans, Mexicans, African-Americans, gays, women, disabled persons, more.  Do any of us even realize the conditions Native Americans live in within these reservations?  We don’t even consider them in our minds when we talk about the homeless.  They’ve been homeless and “imprisoned” on their own land.  Why wouldn’t this be included in a video like that?  Regardless of reason, there are things going on around us everyday that we can do to reverse the problems in our country.

Why does this matter?

Right now in Peru, an oil and gas company has set up camp next to indigenous people who have “voluntary no contact.” This means they choose to stay apart from the rest of the world. The oil and gas company and Peru’s government have violated their rights and because of this, they have infected the tribe with disease which is wiping them out. This is exactly how Europeans wiped out 90% of the Native American population when first settling here. This is not only a violation against human rights, but also an environmental rights issue due to the pollution this company will dump into nearby rivers, as well as the forests they will clear away to make room for buildings, roads, and other things needed to run that sort of factory. Oil and gas companies effect the ecosystem in whole.  These dying ecosystems start to affect the rest of the world.

This is exactly what we did in history with the Native Americans of the North American continent.  Our ancestors saw something they wanted, they moved in and took it by force.  This is exactly what is happening in Israel to the Palestinian people.  This is what happens when a career position at a job opens up and people fight each other to get it.  This is what happens when one person sees freedom that another has and moves in to take it, regardless of consent.  This is what rape is.  This is what murder is.  This is what thieving is.  This is what plagiarism is.  This is what road rage is.  It is what we do as a culture.  We are either taking a freedom away or standing by and not standing up for the underdog.  In the end, we all lose.

It seems like what we do here in the USA doesn’t matter, but every choice we make matters. Every time we drive our car we support supply and demand. Every time we buy clothes at Old Navy we support sweat shops. Every time we buy a disposable plastic bottle we support oil and gas companies and the Pacific Gyre aka the Great Garbage Patch of the Pacific. Every time we don’t let someone speak we support the loss of freedom of speech.  Every time we support someone verbally attacking another person, we support taking away Human Rights.  Every decision we make is effecting something or someone around us either immediately or in our communities.

You Matter!

Each of us matter very much. Over one person’s lifetime we will meet thousands of people who we will either empower or disempower. We will affect thousands of strangers who we will either empower or disempower. One person will cause the deaths of endless amounts of insects, animals, fish, wildlife and perhaps even domestic pets. One person will be responsible for so many hectares of forest, soil, ocean water, fresh water, and the oxygen we breathe.

With 7 billion people on the planet, each one of us critically matters to this world. Not only do we have a direct impact upon all these issues, but we are also responsible for everyone we influence around us. You are either influencing people to take better care of themselves and their world through love speech, and being compassionate and active about these issues, or you are influencing the world around you toward apathy, to be a bystander, lazy, unaccountable, too busy, or many other excuses we have all thought about at one time or another.

What are you doing to start deciding today? All these decisions affect your soul no matter how much you try to ignore them. And if you feel helpless as ONE person who ‘wants to save the world’ that’s because you ARE helpless as one person saving the world. Its going to take all of us. Its going to take us learning how to work together. Its going to take us agreeing on these rights. Its going to take all of us to help one another, support one another to make these changes in our minds and lives. No one person or group is going to do it alone.  The single most powerful thing you can do today is start thinking for yourself.  Unplug