Emily, I agree.

A big part of what I write about has to do with this notion of keeping our eyes closed. So whether it’s blaming the 1% or pleading guilty-as-charged to our individual tendency to look the other way, there’s a part of me that understands throwing rocks isn’t necessarily a good response.

That being said, we are diving down a hole that doesn’t indicate a promising future. My natural instinct is to be a pacifist. Which, for me, is not so much about live and let live as it is about sighing and accepting our collective inability to right the ship.

People are people. I get that. We all have our weaknesses and dysfunctions. But the truth is we can overcome ourselves sufficiently to fundamentally improve, to become aware of the threat of things like excessive self-centeredness. The question is, will we? Or more to the point, will we accomplish that to a sufficient enough level that some kind of fundamentally significant change for the better occurs?

Sometimes people get to a point when enough is enough. Is Puerto Rico one of those moments? I doubt it, but one can always hope.

I understand the argument that it’s not all because of the 1%, and to a large extent I agree with that. But I also understand that within the context of that term we find both casual and ruthless disregard for being good stewards of both the planet and her people. We cannot ignore the impact of so much wealth and power in so few hands. That concentration has itself become a threat to humanity, in my opinion.

Can we “all make the changes needed?” I’ve never believed we all would, but I’ve believed enough of us could for my entire life. But how many’s enough? Are there enough? Because I strongly suspect that hoping for everyone to change in a way that kind of ups the game is not a reasonable expectation.

Thank you for your thoughtful comments. It’s true, “we are the many, they are the few.” I sense the answer lies in finding the fulcrum which will cause the many to unify and cry out in a single voice.