America, Where Is Your Soul?
Once a nice little girl had a slumber party. She was from a happy family, full of energy and friends but she lived a very short life. Her name was Polly Klass. Polly was killed by a bad man.
Once there was a terrible person who had no real friends. He was a very unhappy person. His life was full of crime and bad things. His name is Richard Allen Davis. Richard Allen Davis killed little Polly because being a bad man, he does bad things.
Now television news magazine shows, Larry King Live, Prime Time Live, Hard Copy and other print media have offered Mr. Davis a chance to relate his story. Erik Peterson, the attorney who formery represented part of the Davis family, is wellinformed about the details. Richard Allen Davis, kidnapper, murderer is willing to give an interview but for a mere $40,000, Something to think about.
Today Mr. Mike Tyson is a great boxer. He has friends in the boxing world and some in the prison world. He is no stranger to violence, rape nor heavyweight title belts. After a three year prison sentence for a rape conviction hes back at work. No shame nor change in style. Recently he said, "My mode of operation, once I get a man hurt, is reckless abandon". Now what do we pay such a man?
Mike Tyson made over 15 million dollars for fighting less than two minutes. A demon is let loose in the ring to perform a mugging under the name of sport boxing. The victim, Bruce Seldon, received 5 million dollars for his part.
Once there was Mr. Tupac Shakar. He, too, was not a nice guy. His angry lyrics really were a statement of his warped personality. So much self-destructive energy being rewarded by the adulation of millions of fans and many millions of dollars. They say a person is known by his friends. Tupac had many thug friends. When he was in a crowd, it was hard to separate the friends from the foes. It always was the wrong guy being shot, according to Tupac Shakur. Now Tupac Shakur is gone and many mourn. Something is very wrong here.
Somehow bad behavior keeps being rewarded. Now dont think it affects only kids from the ghetto or from the boondocks. Its affecting our finest.
President Clintons presidential advisor, Dick Morris, is from the high and mighty lily white establishment. He has money, education, political savvy and now plenty of scandal. It really takes a lot of good old fashioned chutzpah to call the president live and have a woman of ill repute listen to the call. Having a hooker on the phone adds a new dimension to the word chutzpah unbridled nerve.
Roger Stone, a GOP operative and adviser to Bob Dole, is busy denying that he and his wife, exmodel Nadia, solicited sex partners on the Internet in a swingers magazine. Arthur Finkelstein, a 51 yearold active homosexual, is a legendary GOP strategist. Imagine, of all people, he has advised the countrys leading anti-gay rights politicians. I ask, Where is honesty? The list goes on and on.
What we have here is a moral bankruptcy on both sides of the spectrum. What common thread ties all the negative behavior together is a lack of respect for decency. Too many of us have lost our souls sensitivity.
Recently the world was made aware of a phenomenal episode. While visiting the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois a toddler fell into a gorillas pit and was knocked unconscious. In the gorillas pit was a female gorilla, Binti Jua, who had been raised by zookeepers. Her birth parents died after her birth. It took months for the zookeeper to train the baby gorilla to live like a normal gorilla. Binti Jua was born in Columbia and brought to the Brookfield Zoo.
When the toddler fell into the cage, Binti Jua picked up the toddler and carried him to the zookeepers door. The public was ecstatic. Imagine a gorilla acting like a human, saving an unconscious toddler from harm and bringing him to safety. How was it that the gorilla had learned human kindness?
Binti Jua had picked up the human mentality from her keepers and from observing parents and children in the Childrens' Zoo in San Francisco. She obviously recalled how caring humans are supposed to act, and she extended help. I thought, What a miracle. Then, after a little reflection it came to me that the gorilla acted more human than many humans.
Let's be honest. Just how many humans would stop what they are doing and pick up a bleeding and injured toddler. Not too many! We would be scared of being sued! Who knows, maybe the bloody child has a contagious disease like Aids?
The greatness of the gorilla was that it did not act as a today's human. It acted like a G‑d created beast, an animal, with an animal soul, who followed an instinct of caring and helping an injured being something we may have forgotten. Don't you think its high time that we start re-discovering the soul of America?