Bottom Feeding

We all know that things are tough and we all wish that they would get better. But that's the easy part. The hard part is trying to keep track of what matters most and resisting the temptation to take our anger and frustration out on the wrong people.

A business friend of mine helps me keep up with the details--the more subtle aspects of what happens during an economic downturn. Perhaps the saddest thing that I have learned through this is what happens when there is less and less to go around. We treat each other pretty well when there is plenty but when things get a little more scarce, we not only fight like fish over the last few crumbs, we begin to bite at one another as well. Not because we are hungry to eat them but because we can't bite anyone else.

None of this is new. It has been a sad side-effect of poverty since people had to leave the Garden and make a go of it in a world where things don't just grow on trees... Struggling people look around them and begin to resent and blame not those who hold the power and make the decisions but rather those who seem to have it as bad or worse than they do. In Germany, poor Christians come to resent poor Jews. In America, poor white folk learned to resent their poor black neighbors. Misplaced anger... We humans have a tendency to take our frustrations out on whatever might be in striking distance.

The best example of this is domestic abuse: You're mad at your boss. You're getting older and less attractive. The bills are piling up and no one listens to you... So what do you do? Why you beat your wife, of course; or your kids; or both!

Naturally this is wrong but people just keep doing it. What else are they going to do? ... Watching the latest on the Gulf Oil disaster, I see that rich people get into this too. Congress is dragging BP execs in so they can take some swings on behalf of the country. Nothing like a good public display of vengeance to clear the soul! Sheeeesh.

Here's an idea. How about some peace? Or some good will? If we're gonna have to suffer through this ______ anyway, why don't we try to make the best of it? How about we recognize that we actually have more in common with the people we can reach than those we can't? There is nothing wrong with a little anger, let's just work a little harder at directing it at the right people.

BTW, that poor fellow there is The Weather Man. He's just been pelted by another chocolate shake thrown from a passing car. Killing The Messenger--another tried and true practice of the downtrodden. Sure... but let me see you hit God with one of those things!