The Battle Of Light & Darkness In Our Hearts & Hometown

12
881

Light battling against darkness isn’t just some disconnected philosophical perspective. It’s happening right now, inside you, shown through the voices of the people here in our hometown. It’s taking place inside the halls of government, inside the hearts of our leaders.  It’s not an abstract battle of entities in Heaven and Hell, it’s a battle against a hell that threatens our heaven here. The light and the darkness is inside us. We become what we turn our faces toward, what our faith in ourselves and our neighbors steer us into being.

The Battle Between Light & Darkness Is Real

The battle between light and darkness inside us can be summed up this simply: do you believe in people or don’t you? Do you believe that people will do the right thing when informed, so it’s worth informing them? Or do you believe that people will not listen to sense, and that they’ll do the wrong thing, so they require being restricted?

The Darkness

There are voices among us today, reflected in the response to this coronavirus pandemic, that say more restrictions are necessary for people to do what’s right. They see people behaving in a manner they believe is unsafe, so they demand the unsafe behaviors cease. These are the people who don’t trust themselves, who struggle against constant desire to do what they see as “wrong”. They’ve lost their faith in other people because the struggle against their own darkness overcomes them.

The Light

There are voices among us today who believe instead in people. They have Faith in Man. Seeing people as naturally “good” and capable of choosing the correct course of action, when enabled with the right information, comes easy to some. Their faith in other people comes from a faith in themselves, a confidence that they’re able to navigate successfully amidst challenge and uncertainty. These are the people who question, engineers, scientists, who know that anecdotes and experiences matter, but need to be measured fairly and holistically against the realities of time and space.

Faith In Man

Some of us have studied history, and have respect for the challenges that our ancestors overcame. The knowledge of their struggles and triumphs empower our hearts with Faith in Man. Among the victors of history is a thread of resilience, an ability to shine the light of truth on disinformation meant to discourage us against our neighbor. The battle of light against darkness is illustrated in every great victory against destruction, every time the loss of faith has fostered decay in fortune of nations.

A Leader Is Guided By Their Faith In Their Community

When a leader has the people’s ear, there’s choices to be made. Do you educate and inform, or do you restrict? What happens if you choose one or the other?

A Leader I Am Grateful For

If you educate and inform, for example in the manner Jeremy Rodgers has diligently done, you’re demonstrating your faith in your fellow human being, expecting them to use information wisely and effectively. His expectation is that people will balance the cost of our city level response (extremely damaging in an unprecedented manner) against the reality of the danger of coronavirus (which has always been less than the ignored danger of H1N1). He has faith that people will pay attention to the numbers like engineers and scientists do, and make the choices best for their community by themselves, person by person.

Darkness Makes Otherwise Good Leaders Argue For Restriction

If you believe instead that government should keep turned the valve of restriction when possible, out of a need to protect a community out to harm themselves, you believe the opposite. A lack of faith in people is a reflection of a lack of faith in oneself. Being unaware of the right course of action, being inexperienced with navigating the unknown, yields little confidence in other’s ability to guide themselves. In the absence of the light of confidence, a darkness persists. In the absence of knowledge and the analytical ability to obtain enough to make sound conclusions one has only the darkness to lead them.

When this darkness afflicts our leaders they restrict the liberty of their constituency out of the urge to do what’s “right”. When constituents also lack faith in their neighbors the service of darkness is demanded.

We Are Living History

We will look back on this and learn, through the numbers emerging, numbers in our laps today, that most people for the most part do the right thing when informed. People did stay home and practice social distancing 80% of the time. Our school district did stop school in an unprecedented manner. Hard sacrifices were made based on good information, voluntarily. When people were asked to give their blood for their neighbor they gave without having to be cut.

We Are Powerful

We are able to bend the curve and change the course of rivers. We can move mountains together. We are powerful. We are good. When we are empowered with knowledge we take care of each other right. We don’t need to be forced to care for each other at the barrel of a gun, under the restrictions of our government leaders.

Have Faith – Don’t Doubt That We Are Good

What we need instead of giving up to the darkness is faith in each other, and for leaders like Jeremy Rodgers to not let other’s weaknesses and lack of faith stop the faithful from shining. Shine on brothers and sisters who love people. Don’t give up on the message that People are Good.


Why did I write this article? 

I wrote this article out of love for my neighbors here in Boca Raton. It’s not an abstract love I am trying to muster because I believe I’ll be punished in an afterlife if I neglect. Instead it’s a real love that emerged out of a darkness of ignorance, a respect and admiration that grew with each soul here I’ve had the pleasure of sharing words and spaces with. I’ve seen my neighbors, like myself, be transformed with knowledge, and grow more able to make a brighter future with who they’ve become from it. This is an exceptional town, blessed with so many exceptional people, people who’ve shined brightly in my presence and transformed me. I’m just reflecting what I’ve received in abundance from the most excellent people, people who make me proud to call this my hometown.

If you feel like it, please sign this petition to re-open Florida, Palm Beach County and Boca Raton. Thank you.

Advertisment
Previous articleThe MASTER CONTROL for Protection from Coronavirus
Next articleCoronavirus Poll: Keep Closed v Open Up?

12 COMMENTS

  1. So glad you wrote this article!

    “Faith, at its core, is deep-rooted in the expectation of good things to come. It goes beyond hope. While much of hope lives in the mind, faith is steeped in the heart and the spirit. … While life can be hard at the best of times, faith is the knowledge, deep down inside, that things will get better.”

  2. So he’s saying everyone is either one way or the other? The problem isn’t with “everyone”. The problem is a minority of people who are selfish and will do as they please and put others at risk. As always it is those few who ruin it for the rest of us who do govern ourselves responsibly. You can’t fix stupid and there’s a lot of stupid going around. His generalizations are just touchy feely nonsense.

  3. This is gross and dangerous especially in a city with such a huge senior citizen population. This isn’t an existential question about light and dark, it’s a question of do you value human life? Is this not real enough for you? When someone in your family dies will you honor them for their sacrifice and take no responsibility? 50,000 dead people is too many and bs like this will be responsible for killing even more. Seriously pull your head out of your butt.

  4. Yes there are those few who ruin it for others. Not everyone has the same level of honesty and integrity even in the most normal of times, and that’s a shame. I see this more here in S. FLA as opposed to what I encountered in the Pacific NW

  5. My trust is not in people. My trust is in the Lord. America was built on Judeo-Christian values which teaches believers to have faith in GOD! There is suffering, fear and complexities taking place in America. Currently, “good“ is called “evil “ and evil is called good. I believe during this great “shift“ that America will rise, not fall. . As a community of faith, we must defend our civil liberties. We must pray for America. We must help our family, neighbors & friends when we are able. We must learn from history. We must vote for politicians & policies that protect the U.S. Constitution. GOD BLESS THE USA!

  6. Matthew 7:12

    Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you
    shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.

    I trust in people because I desire them to trust me.

    I worked my way through Virology, Immunology, Molecular Biology, Anatomy, Physiology, Microbiology, Genetics and so much more. Then I practiced for half a decade, testing. After that I was trusted by the CDC and the heads of major departments like Virology and Parasitology were very joyful at the things I built for them, to improve their ability to do work by many orders of magnitude.

    After all that, my friends and family do not trust me to speak the truth about what’s happening today.
    They’d rather listen to strangers on television.
    This troubles me greatly.
    I would not deceive them, but they accuse me of it, for political reasons.
    This bring me shame that I can’t gain their trust.
    I would not abuse their trust for the sake of any politician, party or platform. To be accused of doing that is hurtful and lonely.

    Why do all that, have all that knowledge, all that skill, all those experiences, if they don’t even earn you the trust of your family and friends? What good did it do the people I love the most? Should I just agree to believe what I see as being driven by politics and hate because that’s what they want from me?

Leave a Reply to EBM Cancel reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here