Throughout my life, people have often asked me if I believed in God. And until relatively recently, when asked this question I would simply reply that yes, I did and pretty much left it at that. Although I am comfortable in my faith, religion is usually one of those topics of conversation that I tend to avoid with those I don’t know well and even then, I often still try to avoid it. Religion in general is just one of many things in life that it seems everyone has an opinion about, and in which everyone is absolutely certain that their viewpoint is the “correct” one. So, most of the time for most people any talk of such things is to me, rather pointless because everyone is already certain that their views are correct, making everyone else’s views wrong therefore stifling the possibility of any real, honest, insightful discussion. I also tend to believe that those who are overly sure of the validity of their beliefs are often the ones whose true faith in these beliefs is secretly the most lacking. In general, I think people who seem too sure of themselves to others, are in reality, those with the lowest self-esteem, but I digress.
Perhaps I feel this way because I tend to not see most things as simply as black and white and because I also look at most things in the larger picture rather than from a myopic point of view. Either way, as previously stated, I tend to avoid speaking about religion with anyone. Some things are best kept to oneself. That being said, I think it is somewhat fair to say that today, regardless of what mainstream media is telling you, most people do in fact, believe in God in one form or another. The idea that there is something higher than ourselves; an outside authority of some sort has always been a common belief held by people around the world since the beginning of time. In most societies, it is a common practice for people to openly profess their faith, albeit some louder and more publicly, than others.
Therefore, as I sit here writing this after what many would agree was one of the strangest, most surreal years in modern history and faced with the stark realization that 2021 is likely to be even more crazy than 2020 (if that is even possible) one nagging question keeps continually running through my mind over and over again. I keep hoping it will go away, but it never seems to and every day I find my asking the same question to myself. If it is generally accepted that most people believe in God, that there is good in the world why on earth are people so frustratingly reluctant to acknowledge that conversely, there has to be evil in the world as well? Especially, when it seems that every where you go today evil is literally right in front of you, practically slapping you upside the head trying to get your attention. And yet, it seems like I am the only person who sees this? Am I THAT out of touch with reality or is it in fact, something else?
I am a highly educated, middle-aged woman who has honestly not had one single day in the past year where I haven’t wanted to literally SCREAM from the mountaintops about the blatant evil that is everywhere around us just to get people’s attention! Now, I’m certainly no genius but I’m an intelligent woman and I find it incredibly difficult to believe that I’m the only person who is noticing all of this. It has gotten to the point for me where I seriously feel like I want to crawl out of my skin in an effort to somehow escape this evil that is permeating every aspect of our lives. It is literally all around us, everywhere, all the time! I can think of a hundred examples of this evil just off the top of my head right now, but I will give you just one small example.
Donald Trump was the only United States President who actually made an effort to take on the behemoth pharmaceutical industry and try to lower the cost of prescription drugs for Americans. And to the dismay of big pharma, he actually succeeded in accomplishing this, thereby relieving a huge burden that has plagued so many American families for decades. However, on Biden’s very first day in office he made the decision to punish the very citizens he is supposed to represent and issued an executive order (one of the many he apparently signed that day) reversing Trump’s previous executive order and once again raised prescription drug prices for millions of Americans. If that is not evil, I don’t know what is. And I also do not think it is unfair in the least to confidently assert that it appears the entire Biden “presidency” is in fact, amongst other things, purely an instrument of evil.
However, it seems no one is willing to call it what it really is or even acknowledge that it exists for that matter! It is as if everyone is walking around with horse- blinders on, going about their daily lives desperately trying to avoid noticing how completely messed up and upside down everything around them is. Maybe I’m living in a country full of ostriches because everyone seems to have their heads in the sand. I on the other hand want to yell and holler and walk up to everyone I see and shake them out of their apathetic, comatose state of existence!
But I am only one small person. I am not young, rich, beautiful or famous so sadly, in our current materialistic culture, I am basically a nonexistent nobody. Now, under normal circumstances, I would probably be perfectly fine accepting my complete and utter lack of influence over anyone (never mind society) and quietly spend the remainder of my time on this wonderful planet going about living my quiet life of obscurity in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately however, due to the seriousness of the situation we are all faced with, it seems that remaining silent is no longer an option that I could in good conscience, live with.
Therefore, I am ready in my own small way to publicly acknowledge, speak out against and attempt to call attention to this insidious evil that has taken root in every aspect of our society. I’m not sure how much good will come of it, but I strongly believe that in times like this, to do something, even if it’s just a small something, is better than doing nothing. Hopefully, at the very least, it's a beginning.
May God bless everyone who reads this, and God bless the United States of America!
Tara Seguin Pierce
27 January 2021
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