Invisible

Blindly following the rules was expected of me when I was a child.

Growing up there was a rule for almost everything. My freshman year in college I still had to wear skirts to class unless it was ten below zero. White was not worn after September 21st, gloves and hats were still pretty much the rule in churches. Girls living in the dormitories had hours, guys did not. A year later most of these unbreachable rules were gone the way of the horse drawn milk truck.

On a grander scale, rules were still the guide lines that showed the world where you stood. Wealthier people had rules that required money and time that poorer folks had no access to and therefore could not possibly participate in. Poorer folks had their own layers of rules delineating other levels of superiority over each other and even those “above” them.

Rules kept everyone in their place and they were strictly enforced lest you forget them. Punishments ranged from being grounded, or physically punished to going to jail, depending on whose rule you broke, where you were, and who you were. The only thing really consistent was that the wealthiest and most powerful had more leeway than the rest.

Today the lack of rules is pretty much the rule, but underneath that apparently benign façade are still some real zingers. People thumb their noses at common courtesy and simple good manners, pretending there are very few rules at all, but the frightening truth is that the mistreatment and misuse of each other has become an art form that is almost acceptable as long as you aren’t caught and exposed.

There are still good compassionate people and good hard working people and even well intentioned people -- it is just harder to tell the difference between them and their counterparts who slither around in between poisoning the wells and locking the doors quietly behind them. Air brushing the blatant cruelty of common policies and producing honey coated news shows, make those bodies outside the locked doors invisible to many people.

It’s time to start handing out the 3-D glasses and making sure people put them on, because when the bodies get high enough, those doors are not going to open for anyone anymore.