Will We Ever Make A Difference? A Moment With Bill Essay

“My frustration level is at an all time high, and I am running out of patience with those who call themselves leaders. What do you think, Bill? Will we ever make a difference, or are we just pissing in the wind?”

I had an email waiting for me this morning from a good friend on my writing site HubPages. This is a man I respect. He is a good, loving family man, doing what he can to make this world a better place, but he is obviously feeling the frustration that one feels when one cares about humanity and lives in the United States in the year 2013.

He knows that I, too, care. He knows about my call-to-action group H.O.W. and my desire to affect great changes in the way we live and treat each other. He knows that I despise those who take advantage of the weak and make a profit from the poor. He knows how I abhor the disintegration of our society and the loss of family values. He knows that this mild-mannered writer most likely would turn violent if faced with a perpetrator of child abuse and he knows I have very little respect for the politicians of today.

He knows that I do not understand racism of any form and that I find it amazing that people are still judged by their sexual preference rather than their character. He knows that I feel the greatest enemies we have are complacency and apathy, and if we allow our freedoms to be taken away from us we only have ourselves to blame.

He knows all that and so he wrote to me, and his question is repeated, I’m sure, by millions of other good people who are sick and tired of being ignored and downtrodden. “Will we ever make a difference, or are we just pissing in the wind?”

Truthfully, if I allowed myself to go down this road, I would be frustrated daily. Hell, I would be beyond frustrated and nibbling on the edges of crazy! I want to shake up the establishment. A part of me wants revolution. I want to see the masses stand up and demand change, and for the life of me I don’t know why more people are not protesting and getting involved.

I don’t know what it will take to get people involved in a mass movement of protest. The economy sucks. Politicians are bought and paid for so that your elected representatives only represent the top 1% of Americans while the other 99% are left scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel. Racism still exists. Abuse still exists. Hunger and poverty still exist. Violence and homophobia and intolerance all still exist.

Morals are decaying and the very fabric of this once proud nation is looking a bit frayed at the edges, soon to unravel completely. Instead of working together and finding common ground, we are separated by an ever-growing chasm of political differences, as if being Republican or Democrat were really all that important.

What am I to do? What can any of us do? I am but one man. On the best of days my writing reaches a couple hundred people. There are seven billion people on this planet and I affect, in some small way, a couple hundred on a semi-regular basis. Talk about feeling insignificant. What am I to do?

Did you see the answer in that last rambling discourse? It’s there is you look hard enough.

What am I to do? Exactly what I have been doing and will continue to do.

Yes, there are days when I feel like I am pissing into the wind. Those are the days when I am reminded by one of my readers, or by the love of my life, Bev, that what I do really matters. Each and every time I bring a smile to the face of another, I make a difference.

Each and every time I raise awareness about a social problem, I make a difference. Whenever I speak out against injustice I make a difference. Maybe not on a national or world level, but most certainly on a local level, I make a difference.

When I walk down the street and smile at a stranger, I make a difference. When I take a few moments to send a word of encouragement to someone who is struggling, I make a difference. I cannot change the world with a wave of my hand, but I can change my neighborhood through my daily actions of compassion and empathy.

Don’t you see it? Don’t you realize by now that great change begins with a small group of determined people who refuse to accept the status quo? Indifference will only be overcome by caring. Injustice will only be defeated by involvement, and that begins on an individual level.

Frustration only happens when I set my sights too high. If I set as my goal to reach a million people with my writing then I will go to the grave frustrated. If, however, my goal is to do what I can to affect change on a local level, then my frustration level will decrease rapidly because that I can do.

Think about it! If I can be a positive influence in the lives of two hundred readers, then is that not a remarkable thing? If I can be a positive influence in the lives of the twenty or thirty people I am in physical contact with today, then is that not a remarkable thing?

I believe that with every fiber of my being. I think the economy is going to get worse. I believe the rich will get richer and the middle class is going to shrink to a level that leaves it insignificant with regards to political change. I believe our liberties, paid for with blood and sweat, are going to diminish before our very eyes, all in the name of liberty of course, and I believe that more and more people in need of social services will find the well dry.

And I believe that I can make a difference!

If you believe as I do then I urge you to make a stand. I urge you to be the instrument of change that you want to see in your community. It starts with one person, then another and another until a small group of determined people stands up and alters reality.

It begins with the housewife in Skokie and the painter in Redding. It begins with the nurse in Cleveland and yes, the writer in Olympia. Every single one of us can change the world one person at a time, so what say you? Are you ready? Hitch up those pants, tuck in that shirt, lace up those boots and let’s get busy.

We have a world to change!

2013 William D. Holland (aka billybuc)

Dedicated to my good friend Mike, or Mr. Archer here on HubPages.