Here is how Wikipedia defines ignorance:
“Ignorance is a state of being uninformed (lack of knowledge).[1] The word ignorant is an adjective describing a person in the state of being unaware and is often used as an insult to describe individuals who deliberately ignore or disregard important information or facts. Ignoramus is commonly used in the US, the UK, and Ireland as a term for someone who is willfully ignorant. Ignorance is distinguished from stupidity, although both can lead to "unwise" acts.”
The whole world is riveted on the Trayvon Martin trial! As I watch the live broadcast of the court proceedings and listen to the various cable news talk shows I cant help but think how sad it is, to think as human beings, and as citizens of the most advanced countries on the planet we still have not evolved to the state where we can learn to be kind to each other, not just some of the time, but as out default state. We can put men on the moon, on many planets out in the depth of space, but we cannot learn to understand each other. That is sad!
Dont confuse ignorance with being schooled or educated, as per the definition above, the willful ignorance is the sort of which I write. I have coined the phrase "Ignorance is to the mind what cancer is to the body". Just think about this! In the year Two Thousand and Thirteen, human beings still want to oppress each other because they look diffefent. Human beings are still wrapped up in the game of racial prejudice, economic prejudice, social prejudice and it is all out of a deepseated ignorance of their own humanity! What ever would cause one person to think they are "better" than the next person when that person had no say in how they got here, which family they were born into and how they look. The more I think about it, the more incredulous it is to me.
Who - show me - that person who can make my curly hair straight, or cause my skin colour to change, who can tell me they consciously choose the family they were born into, and I would agree that yes, you are "better" than me because you would have posessed powers that no other earthly human being posess. Otherwise, if you, regardless of how educated you may be, or how much money you have, how many "important" connections you claim, would behave by actions or words or both in a way to suggest that you are "better" than me, I'll just give you a nice big smile. Because, at that point, I am feeling a lot of compassion for you, because you are indeed a fool! I believe it is the great King Solomon who said "a fool is wise in his own conceit", no kidding!
Add fear to the mix and voila! You end up with the situation Mr. Zimmerman finds himself in. You are a God fearing man you say, and yet you ignore one of the most basic tennets of Christianity which is judge not, for there is only one judge, and whom ever you judge, that same judgement will fall right back at you (or something like that, not a religious scholar so dont hold me to word for word quote here). I have long concluded that if there really is such a thing as "the devil", then his real name is fear because fear make people do crazy things. I know, I know, they do not teach this in school, and God for bid, they dont teach it in church either so where is a guy like Mr. Zimmerman supposed to get this knowledge? Clearly he's not going to read +Deepak Chopra's books, take yoga or join Miss +Opra in her Life Class! You see he is single minded in his focus to "get the bad guys" you know the ones I'm talking about - as per his recorded description of the young black males. And every young black male that crossed his path is painted with the same brush, regardless of the facts. Ah yes, it's shoot first and ask questions later.
My hope and prayer is that something good will come out of this fiasco. That Trayvon's life would have served the greater purpose unto which he was born. Even if is only to cause more people to: 1) Listen and follow instructions of those in authority (Zimmerman didnt); 2) Believe it or not, if youre afraid of someones prescence, they just might be afraid of you too so if your intention is good, engage in a conversation instead of a confrontation and release the tension (Zimmerman didnt do this because my conclusion from listening to his account of what went down, he was out to get "those ......."you know what. And since he was playing policeman he should have known this, it's only commonsense. 3) Dont jump to conclusion about others, even if 99 out of 100 is one way that does not mean the 1 remaining will also be the same.
As +Russell Simmons tweets often "Love everybody and everything all the time, but only spend time with people who will uplift you". As we hold our collective breaths waiting for the verdict pray for peace, and pray for understanding.
One Love,
MissSam
RECOMMENDED READ: This Blog - The series on LABELS
The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Riuz
The Art of Loving - Erich Fromm
