Article: Babysitter, anyone?

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I am consumed by this idea, this belief, that people are basically capable, at least able to take care of themselves. You know, an "everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten" type of thing. Play nicely with others, share your toys, no hittting, biting, whining, stealing...you get the picture, right? Well, as obsessed as I am with this theory, the reality of this world keeps shutting me down. I find myself in a near constant state of wonderment at the basic ineptitude of the general populace. Some people may get their panties in a bunch over that statement, admittedly broad as it is, but it is proven to me over and over again. Why, I have to know, is it that we find this pseudo fascist government of ours so comforting? What is it about having our every waking moment laid out in a neat little routine that is so necessary? These are not rhetorical questions, they only read that way.
The average American, from my perspective, is overscheduled, undervalued, and so deeply stressed that they don't even have the energy or the will to push away the blinders put in place by our governing body. Why? Is it because they have found value in the valueless? Are the wrong things important? If you are still reading this diatribe, you may at this point be asking yourself who the hell I think I am to make that claim. Just another chick. When I see on the news a cop saying that one good way to not forget that your kid is strapped in the carseat and could fry by the time you remember it is to put your purse or your cell phone next to the carseat I know that the wrong stuff matters. How is it that we are so deeply embedded in our monotonous daily lives that we are more likely to remember that we need our cell phone or purse than the child who usually gets dropped off at daycare by Daddy. Quietly sleeping in the back seat, blissfully unaware that it's the unlucky offspring of a thoughtless animal who will leave it in that car to die.
I do not say this to detract from the gut wrenching grief that I know the people responsible for all 340 plus deaths like this one in the past ten years must feel. I say this because I feel that all that we need to do to make this world a little bit more like it should be is to realign our priorities. Treat others as you would like to be treated, you know? Be thoughtful, selfless. Get out of your assigned place in line, peek over the edge of your box and look at the world around you. Your job isn't important, your money is only as important as you allow it to be. People ~ not machines, not numbers, not the latest trends ~ people are what matter, what creates quality of life, and what dictates your ultimate joy. Our children deserve to have that knowledge deeply ingrained in them, because when the rest of this world inevitably crashes around us because of our elemental failure as a society, all that will be left is people