A Citizen In The New Millennium

I am a citizen, I can converse with people all over the world Through the wonder of technology, my computer can Access the words of people from all other countries, Many different languages, nationalities, religions and ideas I can argue, discuss, and otherwise send out a message Of hope or encouragement to complete strangers But yet for many walking outside their door and speaking Face to face with their neighbour is still too complex I can cook food in a microwave oven, faster than ever thought possible I can shop online, through my computer, I can buy everything I need from all over the world and have it delivered To my door Everything from clothing, food, medications, computer goods, hardware, software and more Yet I cannot know for sure what is in my food, nor who produced it I can buy anything I want, but billions of human beings are starving to death And do not have the basic food requirements, nor the basic healthcare services I can watch hundreds of televisions stations, news from around the world I can access news from the computer internet I can telephone people in various countries and in my own government But I still cannot be certain as to what is the truth, there is no certain truth From anywhere I am a citizen of one of the free-est nations in the world I have so much, and yet I have so little We have reached a point in civilization where more is always Seen as better, But few people are happy, many people are hungry, cold and homeless We are so civilized that we are still resorting to violence to solve Our problems We communicate more than any generation and yet we probably know Less than previous generations We are the generation of spin, we have left truth in the past Along with other previously admirable qualities, like trust Honesty and integrity We expect nothing but double talk from our politicians We offer little to our youth, seniors, disabled and less fortunate We reward the rich, we pay homage to the successful and attractive We despise the poor and less attractive We have evolved into a species of superficial beings We have become less than the animals we eat We have developed a survival of the fittest mentality Which in the end will probably destroy us If we were half as smart as we think we are, we could probably see Just how inept we really are! by C.M.A. Whelan Costen May 2004