People Suck

Yes, we really do, and we’ve sucked for a really, really long time.  I mean, just think about it.  The second generation of humans recorded in the Bible included Cain, who got so bent out of shape because his brother Abel bested him at a game of Sacrificing Things to God, that he took Abel out into a pasture and beat him over the head with a club.  I mean, really?  Only a few years earlier, their parents, Adam and Eve, had been living happily in the Garden of Eden, a little piece of perfect paradise where nobody ever did anything wrong and everybody happily ran around naked.  And then, after a little run-in with a snake (played in this scene by the prince of darkness), they’re kicked out and shamed, having brought sin into a sinless world.  A few years later, one of their sons gets into the record book by being the first person to be guilty of murder.  I’m sad to say that we really haven’t come very far since then.

We live in a messed up world.  You probably already knew that, though.  If you didn’t, just start watching the news.  I started typing up this chapter eleven days after a sixty-four year man old used an arsenal of heavy weaponry to rain gunfire down on concert goers on the Las Vegas strip, killing nearly sixty people and wounding another five hundred.  Meanwhile, all along that strip are advertisements for escorts and sex shows and pretty much anything somebody might want for a night of revelry.  The ground is littered with cards showing pictures of naked women offering their services for the right price.  The casinos are full of people gambling away their hard earned money for the hope of something more, many of them emptying their bank accounts and maxing out their credit cards for one more shot and hitting it rich. 

Okay, I’ll admit it.  I’ve been to Vegas.  Twice.

The second time was for the wedding of a relative who just happened to live in Vegas.  It was only for a couple days, so it barely counts.  Right?  I mainly remember that trip for two specific things: the beautiful Chevy Camaro we rented, which was exceptionally fun to drive around, and the buffet seafood I ate that made me sick.  Anyway, that’s enough details about that unfortunate night in the bathroom. 

The first trip to Vegas, however, was for a five day vacation with my wife, and it was quite a bit of fun.  I quickly learned not to take anything that people on the street were trying to hand to me, as they were mostly the aforementioned naked cards.  We mainly walked up and down the strip and walked in and out of casinos.  We each took one dollar and quickly lost it on a slot machine, just to say we had “gambled in Vegas.”  We didn’t have a drink of alcohol.  We just walked around together and enjoyed the pretty buildings and stuffed our faces at buffets. 

Don’t worry, this book hasn’t somehow slipped into travel planning advice.  While we were walking around having a good and innocent time, Sin City was alive all around us.  We live in a world of lust and immediate satisfaction, where anything and everything is permissible in the name of entertainment and the almighty dollar, even at the expense of our souls and the wellbeing of others.  This is actually not meant as a targeted slight against Vegas, as it is far from the only example of such areas in the world.  It just happens to be one of the brighter, more neon examples.  All around us, within our own cities, there are establishments that degrade women and exploit anybody who looks like they might have money to burn or something else to offer, such as the children and adults being trafficked as sex slaves.  Most of us don’t even realize the evil that is all around us, which is one of the reasons it has been allowed to survive and grow.  Whether or not we know these things exist, each of us who stand by and do nothing while there is such evil in the world are enablers for that evil, choosing our own personal comfort and schedules over the wellbeing of those less fortunate.  The Bible calls those who do nothing goats (Matthew 25: 31 - 46), rebuking them for never lending a helping hand to those in need, before sending them off to eternal punishment.

We all suck.  It’s true.  But it gets worse.  For, you see, simply being sucky is not the end of it, but since we all suck, then…

[to be continued...]