We live in a sad and desperate society today that believes that if “it bleeds, it leads” on the television news with happy stories taking the last page. We believe in hand outs rather than hand ups and that there is always somebody trying to screw us.

We want to have the underdog win but that rarely happens. We want the happy immigrant who played his lucky numbers in the lottery to die or be deported because he won. We have reached a place where negativity is the rule rather than the exception.

But why?

We have been beaten down by life allowing ourselves to just accept the shortcomings in life rather than to fight them.

I don’t figure that saying “Where’s mine” when I am handing out t-shirts or other things to certain people isn’t fighting. It’s just annoying. Rather than being happy for their friend who may have won a prize or improved their life this poor hopeless person would rather rain on their parade then celebrate a victory.

Why?

Because jealousy reigns versus happiness when you compare it to anything else. People would rather get everything than share. We are not a sharing society.

But we have been conditioned to be a non-sharing society.

Why?

Rather than being asked for one thing or another for one charity, we are harassed by 2000 charities that ask for the same thing that one used to. If you gave $200 to charity A and you decide to give to charity B this year, charity A feels that you have short changed them. They EXPECT that same donation. After a while of having people ask and ask over and over again they just stop giving. Not because they don’t stop believing in the cause. Hell, they wouldn’t have donated if they didn’t believe in the cause in the first place.

We have the same thank you lunch with the same rubber chicken and the same cheesecake for dessert.

But are we truly thanked?

How many people do you know pay the meter of a random car? Pay for the meal for the person behind them? Do something extra without asking for anything in exchange?

VERY FEW.

We have been so conditioned because people have taken advantage of our good will.

Idiots have been convicted for committing fraud after hurricane Katrina. Posing to be aid workers, they collected donations and then skipped town where no money ever made it to the charity. Others have stolen millions from hard working Americans in scams ranging from the Spanish Lottery ticket scam to Ken Lay who allowed thousands of Enron workers retirement funds to disappear because of his theft.

What is left?

Hope.

Hope is the one thing that remains eternal. We have hope for love and happiness.

Thank goodness Hope was left in the box.