The Human Condition

How appalling it is to know that in many 
countries of this great wide world people live 
in squalid, hopeless conditions of extreme
poverty facing institutionalized discrimination
due to ethnicity, religion and social conditions
of long cultural tradition where distrust and
viral hatred between tribal groups and minorities
fosters threats and civil strife and food shortages
threaten alongside lack of health care where
raging epidemics of deadly diseases due to
lack of sanitation compromise the longevity
of those unfortunate enough to be citizens.
And how fortunate those others are who live
in civilized societies whose economies ensure
employment and whose constitutions pledge
sanctity of the individual and equality of
opportunities, if not outcomes. Where the
assurance of a plentiful food supply, housing 
and universal medical care fulfills peoples' 
basic needs of ample water and energy and 
schooling where offsprings' aspirations to 
succeed in life can be realized. There, where 
human rights are respected by custom and by 
law and where human potential is encouraged. 
Bedeviled by the presence of addictions, by 
homelessness and despair. Where children are 
stalked by pedophiles. The homeless and the 
hungry kick pride aside and public food banks 
distribute donations to the needy. And where 
domestic violence creates the necessity of 
public shelters whose security and capacity is 
never quite accommodating enough to solve 
the endemic issues of humanity's incapacity 
to govern itself credibly as a civilization.