LIFE AND DEATH ISSUES

By Jorge D. Lomboy
February 7, 2017



As citizens and consumers our minds are cloudy.  As a nation and a country our issues are crowded.  We all come and go with a long line of endless issues.  Our leaders come in and out of office with broken promises and unfinished business.  Our government is polluted with too much politics.  From dawn to dusk we are out to make a living arduously doing everything needed to make both ends meet.  We never get ahead for there are more issues of life and death plaguing every social class of society.  There are more problems than solutions in every area of life confronting every leader and every citizen.

With so many social issues crowding our minds and cloudy solutions prescribed for our problems we are stressed out, worn out and fed up.  Tension, stress and pressure take a toll on our health.  Frustration, anger, destitution and deprivation burn our peace at home, in school, at work and in the playgrounds.  We long for peace, we struggle for peace and we pray for peace.  But no matter what we do and how far we go in search of peace, no one ever found peace in a bottle of wine, a dozen doctor’s prescriptions or a load of good food.  No one ever found peace in the marketplaces, in the stores, in bank accounts, in treasure troves, on a golden bed or in peace treaties.  Until we are free of stress, rid of tension and released from pressure, peace is definitely gone with the wind.  Good health and peace of mind alienate us for tension, stress and pressure attend to a life of ease, comfort and pleasure.

We all pay a heavy price for losing good health and lack of peace for the uncanny comforts we enjoy at the tip of our fingers.  We are not blind to the truth and we are not numb to reality.  We must face the truth although we can no longer handle the truth.  We have to confront reality although we can no longer overcome the burdens of reality.  We can alter our attitude towards life and we can adjust our lifestyle to cope with our circumstances but it takes a fool to stain the truth, it takes a false pretender to varnish reality.  Overwhelmed by social issues and nagging problems are facts of life grounded on truth and reality.  Our circumstances are soaked in doom and gloom and there is no point in crying over spilled milk.  What we hear is not what we get and what we see is not what we believe as I believe no one can saw the sawdust.  The appeal of the American Dream has turned into a nightmare of broken dreams due to financial collapse causing everyone but the prodigals to experience the Tel Aviv diet.

Our issues are too many and too deep and we could no longer resolve them with all the wit and wisdom of men.  Our problems are too cumbersome and too complicated and we could no longer solve them with petition and protest.  Our concerns are too personal and too intricate and we could no longer redress them in conferences and meetings.  Issues, problems and concerns infiltrate our lives and filter our thoughts with the ways and means to resolve them to no end without satisfaction whatsoever.  In all of this we know then and now that politics is not the answer to our social issues.  We know that our leaders are not the solution to our personal problems.  We know that the rich are not the panacea to our financial concerns.  Taxes are a federal issue, unemployment is a big problem and debt is everyone’s nightmare.

Issues won’t go away, problems won’t go away and concerns won’t go away with man-made solutions.  Pressure won’t go away, stress won’t go away and tension won’t go away with drugs, pills and prescriptions.  Poverty won’t go away, injustice won’t go away and crime won’t go away with legislation, litigation and police investigation.  The saying that crime does not pay is fancy to the saying that necessity needs no law.  It is almost impossible to find a cure, remedy or solution to our ever-increasing social issues dealing with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  We crumble and stumble with palliatives that wear and tear to a point of no return.  The issues we face are big and heavy, the problems we encounter are deep and profound, and the concerns we grieve are delicate and contagious.

All the libraries in the world, all the wonders of science and technology, and all the geniuses of every generation, put together, don’t come close to solving life and death issues.  I believe nothing and nobody but the giver of life and death would provide a perfect solution to our social problems and issues.  Let us not forget that the greatest problem of man is man himself which means we have more than six billion problems not to mention the unborn yet to come.  This is the plain truth and the unpainted reality in our time of life.  Petitions and peaceful assemblies here and there are ineffective to resolving issues.  Protests and demonstrations then and now don’t work to change the status quo.  Complaints and convictions failed to reverse the course of business as usual.  Politics and policies failed to put an end to the monkey business of moonlighting.  Our greatest purgatory lies in our inability to change for the better.

We are inspired by high ideals which are compromised by lowering our moral standards defining our way of life.  Our prescription of right and wrong commutes with circumstance and mutates with time and conjures with convenience.  Human truth is never reliable although credible because it is not concrete, it is not solid and it is not immutable.  Truth is a life and death issue for it concerns everyone imprisoned for their innocence and anyone killed by a criminal found not guilty.  Freeing the guilty is punishing the innocent.  Conviction of the innocent and acquittal of the guilty is a life and death issue that is encumbered in our legal and moral standards.  Miscarriage of justice is the stigma of inequity and is a life and death issue.

Health is a life and death issue.  Health problems are always serious problems that we cannot take for granted.  Health is synonymous to life.  It is often said that when wealth is lost, nothing is lost.  But when health is lost, everything is lost.  This explains why the Constitution was beautifully worded in its order of importance by stating life, liberty and property, in that order.  Without life there is no liberty and without liberty there is no property.  It stands to reason that health protection is a paramount right and health deprivation deserves government protection.  It takes a healthy work force to run businesses, markets and industries.  Without a healthy work force the economy will go down the drain.  That is why health is a life and death issue.

Pro-life and pro-choice is a life and death issue.  Taxation is a life and death issue.  Justice is a life and death issue.  Religion is a life and death issue.  Finances is a life and death issue.  Crime is a life and death issue.  Violence is a life and death issue.  Extreme poverty is a life and death issue.  All other bread and butter problems are life and death issues.  These social issues haunt every household in both America and the Third World.  They put the soul of a nation on trial and the conscience of everyone to test.  Only grace, faith and prayer would provide meaningful, redemptive clemency from the day to day horrors of these life and death issues.