Social issues do not belong in that abstract, faraway place where all "worldly" problems seem to live in the back of our minds. We do not immediately feel or actively process the effects of sexism, racism, bigotry, institutionalized poverty, massive immigrant displacement, child abuse, animal exploitation – daily, so they do not take precedence on the larger culture's priority list.

We have been allowed, socially and spiritually, to keep our distance, and justify passive inaction with cognitive dissonance. Making these issues belong to other beings who are not like us, keeps us from caring enough to do something. It may look like it is a matter of being lazy for some, wanting to remain idle, resisting the innate call to defend and protect our own. Why? Well social factors and structures have created emotional distance, have made it okay to "other" those who fall prey to these crimes against humanity; and yes, poverty is absolutely an institutional crime against our most vulnerable.

However, I do not believe the human consciousness is this lazy or maliciously ignorant, not at our core. Remember, we are all connected, we are one and the same. We are all made of the same stardust, we come from the same unconditional source of universal love. When I look at you, I see myself mirrored. Perhaps this is why so many of us choose to turn away from the pain of our fellow beings' suffering. When we look at the sufferers, it means we must look at our own suffering. Worse yet, when we look at those who perpetrate, exploit and take advantage of our vulnerable, it means we see ourselves in their actions, and cannot help but know that we must take responsibility. That is scary, that is painful, it means we are not perfect and it strips us of our ignorance and "right" to inaction. Inaction is a form of action; it is a silent agreement that what our corrupt politicians, business professionals, food producers, -insert malicious-intentioned, greed-minded social position of power- are doing is fine with us, and we will not get in their way.

Those of us who are in human work – Public Health, Psychology, Social Work, Sociology, Healers, etc., - know in theory, thanks to our teachings that social problems are human problems, and human problems are our problems. However, higher education makes it easy to lose the feeling of fire behind this mantra. Amidst the data and theories and interventions and paperwork, our passion for our fellow beings drowns in the separation education creates between those who study these social issues, and those who experience them as their reality; the othering of own.

Times are changing friends. Major shifts are happening at rapid speed on a social and energetic platform for the collective conscious. We are no longer being allowed to be idle, to be passive and sit ignorant in the face of so many surfacing crimes against humanity. Personal stories and lives that have been so badly impacted by the mishandlings of our culture's puppet handlers at the top, are now being broadcasted with the faces and anecdotes of masses who have previously been forced into our silence, and acceptance of our active ignorance. As citizens of this world, we know these issues should belong to us, but it doesn't feel as though they are in our everyday lives. Connecting the overwhelming news stories and statistics of what is happening – poverty, sexual abuse, earth exploitation, animal exploitation, human exploitation, immigrant displacement, political corruption- to the faces and lives of real people has reaffirmed for me (and I hope made a persuasive argument for you) that these social issues do not just belong to society. "It's an 'all people thing'", as Tubby Love has said.

It is time to rise up out of our ignorance, dispel the fear of seeing the dark side of our humanity. The pain and suffering affect us all, and it is ours to take responsibility for as a uniting consciousness. The pain is scary, it is hard to look at, but it is also where we need to go to uplift our consciousness and expand into our potential for love as a collective. As a fellow being in this world, these issues are your responsibility as much as mine, as much as anyone else's.

So, light your torches my fellow trailblazers, be the burning glow of light in a world of darkness; you are ready, and we have been waiting for you.

Jules X

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