Ignorance may be bliss, but awareness solves problems. It can be hard to read about the bad things happening in other places, but often times, the only reason those bad things persist is because not enough people around the world have been made aware of them.
And, with all that being said, the world is actually getting better– much, much better. Here’s a few pieces of evidence to support that claim.
First off, our health and medicine is improving at an extremely fast pace. Infant mortality is down about 50% since 1990, and we have significantly reduced the number of deaths from treatable disease like measles and tuberculosis as well.
A second indicator is the rapid decline in poverty worldwide. Since 1981, the proportion of people living under the poverty line ($1.25/day) has decreased by 65%. 721 million fewer people were living in poverty in 2010 than in 1981.
The third indicator is violence. Or more specifically, the lack thereof. It may seem like the world is constantly embroiled in one conflict or another, but overall, war is almost non-existent when compared to past decades:
And while we regularly see reports of gang violence and constantly debate how much guns should be regulated, violent crime and murders has been plummeting:
So when you start getting too down from watching, reading, or listening to the news, just remember:
We can change the world for the better. We are changing the world for the better.
I don’t want to sound like Pollyanna or to minimize the suffering that too may people experience in our nation and world today. But, contrary to Donald Trump and so many others, we are NOT moving in the wrong direction today. We are moving in the right direction!
And what we need is not a generation of whiners and complainers but people who are willing to roll up their sleeves, get involved in health care, education, politics and the environment and continue to work to make the world a better place, to “promote the general welfare and to form a more perfect union.”
When I was young, like many of the Sanders’ supporters, for example, I too wanted to live in the “Age of Aquarius.” And I thought it was actually on the way! Then, I realized that you have to work to build The Age of Aquarius (or the Kingdom of God) and that it is often slow, plodding, and frustrating work at best.
But, dear friends, we are getting better. Despite what looks like, in our media-saturated age, evidence to the contrary, we are getting better!
That We All May Be One 
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