October 27, 2018: Day 77 – Ecclesiastes 4

For some reason I was struck today by the very first verse of this chapter.  “Again, I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun.  Look, the tears of the oppressed – with no one to comfort them!  On the side of their oppressors there was power – with no one to comfort them.”  There is a reality in society in general that if you are in power you are able to get away with things that other people would never be able to advance.  There simply is not a level playing field when it comes to life in any society, and this is especially true in our society.

I was raised in a setting where as someone who represents the majority, opportunities were provided to me that I absolutely know that people just like me, but different in some very small insignificant way, were not afforded.  I know that there are people that I went to high school whose lives are very different because of the family into which they were born, because of the experiences that they had when they were young, and at no fault of their own were in environments which stacked the deck against them from the time that they were born.  

If you are born into a ruling class, more than likely you will rule.  If you are born into a class or a group of people who have been oppressed over time you will, more than likely, find yourself in a reality in society where the cards are stacked against you.  It certainly doesn’t feel like I am at an advantage, and when things happen that put me at a disadvantage I feel it acutely.  But that is simply because my entire life I have been at an advantage so I didn’t when I was a young child growing up in the neighborhood have to worry about people stopping by and hurting me simply because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I have come to realize that many people do grow up at a disadvantage and I am blind to those realities.  The powerful are able to oppress.  The powerless have no one to comfort them.  I have tried to spend my life giving voice to the powerless, but I don’t often do it well enough simply because I like the position in which I find myself.  You have to give that up at times in order to have a voice for the powerless.