It may feel like the world is falling apart, it may feel like we are choosing between 2 evils. it may feel like a race war is occurring ,with black people feeling threatened by police treatment. With police murdering innocent human beings. It may feel like we are about to have World War 3. Lastly, it may feel like this is the craziest time in history and that we are special to experience such a time. Sometimes I think this way, and I wonder how humanity has gotten to this point. How we as people have so much hate, anger and frustration. Lastly, how murder and war is often a solution to many problems. I often get emotional, scared, and left wondering where is the love? Where did it go? But if you look back at global history, this is human nature. We have ALWAYS been at war, and we have always murdered each other and had hearts full of hate. This is not new. Conflict existed then and it exists now.
1. Here is a time line of the various war's the United States has fought in since 1775.
1775-1783 - American Revolution (4,435 Battle Deaths)
1812-1815 - War of 1812 (2,260 Battle Deaths)
(1817-1898) - Indian Wars (1000 Battle Deaths)
(1846-1848) - Mexican War (1733 Battle Deaths)
(1861-1865) - Civil War (Close to 200,000 Deaths)
(1898-1902) - Spanish-American War (385 Battle Deaths)
(1917-1918) - World War 1 (53,402 Battle Deaths)
(1941-1945) - World War 2 (291,557 Battle Deaths)
(1964-1975) - Vietnam War (47,434 Battle Deaths)
(1990-1991) - Desert Storm (148 Battle Deaths)
(2001 - Present) - Our Global War on Terror
2. Now here is a timeline of global mass genocides -- Obviously not forgetting the mass genocide of millions of Native Americans.
(1915) - Armenian Genocide, killing more than 1 million ethnic Armenians and Greeks between 1915 and 1923. Many now reside in Iran, as Iran accepted Armenian refugees for safe haven.
(1933) - Holocaust, After the power of the German Nazi Party, murdering 6 million Jew's, and 5 million Slavs, Roma, Disabled, Jehovah's witnesses, homosexuals, and political/religious dissidents.
(1975) - Cambodia, where 1.7 to 2 million Cambodians died in the Khmer Rouge's "killing fields".
(1990) - Rwanda, where a civil war broke out.
(1995) - Bosnia, claiming 100,000 peoples lives, along ethnic lines.
(2003) - Darfur, killing 300,000 civilians by the government of Sudan.
Current - The mass genocide of Shiite Muslims and many innocent men, woman and children of Syria and Iraq due to terrorism.
3. If we think Islam is the only religion being taken advantage of by sick minds, think again. Here is a list of Christian Religious Cults that have existed throughout our time, many leading to mass murder-suicides that will leave you stunned.
(Guyana - 1978) - Members of Peoples Temple who committed Murder-Suicide due to conspiracy, also killing a US Congressmen (AKA Jonestown). A sick number of 909 people committed suicide, including 276 children. Let me remind you, this was the largest mass murder in the US until 9/11. Let that sink in. We seem to forget.
(1997) - Heavens Gate, they thought they would go to Space if they committed suicide. 39 people lost their lives in California using phenobarbital mixed with Vodka.
And religious cults still exist today (Majority in California)!
4. Lastly, here are the most bizarre elections in US history
(1800) - Vice President Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804
(1824) - Andrew Jackson called the 1824 election the "corrupt bargain" and promised to win in 1828.
(1860) - The inauguration of Abraham Lincoln ripped the nation in half AKA the dominant democratic party.
(1872) - A candidate died. Horace Greeley died before the electoral college vote, and Ulysses S. Grant attended his funeral.
(1960) - When they started actually televising debates. John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon
(1964) - Lyndon B. Johnson's election was dominated by race. Angry white folks protested the legislation all across the south, while blacks enraged by police treatment (WHAT - See, it happened in 1964 too!)
(1972) - Senator George McGovern picked his running mate, Senator Thomas Eagleton. Nobody knew Eagleton was suffering from depression and was having electroshock therapy in the hospital. This caused unpopularity and Eagleton dropped out.
Current - Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, spurring a lot of racial heat, changing our borders, gun laws, sexual harassment, talks about terrorism, our economy, and very very angry American people. Republican party, cutting support of their republican nominee Donald Trump, and the media being a disadvantage to both candidates, revealing every little secret they've ever had.
So yes, it may seem like we are in crazy times. We are! But this is normal. Its always been a thing; nothing has changed. The best thing we can do is go out and vote, be peaceful, help others, love and support one another, be educated, open-minded, and patiently wait as the conflicts pass.
