The Ethical Self

The Ethical Self by Rick Folker If there is evil here, it is complacency, and it is collective. - Courtney Martin/columnist for On Being The Moral Arc is bent but not broken It can be retrieved and repaired like a shattered heart withering in the penumbra of great grief If only we take back the responsibility we have so casually ceded to the loudest, harshest, and most unforgiving voices Then we can become caretakers and caregivers when the moral arc seems to lose the path of justice and lies discarded and dismissed as so many hopes and dreams are driven to despair It is then that we must all the more forcefully stand up and stand by our ethics, our morals, and refuse to blame 'evil' of some other 'uncontrollable force' when we are ultimately to be held accountable for the killings, the cruelty, the craven fear that paralyzes our better selves and cynically opt for helplessness when these atrocities could have been prevented. Ultimately, we will be held accountable for the future we and only we can make. The moral arc in long and it does bend but we need make sure that we bend with it.