1. Racial Issues: From the Origin of Blacks
John Doe is coming home from a hard days work when a 1992 cutlass supreme runs a read light and speeds into 4 lanes of oncoming rush hour traffic. John swerves to the left, slamming his brand new sports car into a concrete barrier. After recovering from the initial jolt of impact, John rushes out of the car and quickly jogs over to the 1992 cutlass. The driver of the cutlass has stopped to observe the accident, unaware that they had caused it. The fancy sports car lay totaled as John, now with a large gash on his head, races to side of the car responsible. As the driver of the cutlass, a 79 year old lady, gets out to great him. John looks her up and down and proclaims with the up most sincerity "Miss, I'm so very sorry, are you all right?".
Situations like this accident occur everyday in our world, but instead of being thankful for our fellow mans well fair, most of us would probably have a few more things to cover before we checked on the guilty party's well being. Like maybe for instance, the large bleeding gash on our heads, or our $90,000 sports that's now scrap because some old lady couldn't read a stop light. Some would even wish that the old lady would be scrap and not the sports car. Are we really so far gone that some of us care more about material things and ourselves then about our fellowman? What happened to our compassion as a society? Shouldn't we believe in kindness not selfishness? Giving not taking? Survival of the kindest not survival of the fittest?.
These are all extremely important questions that I thought of while reading selections from "The Ape and the Sushi Master" by Frans de Waal. In the article, de Waal makes the point that are basic ideas of how nature operates might not be totally accurate, and it starts with that crazy old idea of survival of the fittest. "The most absurd animal exhibit I have ever seen was at a small zoo in Lop Buri, Thailand. Two medium-sized dogs shared a cage with three full-grown tigers.