Heaven & Hell

 For those of you who haven’t been following, and I’ll admit, I wasn’t until last night when I saw a meme on instagram, The Amazon is burning! 

According to data quoted in an article published on CNN's website, “more than 1½ soccer fields of Amazon rainforest are being destroyed every minute of every day.” Yes you read that correctly, EVERY MINUTE of EVERY DAY. In the same article CNN describes the Amazon as “the planet’s lungs, producing 20% of the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere.” YES you read that correctly too..TWENTY PERCENT... THE EARTH!!!!! 

“The lungs of the earth are in flames” actor Leonardo DiCaprio captioned a post he made on instagram. 
My heart aches and my mind races as I research news on the fires. It’s gut wrenching to watch the videos and photos but what really turns my insides out, is knowing most of these fires were intentionally set after Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has been likened to the president of the United States, prioritized money and greed over the people of his country. Sounds familiar?? 

And while we mourn our world.. Donald Trump is discussing denying birthright citizenship- a constitutional protection, calling it “ridiculous.” It’s almost comical when you know these are the words of a man born of an immigrant mother. But the chuckle doesn’t last long when you realize that this simply means the denial of that right will only apply to “some.”

There is real evil that presides in this world and the moment the people of the “free world” elected a narcissistic racist bigot, the rest of the world didn’t stand a chance.  It's time those of us who are merely satisfied with creating our own little heaven on earth in the small corners of our lives, step out from behind its shadows. 

Because before you know it, your heaven will be surrounded by fire, with soot burning your eyes and the land beneath your feet scorching hot.