by Leslie Conner

Created on: January 20, 2009   Last Updated: January 21, 2009

People are inherently good. Deep down. Sometimes really, really deep down. Sometimes it is so deep that you would have to turn them inside out to find the good. But, it's there. How can I be so sure? I guess you can't really be sure of anything. But, that's what I believe.

Looking at the world today, either through your television screen or your living room window, it seems like just the opposite. I think we've been trained to see the worst in everyone as some form of self-preservation tactic. We should always be on the lookout for the bad person who is going to do something horrible to us. We look for it all the time, and so we find it. On the news, all the stories are of murder, rape, atrocities of all kinds. Even the deaths sanctioned by our president are a representation of a battle against the evil that is taking over the world.

I'm sure it's always been this way. There have always been wars. There have always been murderers.

So, why do I believe that people are good? If the world is chocked full of killers and people doing various and sundry bad things? Because I look for the good. And, so I find it.

I chose not to make someone I don't understand into an enemy. I want to see the real individual underneath all the judgment, before any influence was forced upon them. I want to see the purity and innocence of each life, as they were as a child. Because when it comes down to it, we're all the same. At the core of every human being, we all want the same things from life: security, love, happiness. We want to take care of our families and live in a kind world. The light of spirit is inherent in all of us. But, through circumstances or adversities the light begins to dim. Some have dimmed to the point of being too dark to see. But, it's still there.

There is a quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that sums up this sentiment beautifully:

"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."

Although there is plenty of evidence to suggest that we could justifiably categorize people as "good" or "bad", I don't believe it would be an accurate judgment. There are good people who do bad things. There are people who have wandered farther away from their true essence of spirit. But, there aren't innately bad people. There is good to be witnessed in everyone if we just look for it.

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