No Country for Old Men

As I sit here on my 28th birthday, I question are we all old men, resigned in our lives and lifestyle, resigned to the evil and corruption that exists in our country, resigned to our inability to do anything about it? The old man sheriff in the Coen Brothers latest movie, “No Country for Old Men,” faces this question of helplessness along with the audience: will you fight the evil or are you complicit in it? The killer in the movie is determined, maniacal in his determination to kill, without apology and in fact with witticism. Are we prepared to fight with equal determination for good, for peace? Can we wage maniacal peace? Recognizing that evil is not just the killer who holds the air gun to people’s foreheads but the killer that holds the air gun to the cow’s head, that forces children and adults to work to death for wages that are immoral, that sends unwitting kids to war for oil? Simply put, are we willing to change our own lives? To limit our consumption because we have to when we only buy things that are ethically made, sustainably grown, and owned by the workers rather than by corporate businesses? At 28, will I continue to fight against a shop-for-meaning culture and stand for peace, or will I grow old, resigned, before my time?