If you are in anyway a religious person, then you try to do some good while you are on this planet. However, if you are not careful, your good deed blows up in your face.
Recently, I witnessed this in my home town. After Hurricane Katrina, many were suffering. Some people tried to help those that suffered with good deeds. In one case, a wealthy actor set-up a foundation to help build homes in our area. These homes were built environmentally friendly. Unfortunately, these homes may have been great for the environment but lousy for the climate that we have in this area. The houses went to crap. The people that lived in those houses went ballistic. Needless to say, the foundation was shutdown and lawsuits went flying around like crazy. A little research on our area and the homes in our area could have helped stop this from happening. Most locals looking at how the houses were built could see that they were built badly for our kind of climate. Louisiana has a harsh, swamp-like climate that has to be considered when building a home.
Another situation was the previous, political administration that wanted to insist on healthcare for everyone. This was to insure that everyone was treated well at the hospitals. We all know that if you have no healthcare, then the hospital will toss you out on the front lawn = tubes and all = no matter who you are. The problem with this is that in attempting to enforce healthcare in our country, many people were hurt by this deed. Jobs that didn't want to pay for the benefits would cut the hours of their employees. Example = sandwich maker bringing home less money because his weekly hours were dropped. People that could barely pay for their health insurance were forced to have full coverage when it wasn't necessary. Example = woman who had a full hysterectomy was forced to have full coverage = including maternity = because of the new laws. Several people in the political world are completely ignorant of several key facts in the world. Example = the president complained that people should not go to work if they think they have the flu. He didn't know that there were thousands of Americans with jobs that didn't have paid sick or vacation time. If you didn't come to work, you lost your job!
The bottom line is = good deeds can be great as long as the good deeds don't cause more harm than good. Then the good deeds are no longer good. It is as simple as that.
Jesus Christ was the only do-gooder in the world that knew how to do it right. We try to mimic him by doing our own personal good deeds while we are here. Since we are all human, we make mistakes. Make sure your good deed isn't a mistake. If it is, you need to stop and do something else. Don't stop doing good deeds. It means that you are at least trying to make this world a better place. God loves triers.
Take care,
Lindsay Kennen
I would include never break up a dog fight (or people fight). You will end up bitten, thumped or shot.