By JOSHUA THOMAS

C-S-E Editor

I’ve heard a countless number of people, throughout my entire life, lamenting these modern times. Everybody has heard somebody wish for a return to “the good ol’ days” or a time when things were “simple”.

More than ever in my life — partially because of my job and partially just because my interest in the world grows as I do — I’ve been reading about current events, and also historical events, making connections that my young brain was unable to when I was first taught the often abridged versions in school. All of this reading, connection making, has led me to question, was it ever really simple?

That question, in my opinion, cannot just be answered with a simple one word response. There are some things I think people of the past got absolutely right. In terms of what was necessary to support local growth, and a more streamlined, healthy lifestyle, I think those of us living now could take a cue.

It was simple in the sense that people shopped locally, and they ate locally grown food. I would love to live for even just a day during a time when small towns prospered and every shop was full — a time when anything could be purchased within a block’s walk, and commodities were never ending.

While I think that a return to local purchasing, on a nation-wide scale, would be ideal, it’s unfortunately no longer what’s simple. People will do what works for them, and whether or not people wanted to support their local merchants in the past (which I’m sure they did, and took pride in doing), it was basically the one option. Now, the reality is that the move away from that lifestyle has caught us up in a vicious cycle. We can’t afford to live only locally. And even when we support local shops as much as humanly possible, there are many items that can no longer be purchased locally.

As I think about the beneficial portions of the past that I wouldn’t mind moving back towards today, it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the pieces of the past that I consider anything but simple, many of which had lasting ramifications that still haunt us. In many situations, the word “haunt” is actually an understatement. There are remnants of previous ways of thinking that literally hinder modern society and development, and I wish we could move away from them as easily as we have the former local lifestyle I just spoke of.

Maybe it was simple for some Americans of the past, but how about for the gay son or daughter living in silence because there was no other choice? I’ve heard people I love literally say, “when I was young, there was no such thing as gays or lesbians.” It’s a statement equally frustrating and heartbreaking, because there most certainly were, it was just deemed something unacceptable to speak about, which means that many people were living in (at the very least) ignorance, or (at most) utter torture.

This extends, unfortunately, to anybody who looked or acted differently, and those from different races or cultures. Despite the fact that we’re a country comprised almost entirely of immigrants, becoming a part of small town society for an immigrant who was anything but white was often anything but simple.

We’re finally, I think, working towards the realization that human connection is a necessary part of growth and evolution. I believe it’s only when we recognize our fellow human beings as such, and vow to live and work with them, personal beliefs aside, that we’ll move toward what I’d actually consider a civilization. Unlearning will be a big part of crawling out of this dark hole of societal and human injustice. Will it be simple? Quite the opposite, but I’d prefer knowledge a hard-won victory any day over ignorance and the simple ability to turn a blind eye.