"Abuse No One And No Thing"

One of the reasons some people abuse others is because they are jealous of them.  Sometimes the abusers are intelligent people.  Sometimes they are bitter because they were never able to achieve anything truly meaningful in spite of their intelligence.  For a long time, I have felt that some intelligent people who abuse others are only harming themselves and denying themselves opportunities to arrive at  success and many beautiful experiences.  Apparently they never learned how to use their intelligence.  They never learned how to appreciate it.  I suspect that they were guided by a "hurt and hurtful" spirit. They "converted" their intelligence into a tool for abusing others.  They traded their intelligence for a cleverness to insult. What a tragedy.  What a travesty.  What a shame.  Such a waste of talent.  Such foolishness and confusion.  I wonder how many people they harmed besides themselves?

Recently, I read a long poem by a well-known Native-American leader.  Just one line inspired me to write what I just wrote.  What he wrote was short, powerful, profound and yet simple.  It definitely rang a bell.

"Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of  its vision."

Tecumseh