|
Over the past year, I have suffered a lot of personal heartbreak...I am doing okay, but the process of looking at my fears, failings, and strengths and abilities has been profound.
Right now, we have just experienced an event that brings to the surface all of our emotions surrounding the political. But, beyond that, it encourages us to look at the emotions that boil under the surface in these tumultuous times, in this tumultuous country.
The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the 18 other people presents us with a Rorschach test of sorts. Both sides of the political spectrum are imposing their beliefs on the what caused this unbalanced and tragic person to conduct a massacre. As the details unfold, we will no doubt be presented with a clearer picture of what led to this atrocity. And, no doubt, hate, untreated mental illness, prejudice, and above all, fear, manifested to create this violent act.
Right now, both sides are locked. The right are imprisoned in their fear of the 'other', their minds poisoned by the propaganda and rheoteric of the voices of power who seek to play on the worst of human traits to keep power, control, and financial empire. The 'left' is the other. The liberal is the other. The minority is the other. They are deeply afraid. They rationalize and react from a place of fear. They are terrified. And, they have neither the skills or insight to understand they will find no refuge in their hate and fear.
The left may believe themselves above this place, yet we are facing our own struggle as we witness the reality of a political system that no longer serves the people it now controls, a system that does not answer to us but we to it. And, we cling to false illusions of hope or denial to rid ourselves of our responsibility to move beyond words and into action. We may hold ourselves above the blatant hate and prejudice espoused by the worst of the right wing, but we lose our footing and our own sense of morality and principle when we are faced with the corruption of our own leaders. And, many of us hold the same anger and hate in our hearts towards the right, not owning the responsibility that comes with understanding the root of what creates hate. We do little to reach out and heal, as we experiene our own fear of a population that has become unhinged.
The only way to heal and move beyond any of this is to summon the courage to look at our situation in spite of our fear. Fear is ruling our political structure, and fear is keeping us paralyzed from even talking about...let alone moving towards solutions to heal and love. We are clinging to false beliefs to keep our illusion intact...
But, the violence of yesterday gives us an opportunity to step through the looking glass and sit with who we are..collectively as a people....
Yesterday, our President said the following in regards to the shootings...
'We do not yet have all the answers. What we do know is that such a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in a free society'....
I meditated on these words yesterday. And, all that came to me was the irony of a President who has thrown hmself into a philosophy of endless and expanding wars speaking such a simple and eloquent truth. The President is an extension of the people, and I truly believe government is a manifestation of the people, no matter how much we wish to believe that we are victims of a larger circumstance.
And, we, collectively as a people are a bunch of scared adolescents who can't bear to face what we manifest....
We want to see ourselves as peaceful. We want to see ourselves as free.
Yet, the truth is that we are not. The truth is that America is an extremely violent country inhabited by a population that believes violence doesn't count unless committed against us, and violence does not exist if it occurs beyond our line of vision. Many on the left began justifying the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan as acceptable once a political leader on our side espoused the belief that the continuation and expansion of war was necessary for our 'national security'. Patriots such as Cindy Sheehan, who was lionized as a heroine for demanding an end to the unjust war in Iraq from President Bush was suddenly demonized by some of the left when her position did not morph with the election of Obama and his sanctioning of the same violence and killing decried under Bush.
And, that is just foreign policy.
America has the highest rate of gunshot wounds in the Western World.
America ranks 9th globally in reported rapes on a scale of 65 countries.
And, then, there is the less tangible violence that we commit against our fellow citizens as we outcast them into poverty and homelessness. Our fear and selfishness played like violins by the most corrupt and powerful to foster resentment of any and all who receive any help or assistance. The needy are demonized as leeches and the struggling are manipulated to hate those who are provided any meager relief. The message rings loud and clear...THEY are taking from you. They are drawing you down. Cue the hate, resentment, and selfishness manifested in a country that does not know how to share, and mistakenly believes that giving will leave you with less and not more.
And, so it is....
I so hope that this event will be used as a means of introspection by all citizens to mediate on the violence and hate that permeates our culture as a whole...and our own individual lives. No one is exempt from the responsibility to examine their own role in allowing or encouraging violence in homes, communities, nation, and globe. We stand on the razor's edge of a very dark abyss, and superficial dialogue about us and them will not take us very far.
Not far at all.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(26 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
