Walking the Road, We Need to Walk, To Be the People We Need to Be, In Our America of Today

 

Land of the Free and Home of the Brave… Has regretfully become the Land of the Unconscious and Home of the Fearful. Am I bring a bit too harsh? 

 

There will always be the free and brave in this home of ours. That group of members of our human family will always be present and willing to feed the poor and provide medical care of the sick, public education for our children, and address what is wrong by asserting what is right and the truth.

 

The Marjorie Taylor Greens and Donald Trumps of this world are not a part this family. Their disregard for the needs of others, their misrepresenting of the truth, their outright fabricating of reality is what represents who we can be, and who we are at our worst. There are too many of these types of people in present day America that suck the health and hope out of our realizing our potential as a community. If you can’t believe someone, how can you trust them? And a democracy is dependent of being able to believe what we are being told, so we can make decisions that have a basis in reality, for the good of all.

 

A country that was founded by immigrants, vilifying immigrants, a country that was founded on an economic system that depended on slaves, treating human being as inhuman or subhuman, is our history. It has taken us four hundred years to correct that attitude among our communities and we still have not been able to get it right. This is an example of our unconsciousness and fear at its worst. That which is different from who we are, seen as a threat and treated as something to destroy.

 

When will we see the light? When will we see a Trump as sick, a lying sociopathic blow hard, and a threat to our welfare? We already have January 6^th in the history books. 

 

When will we see a Marjorie Taylor Green and the Ted Cruz’s, the Lindsay Graham’s, the Jim Jordan’s and the Matt Gaetz’s as the limited, ignorant, disregarding of others,’ blowhards ‘that they are? My God, what are we waiting for? The time spent reflecting on and anticipating the impact that such people have on our society is a waste of time…we can talk, and talk, and talk and in the end, we need to see what is before us for what it is, decide on whether or not we can live with what they are promoting and, then to decide to do something about it.

 

The place where this needs to begin is in the corridors of the very political forums where these folks were selected to represent the people who voted them into office. Next, we need to, each of us, speak out, as I am doing in this article.

 

With the demands of our daily life, where do we find the time to address such issues? The simple truth is that if you have a cancerous grow in your body, YOU TAKE THE TIME to seek out the necessary medical care you need to maintain your ability to live.

 

In our American Family we are a body that can develop various cancerous processes. If we treat other family members in an inhuman, disregarding way, we cultivate pathological consequences in our body politic. We will only become more diseased if we remain ignorant of what is destroying us as a community.  

 

There are two truths that I believe, that will bring us together as people, generally, and as American’s in particular: ‘To treat others as I would like to be treated.’ And ‘There, but by the grace of God go I.’

 

The Dali Lama is one of my spiritual teachers.  His writings address our humanness and needs as a community of people living together to live in awareness and with compassion.

 

He has written: ‘Whether one is rich or poor, educated or illiterate, religious or nonbeliever, man or woman, black, white or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally and mentally we are all equal. We all share basic needs of food, shelter, safety and love. We all aspire to happiness and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears and dreams.  Each of us want the best for our family and loved ones.  We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek. On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture and language makes no difference.’ 

 

Again, as the Dali Lama has written, ‘Interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Our own survival is so dependent on the help of others that a need for love lies at the very core of our existence.  This is why we need to cultivate a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.