"Its use (Passive Resistance*), therefore, is, I think, indisputable, and it is a force which, if it became universal, would revolutionize social ideals and do away with despotisms and the ever-growing militarism under which the nations of the West are groaning and are being almost crushed to death, and which fairly promises to overwhelm even the nations of the East." -'Theory and Practice of Passive Resistance,' Indian Opinion, Golden Number, 1 Dec. 1914 (from The Essential Writings of Mahatma Gandhi edited by Raghavan Iyer)
As I watch my country try to balance it's budget by slashing money for children, the poor, and the sick, and I hear almost no voices talking about reducing the number of soldiers, guns, bombs, and weapons of mass destruction, I can only hang my head in shame. The richest nation in the world can keep enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over, can develop the most high-tech weaponry for the slaughter of other human beings, can fight three wars, but won't take care of it's own neglected, abused, and orphaned children.
And the irony is, that even if they cut every dollar for every child in this country, we would still have a massive debt because of the money we spend on military weapons to abuse, orphan, or kill other people's children.
Apparently the politicians in this country consider children to be the biggest threat to our nation's security.
This is not higher mathematics. You don't have to be a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon to figure this stuff out.
The truth is that the politicians in this country are liars and we want to be lied to. If we didn't want that, we would stop voting for these people. And it's not one party or the other. Both parties are in this together.
The Policy of the United States of America: Neglect, Abuse, Orphan, and Kill Children - ours, other peoples, doesn't matter.
Neglect, Abuse, Orphan, and Kill Children.
*Gandhi explained earlier in the quoted article that the term 'Passive Resistance' was really a misnomer for what he called satyagraha, Truth-Force and what Tolstoy called Soul-Force or Love-Force.
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
15 February 2011
Maladjusted
"...there are some things in our social system to which all of us ought to be maladjusted... It may be that the salvation of the world lies in the hands of the maladjusted." Dr. Martin Luther King
The temptation to anger about...our political system, the environment, the economy, the starving millions, the way we treat animals, the war...the list is endless, leads generally to only to one of two things. Violence - lashing out at the perceived institution responsible for the injustice, and make no mistake, these are injustices. O inertia, apathy, at the size and number of things that need to be fixed in this world.
Most of us choose apathy.
Oh, we recycle or become vegetarians or vote or use energy-saving light bulbs or stop wearing fur, small gestures that soothe our conscience, but have little effect on our actual ways of living.
Don't get me wrong - these things are better than nothing.
But...How many of us are willing to stop driving? How many of us are willing to stop paying taxes? Hell, how many of us are willing to stop voting Democratic or Republican and look for an alternative to these two sad sacks.
I am not maladjusted. I drive. I pay my taxes. I eat meat. I have stopped voting for either of the two parties, but I put no money or time into the effort to make a third party viable.
I want to be maladjusted.
The temptation to anger about...our political system, the environment, the economy, the starving millions, the way we treat animals, the war...the list is endless, leads generally to only to one of two things. Violence - lashing out at the perceived institution responsible for the injustice, and make no mistake, these are injustices. O inertia, apathy, at the size and number of things that need to be fixed in this world.
Most of us choose apathy.
Oh, we recycle or become vegetarians or vote or use energy-saving light bulbs or stop wearing fur, small gestures that soothe our conscience, but have little effect on our actual ways of living.
Don't get me wrong - these things are better than nothing.
But...How many of us are willing to stop driving? How many of us are willing to stop paying taxes? Hell, how many of us are willing to stop voting Democratic or Republican and look for an alternative to these two sad sacks.
I am not maladjusted. I drive. I pay my taxes. I eat meat. I have stopped voting for either of the two parties, but I put no money or time into the effort to make a third party viable.
I want to be maladjusted.
01 February 2011
Would Jesus Drive?
"Living so as not to hurt others"
In July 2002, a small, now defunct, magazine called "The Other Side" published an article I wrote which I titled with the above question. "The Other Side" was a left wing Christian magazine similar, if slightly more radical than, "Sojourners". They did little editing to the original article except to change the title. I guess they felt that "Would Jesus Drive?" was too in the face of their readership.
The thesis of the article was that driving an automobile was an act of violence. Even though I now drive daily, my beliefs haven't changed.
Ninety three (93) people a day are killed on our nations roads every day. The number injured is probably ten times that high and many of those injuries are life changing. And how many billions of dollars do we spend on new cars, upkeep, infrastructure, not to mention gasoline.
Our neighborhoods are chopped up by black dead zones, strips unsafe for life of any kind.
Exhaust from our cars is changing the atmosphere. Mass extinctions are taking place all over the globe.
And then there are the oil wars.
So how do I "justify" driving? Foster daughters. Living in a moderately sized city with children, it is impossible to give them what they need without a car. I knew that in 2002 when I wrote the article. We have designed our cities to make life without a car extremely difficult even for people who don't have children.
Does the good out-weight the bad? I like to think so, but...
In July 2002, a small, now defunct, magazine called "The Other Side" published an article I wrote which I titled with the above question. "The Other Side" was a left wing Christian magazine similar, if slightly more radical than, "Sojourners". They did little editing to the original article except to change the title. I guess they felt that "Would Jesus Drive?" was too in the face of their readership.
The thesis of the article was that driving an automobile was an act of violence. Even though I now drive daily, my beliefs haven't changed.
Ninety three (93) people a day are killed on our nations roads every day. The number injured is probably ten times that high and many of those injuries are life changing. And how many billions of dollars do we spend on new cars, upkeep, infrastructure, not to mention gasoline.
Our neighborhoods are chopped up by black dead zones, strips unsafe for life of any kind.
Exhaust from our cars is changing the atmosphere. Mass extinctions are taking place all over the globe.
And then there are the oil wars.
So how do I "justify" driving? Foster daughters. Living in a moderately sized city with children, it is impossible to give them what they need without a car. I knew that in 2002 when I wrote the article. We have designed our cities to make life without a car extremely difficult even for people who don't have children.
Does the good out-weight the bad? I like to think so, but...
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