Humanity – Page 13 – let kindness win

Take a Breath

The unrest continues in response to the police brutality used in the attempted homicide of Jacob Blake. White vigilantes fan the flames of racism on the streets of Kenosha. Too many on social media are applauding the seventeen year old who killed two protestors and far too many are defending the police who held a man by the shirt and shot seven bullets directly into his back.

And then there are the white commentaries bashing protestors for destroying property while omitting to comment on systemic and brutal racism.

Take a breath people. Jacob Blake’s mother asked that of us and I think it is a good starting point. And once you catch your breath, I think we should defect. To defect: to leave, without consent or permission, allegiances that we have espoused or participated in.

In this moment when insanity is breaking loose; we need to defect from our allegiance to inhumanity. We need to defect from the thinking that tells us there are many races and we need to embrace the single race of being human. We need to defect from the position that might is right and restorative justice is impossible. And most of all we need to stop judging one another and listen.

Over the years I have taken time to be with people different than myself. I have an Indigenous Grandmother, a Black Daughter, Sovereign Sisters and a Muslim Brother, not by blood or marraige, but by choice. And I choose to listen.

Our stories are different. Our hearts are the same.

So I’m defecting from ignorance and hate and I suggest you do the same. Peace is possible. Love is real and as we move towards that understanding, the world will change.

It’s up to us. It’s always been.

photo: wikimedia

Assert Our Humanity

For nearly four years we have watched a man upend human decency while far too many of us have cheered. Faith leaders have excused and even exalted him. Men have envied his power and women have given their power to him. We have heard him brag of sexual exploits and even boast that he could kill someone and get away with it. Well, from what I can see he has done far worse.

What could be worse? Fueled by our tolerance and by our loathing he has worked to dismantle human empathy, respect, and compassion for personal gain. But worse than breaking our dignity, he has modeled that behavior for imitators and children to emulate.

He has totally unleashed the “me, not us” attitude and has invited everyone to participate in the madness. He has turned a blind eye to those who are most likely to suffer from the pandemic. “It is what it is”, was what he offered. His bashing of anyone and everyone who is different should have ended his career in public office before it began. But Donald Trump is a master manipulator and we were ripe for the picking.

We have a long climb ahead of us to pull out of this gutter. But I believe we can do it. How we do it is key. We cannot keep throwing gasoline on the fire. We must find ways to mend the divide. His defeat in November needs to be a resounding thumping as we signal our return to “us, not me” and reject this era’s selfishness.

Let us keep walking into that “good trouble” as John Lewis invited. And remain vigilant. The time to assert our humanity has come. Let the richness of our spirit lead us. Let us not be fooled again.

An Election Won’t Save Us

It’s time for a do over. The bloody struggle with King George’s men did not give us independence. The king of corporate and wealth driven greed now enslaves us.

Every four years we get our hopes up that someone might in fact be listening and we engage in the destructive battle of joining sides. The pendulum swings and little changes. The two parties count on that.

We are an oligarchy*. Our leaders have always been chosen by power and money. Doubt it? Look up the letters to George Washington begging him to come to the Constitutional Convention. Apparently a Massachusetts farmer named Shay was tired of paying more taxes than even the King had asked. He formed a militia and demanded change. Fearing this mood of disharmony would catch on in other states, a convention was called. The Constitution was constructed to create and to strengthen the federal side of the union. It was deliberately designed to protect the wealth and the property of the wealthy. A representative republic was formed, not a one-man vote democracy.

It was not merely a slight of the era that Blacks, Natives and Women were ignored. It was a conscious and purposeful choice. Maintaining power is intentional.

Let’s be clear, I will vote against the puppet currently holding the presidency, but I am not jumping for joy at the alternative puppet.

I am also not advocating violent overthrow. I am advocating the most radical change of all: that each of us take the position of being human first; that respect and care for one another and for the earth becomes paramount; and that we live as if we are the recipients of a great gift and are choosing to leave a great legacy.

We have the means. Do we have the will?

ol·i·gar·chy

/ˈäləˌɡärkē/

noun

Through the Eye of a Needle

There is a lovely canopy of green that blankets my world this time of year. From May through October my cabin sits in the midst of it. My closest neighbors are deer, coyote and a variety of birds, small animals and insects. Through these months as I sit in the silence of an Internet and television free environment, I have the opportunity to think and to feel.

During the days, I catch glimpses of the news, and from social media I learn what many are thinking. For the most part we think about and are driven by what we believe. We have an allegiance to what we believe and so we seek the company of people and of the ideas that uphold those beliefs. This is the beginning of the isolation and the division we are witnessing today. We have become more invested in our beliefs than in our humanity.

Today I took a moment to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and was a bit surprised that I remembered it. When I got to “with liberty and justice for all” I was jolted by the memory of why I stopped saying it. For me, it simply wasn’t true.

The sentiment is lovely, the ideal is honorable but I couldn’t pledge allegiance to something that did not exist. It brought me to that incredible moment when belief and knowing collide and you must choose which you will follow.

To leave beliefs behind is not easy. It’s like passing a camel through the eye of a needle. But I have found a simple solution. I follow my knowing. And I am honing my knowing to some very basic things: our humanity is what we share and kindness is our greatest strength. “Liberty and justice for all” will be born of this.

Photo is a Czech movie poster to Czech film Velbloud uchem jehly (1936). A comedy film with an allusion to the “eye of a needle” aphorism.

Nothing Less Will Do

Native peoples and environmentalists celebrated this week as a judge ruled that the Dakota Access Pipeline should be shut down pending a full impact review. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline has been cancelled and the Keystone XL Pipeline was stalled again in court. In addition, public pressure on a Washington, DC football team is forcing them to remove their racist name. Finally.

“Take your knee from my neck” is the silent and not so silent sentiment among people no longer willing to suffer senseless inhumanity.

While monuments of bronze and granite are being toppled, it is the ideals of colonialism and capitalism that are being unraveled. We are learning the torturous costs of building empire and the dismantling of it is long overdue.

Goliath does not go down without a fight, but the battle will not be won on his terms. The battle is won by conviction and the knowledge that there are better ways to coexist.

We do not have to fear this transformation. We have explored the brutal side of humanity; now let us lead with kindness and respect.

In these uncertain times, the certainty is this: to the people who have fought tirelessly for water and the earth; for those who honor their ancestry with a will to do more than endure; and for the ones who recognize that humanity is far greater than we have ever allowed it to be – this is our time.

Mainstream politics may not reflect it. Some religion may fight to conceal it, but this resurgence will not be stopped.

The strength and the resiliancy of our communities will be reflected by how we care for one another, how we listen to one another and how we honor one another. Nothing less will do.

Photo taken at Oceti Sakowin camp. My time in the camp continues to inspire and direct my course. Water is Life.

Do Not Be Deceived

Do not be deceived. Masks, no masks; rioters versus protestors; defund, no reform the police; pandemic or flu; economic crisis for many, capital gains for a few. Confusion is easy in this moment. Intentional confusion brings hopelessness and inaction. And that is what some are working towards, that we will become hopeless and impotent.

But there is a way I have found that cuts through confusion and provides the courage for action, and it simple. Listen to your heart.

I cannot remove the image of a knee on the neck of a man from my mind. That image is enough to keep my heart on track. There is no rationale; there is no excuse, which could make me falter. I may have been taught racism, but I have come to a cherished understanding: we are one people. And there is no amount of fear or hatred that can alter the conviction of my heart to see human dignity restored.

When people defend the systems of racism, which are crushing all of us, I realize they have traded their humanity for some vague notion of law and order. They are human beings who have left dignity behind.

When I listen to my heart, I am uplifted beyond doubt. I am freed from confusion. Anger is transformed.

When I hear people talk of the virus “culling the herd”, I know they have suffered the loss of their heart. They have forgotten the preciousness of each life and that is something our leaders have yet to understand.

We don’t have to debate ignorance. We don’t need to give power to the greedy. Transformation doesn’t need to take time. It can come in a breath and it is born on the wings of understanding. Don’t be deceived. We all hold the key.

Listen to your heart.

It Can Be Done

I came upon our ducks in frenzy. I stopped to watch as one bolted from the crowd carrying something in her mouth. It was a full-grown frog and not one that she was willing to share. I watched as she continued to elude the others while attempting to consume the now dead frog. The other ducks gave up the chase as I watched in disbelief. It was all so unexpected. Never had I thought of a duck killing and eating a full-grown frog.

Nature has surprises. Although by now there shouldn’t be. I couldn’t judge her; she was following deep seeded instincts of survival. I could feel for the frog, but the reality is the frog has its own instincts to follow.

And then I began to consider the instincts that drive us. There are many who equate the ruthlessness they observe in Nature with the ruthlessness of human beings. It is used to justify the worst of our behaviors and it is also used to justify the corporal punishments we dole as retribution. It is used to justify war, genocide and all forms of inequality. We have become adept at declaring and resigning ourselves to humanity at its worst. It is the excuse we allow.

I have come to resent that excuse. I no longer believe we must accept and follow the base instincts of life. But it does mean we must consciously choose which instincts we will follow. We must survey the terrain of our being and choose which seeds must be cared for and which seeds should be left alone.

Choosing understanding over hatred, compassion over anger, and kindness over greed can be done.

It takes practice. It takes determination. It takes courage, but it can be done.

Yes, violence begets violence, but love certainly creates love

“Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love. ” Martin Luther King (1958)

It’s Good to Cry

Sometimes these days I am overwhelmed by a news story, a radio sound bite or a friend’s hardship and the tears begin to rain. Thinking about this need to cry, I am reminded of an old friend who once watched me tear up. In shame I tried to cover it and she said to me, “Don’t hide those tears. They’re precious. Not everyone can cry. I wish I could.”

Or the time my Navajo mentor explained to me that sometimes “hearts have something hard inside” and we have to allow the hard place to become soft again.

So now as I learn of impending famines, countries overwhelmed, the horrific death caused by the virus, or the need of relief for our health care workers, the tears come. I don’t try to hide them. I don’t try to stop them. They are part of my heart softening. They’re part of my prayer. A prayer without words; a prayer that beckons for all that is good and right to prevail.

There is a part of us that wants to cut to the chase. It wants the political posturing to take a back seat. It wants the allure of acquiring capital to not come at the expense of the living. It wants to stop hearing, “when we get back to normal”. And it is grateful when someone acknowledges that we can create the world we know is possible, not simply default to old and decaying ways.

We have before us a great challenge and it is not in discovering a vaccine. It is to allow our humanity to replace our greed. It is to demand more from one another so the Earth can continue to heal and feed her children.

Our tears are the forebears of action that will make it right once more.

photo by Noho

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Category: Humanity