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"An Alternative that is a Necessity"
The other day I saw this picture in the San Francisco Chronicle. It is a picture of a man, with a miter on his head, dressed in the robes of an archbishop of the church, standing on the steps of the Supreme Court of the United States, blessing the Chief Justice of the United States, as the Chief Justice stares upwardly into the heavens. It seemed so antiquated to me that I found myself laughing. It has not always been so for me, but I now find myself amazed that grown people can hold such archaic notions. It's like watching little children dressing up in play clothes, and imagining that they actually can speak for the gods.
Faith and belief are strong in this world. A seeming majority in the United States are growing even more reactionary and repressed in their religion and in their politics. In the world at large, religious terrorists are venting their rage on civilian innocents. It is an incredibly frightening picture, and it shows no signs of letting up. It has only worsened things that the leader of the most powerful nation on the planet is himself the fomenter of an unjust war that has gone so awry as to lead even those in his own party to begin abandoning him as their own political fortunes hang on upcoming elections. It is not a pretty picture. A leader who has dismissed concerns for global warming and kept our country out of the Kyoto Treaty must now, even himself, begin to see that his blindness has helped to put us even more years behind in what we must do to keep our own environment from choking us.
Now, it's tempting to say, given all this, that it would be best if the peoples of the world were to abandon their religions and begin to see each other as precious human beings who will only continue to live on this planet when they pull together to protect the environment and the dignity of life.
But that ain't gonna happen. It is ludicrous to believe that people on this planet are going to abandon their sectarian and antiquated concept of a God who rewards those who believe in Jesus, or who rewards those who are suicide bombers, or who damns pagans (with the definition of who is a pagan left up to each religion), or who intervenes on people's behalf.
It is ludicrous, however, only as long as we continue to shield ourselves from the misery we have planted elsewhere in this world. It is ludicrous only as long as we continue convincing ourselves that the latest trip to the shopping mall is a sign of the affluence and safety some of us in this country enjoy. Maybe that's why we reacted as we did to 9/11. It broke the bubble and smashed the illusion. Our response was to then blindly go out and retaliate, connecting some dots where there were no dots to be connected, attempting to spread democracy through force and occupation. It hasn't worked and it won't work. We have only created more hatred of our country and more religious zealots ready to attack us.
It is ludicrous only as long as our "Spare the Air Days" don't become a daily necessity, only as long as the water supply is not drastically affected by the droughts which global warming will produce, only as long as suicide bombings happen only outside our country.
We are an empire that is falling and we don't know it. As long as we continue to flip off the rest of the world and try to preserve that which we have, the fall will only escalate in speed and in severity. At some point in time we will see the truth. And the truth will not be about which God you believe in or which government is strongest. The truth will be there for all the peoples of the world to see. Many, many others already see it. We have shielded ourselves from such realities. But our time is coming as well. And when that time comes, it will be time to take off the gloves, to truly see our neighbors and our enemies as ourselves, to ask for forgiveness, and to pull together to see what we can salvage of this incredible gift called life. It will be time for us to work together for our survival from the damage we have done to the lungs and the waters and the lands of this earth.
I hear the voices growing. I see the Republicans who are abandoning the President. I see an upcoming election in which we can begin again to move in a better direction. I think we have woken up enough already for that to happen. I hope so. Otherwise, it's going to get a whole lot worse before it has a chance to get better. What can we do? That is always the question. What we can do is to drop fantasy and to look at the reality of what we have done. What we can do is to drop our complacency and not wait for the dog to bite our butt. What people of religion can do is to not allow one iota of their belief system to separate themselves from others. There are no places of privilege, either in being part of the right country or the right church or the right belief system. There is only us, all the peoples of the world. There are only the problems we face, the skills we possess, and the dedication to use those skills for the benefit of not just our own family and way of living, but the benefit of all.
With love,
Frank.