| |
| |
 |
|
|
6.18.2004
Saturday, June 19, 2004
I want to thank all of you who write and e-mail me, and those of you who read as well. I can't always respond to the e-mails, but I do read them all. It is a great source of hope to me to know that there are so many people who share in the desire to create a world of beauty and inspiration and imagination, instead of a world of war and hatred, and that so many of you believe it is possible. I believe, as many of you do, in the ultimate good of humanity. I believe that people want the world to work. They want every child fed and educated and they want war to stop.
Tonight I passed two groups of protestors on opposite sides of the street. One group had anti-Bush signs, and the other had "support our troops" signs. They were yelling at each other and cars were honking for whichever side they supported. They were divided. The great hope of the world will be a vision so spectacular that the differences between the left and the right - that seem so large to people right now - become minute. Our great challenge is to get people to see that we really all want the same thing.
The way to begin thinking about this is to start with what we have - people like you - who don't just want to be right - but who really want to see things change. We may be a small group right now. But from small things big things come. Our task must be to build a critical mass for optimism that steers clear of Bush-bashing and Kerry-bashing, of left-bashing and right-bashing. We must be the people who stand for an end to the mindless shouting matches and show people that there is too much we all agree on to focus on the things that we don't, and as for the things that we don't, perhaps we can develop an understanding of one another's positions by listening, and truly considering.
The people who will bring real meaningful change to the world in the future will not be political operatives. They will have to be saints. They will have to have that depth of love and understanding. From the letters I read, I believe that is a real possibility.
Add Comment
Read Comments (0 comments)
6.17.2004
Friday, June 18, 2004
Today an independent commission on the September 11th tragedy reports that they cannot find evidence of a link between Iraq and Al Quaeda. The nation as a whole does not seem concerned about this. After more than a year occupying Iraq, the United States armed forces have not been able to find weapons of mass destruction there. Similarly, the nation as a whole does not seem concerned about this.
This raises the question of exactly what kind of breach of trust it would take to raise the concern of the American citizenry in this day and age.
Three million men women and children will die of AIDS this year, needlessly, because for somewhere around $5,000 per person, or $15 billion, which is about a tenth of what we've spent in Iraq, we could get existing drugs to all these people and save their lives. The nation as a whole does not seem concerned about this.
Ten to fifteen million men, women and children will die of hunger and hunger-related disease this year around the globe, in a world that has more than enough resource to feed them all. The nation as a whole does not seem concerned about this.
This raises the question of exactly what kind of death toll it would take to raise the concern of the American citizenry in this day and age.
These things speak to the decline of the American spirit of possibility. We once were a nation that imagined a whole new world. Today our horizon has shrunk to the protection of a world as it is and things as they are. We were once a nation that imagined we could care for the world's tired, poor, huddled masses, yearning to breathe free. A hundred years later, with all our technology, we cannot muster a vision of a world without poverty among the masses.
America needs not more weaponry. An arsenal in space. Better intelligence. America needs her imagination back. She needs to be the inspiration nation. She needs to be the impossible nation. The one that says to the world that we can and we will end the AIDS epidemic and we can end hunger around the globe and we can cure cancer and it doesn't have to take twenty-five years. We will set impossible timelines and we will achieve them, and the doing of it will, as President Kennedy said, "measure the best in us."
America needs to show the world a whole new world again. A world full of compassion, full of clean water, fruit and vegetables, education. A world full of health care. A world full of smiles.
We want to see the end of terrorism? Let us set about a grand vision to bring hope to the world and terrorism will disappear. Let us rebuild the American imagination and we will make a new world.
In the final analysis, it is not that Americans don't care. It is that they have lost hope. Greater breaches of trust and greater death tolls are not what will trigger a new era of American activism. Greater vision is the only thing that will do it. And this, above all else, is the horizon upon which those of us that seek change must set our sights. The American people will follow. Actually, if they are shown a great vision, they will lead.
Add Comment
Read Comments (0 comments)
6.16.2004
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Martin Luther King was 38 years old when he died. Robert Kennedy was 35 when he was appointed Attorney General, by his brother, the President of the United States, who was 43 years old when he was elected. There was youth in the imagination of America back then. There is fatigue in her imagination today. She doesn't need young leaders. She needs young ideas. She needs newborn visions. She is too adult. Too rigid. Too set in her ways. Too comfortable with things as they are. In "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" Mark Twain wrote that, "The elastic heart of youth cannot be compressed into one constrained shape long at a time." America has been constrained into the shape of caution, fear, and excessive prudence. This was not the shape of Thomas Jefferson's heart. It is not the shape of the heart of America. It is the shape of some shadow of her potential. Perhaps some resentment that she cannot bear, brought on by the inauthenticity into which she has been forced. She is not free to be herself.
It is not her job to keep herself free. It is ours.
What would life be like if America were young again?
Add Comment
Read Comments (0 comments)
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
"In the long run, no one can show another the error that is within him, unless the other is convinced that his critic first sees and loves the good that is within him. So while we are perfectly willing to tell our adversary he is wrong, we will never be able to do so effectively until we can ourselves appreciate where he is right. And we can never accept his judgment on our errors until he gives evidence that he really appreciates our own particular truth. Love, love only, love of our deluded fellow man as he actually is, in his delusion and in his sin: this alone can open the door to truth. As long as we do not have this love, as long as this love is not active and effective in our lives (for words and good wishes will never suffice) we have no real access to truth. At least not to moral truth."
Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
Add Comment
Read Comments (0 comments)
6.15.2004
Tuesday, June 15, 2004, Second Post
What is courage? It's not complicated. It's a willingness to stick your neck out, which most people are unwilling to do. It's a willingness to say a thing for the first time, knowing that no one else will say it because they're afraid they'll get their heads knocked off. It's a willingness to be ridiculed, misunderstood, defamed, and judged ion the name of a principle or a cause you know is right. It is a willingness to put principle before personal reputation. It is a willingness to be called blasphemer. It is a willingness to know it may be long after you're dead before people understand what you were trying to do and that it was the right thing to do and that it was ahead of its time. It is a willingness to do the right thing even if, after hundreds of years, no one ever acknowledges that you had courage.
Why don't our political leaders call for an end to the global AIDS epidemic? because it is not popular. But they could make it popular if they embraced it with all the passion with which they embrace mediocrity.
Add Comment
Read Comments (0 comments)
6.14.2004
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
To say, in 1963, that we would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade was an impossible proposition of the highest order. That we went to the moon is not the most remarkable thing. That we did it in seven years is. Today, no one dares set a goal to return us there in anything less than twenty years. This should tell us something about our sense of daring and about our imaginative powers. We have technology now that Kennedy could never have dreamed of, yet we want three times the amount of time he allotted simply to repeat the feat that NASA achieved almost forty years ago.
We must get back our sense of daring, and our willingness to fail in pursuit of a great vision. It should be no great mystery as to why we have not solved the great problems of our time. These things take courage. We mask our lack of courage with all kinds of confusion and debate and create the illusion that these problems don't get solved because they are so complex. They are not complex. They are a simple matter of having the guts to make it happen.
Add Comment
Read Comments (0 comments)
6.13.2004
Monday, June 14, 2004
Today is flag day. What will the American flag represent to the world in the years ahead? Will she represent the arrogance of a prideful nation resting only on the laurels earned by the brave men and women who preceded us? Will she represent an era of bravery and possibility and courage long since past? Will she represent history, or will she represent a future? What if she were to represent the impossible? What is she were to represent the nation that has committed itself to the end of world hunger in the next ten years? What if she were to represent the nation that brought free health care to all the people of the world, including her own? What if she were to represent the nation so inspiring in its vision of the future that it needed only to look upon the past for gratitude, instead of glory?
This is what we ought to be thinking about on flag day. This is what we ought to be dreaming about. This is the future for which we ought to be creating the blue print. This is the future we ought to be preparing to build. "Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave." We ought to be making sure that she still does. But bravery means a different thing today than it did two hundred years ago. Bravery has nothing to do with a willingness to be shot at. It never did. It has everything to do with a willingness to attempt the things we fear the most that we know to be right. Are we ready to create the world we have always dreamed of? Are we willing to let go the old so that the new might be born, the way our forefathers did? Are we willing to confront the enemies over which no army in the history of mankind has yet been victorious? Are we ready to defeat hunger? Are we ready to defeat illiteracy? Are we ready to defeat war itself? This readiness is what will define the new bravery. All those whoever fought for the flag before us have fought to bring us to this battleground, that we might liberate the whole world from the bonds of hunger and violence and despair.
The age in which these things are possible is upon us. But they are not guaranteed. Our right to that world must be declared, and it must be declared by brave people. A flag must be planted in the name of a new era for humanity. These are the kinds of defining battles that make the flag worth celebrating. We don't celebrate it because it is pretty. We celebrate it because it has been tattered and shattered and bloodied and stained. We celebrate it because it has been willing to enter the battlefield, not because it has remained on the sidelines.
A new battlefield awaits. But it asks not for our blood. The brave women and men who have gone before us have given of theirs that we might arrive at this moment. This battlefield asks us for our lives, our imaginations, our courage, our compassion, our means, and our strength. We want our children one day to celebrate flag day. And we want them to celebrate it, not just because of the things that Thomas Jefferson and the soldiers of D-Day did, but because of the things that we did too.
Add Comment
Read Comments (0 comments)
Sunday, June 13, 2004
"The United States didn't grow for two hundred years to arrive in an atmosphere of turmoil and self-doubt. Somewhere, somehow, we lost our way. Somewhere, somehow, in the past decade we lost sight of our own greatness and the promises that the American Revolution made to the world." - Edward M. Kennedy, 1970
Add Comment
Read Comments (0 comments)
Saturday, June 12, 2004
"Who can wait quietly while the mud settles?
Who can remain still until the moment of action?
Observers of the Tao do not seek fulfillment.
Not seeking fulfillment, they are not swayed by desire for change."
Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching
Add Comment
Read Comments (0 comments)
ARCHIVES
09/28/2003 - 10/04/2003 10/12/2003 - 10/18/2003 10/19/2003 - 10/25/2003 10/26/2003 - 11/01/2003 11/02/2003 - 11/08/2003 11/09/2003 - 11/15/2003 11/16/2003 - 11/22/2003 11/23/2003 - 11/29/2003 11/30/2003 - 12/06/2003 12/07/2003 - 12/13/2003 12/14/2003 - 12/20/2003 12/21/2003 - 12/27/2003 12/28/2003 - 01/03/2004 01/04/2004 - 01/10/2004 01/11/2004 - 01/17/2004 01/18/2004 - 01/24/2004 01/25/2004 - 01/31/2004 02/01/2004 - 02/07/2004 02/08/2004 - 02/14/2004 02/15/2004 - 02/21/2004 02/22/2004 - 02/28/2004 02/29/2004 - 03/06/2004 03/07/2004 - 03/13/2004 03/14/2004 - 03/20/2004 03/21/2004 - 03/27/2004 03/28/2004 - 04/03/2004 04/04/2004 - 04/10/2004 04/11/2004 - 04/17/2004 04/18/2004 - 04/24/2004 04/25/2004 - 05/01/2004 05/02/2004 - 05/08/2004 05/09/2004 - 05/15/2004 05/16/2004 - 05/22/2004 05/23/2004 - 05/29/2004 05/30/2004 - 06/05/2004 06/06/2004 - 06/12/2004 06/13/2004 - 06/19/2004 06/20/2004 - 06/26/2004 06/27/2004 - 07/03/2004 07/04/2004 - 07/10/2004 07/11/2004 - 07/17/2004 07/18/2004 - 07/24/2004 07/25/2004 - 07/31/2004 08/01/2004 - 08/07/2004 08/08/2004 - 08/14/2004 08/15/2004 - 08/21/2004 08/22/2004 - 08/28/2004 08/29/2004 - 09/04/2004 09/05/2004 - 09/11/2004 09/12/2004 - 09/18/2004 09/19/2004 - 09/25/2004 09/26/2004 - 10/02/2004 10/03/2004 - 10/09/2004 10/10/2004 - 10/16/2004 10/17/2004 - 10/23/2004 10/24/2004 - 10/30/2004 10/31/2004 - 11/06/2004 11/07/2004 - 11/13/2004 11/14/2004 - 11/20/2004 11/21/2004 - 11/27/2004 11/28/2004 - 12/04/2004 12/05/2004 - 12/11/2004 12/12/2004 - 12/18/2004 12/19/2004 - 12/25/2004 01/02/2005 - 01/08/2005 01/09/2005 - 01/15/2005 01/16/2005 - 01/22/2005 01/23/2005 - 01/29/2005 01/30/2005 - 02/05/2005 02/06/2005 - 02/12/2005 02/13/2005 - 02/19/2005 02/20/2005 - 02/26/2005 02/27/2005 - 03/05/2005 03/06/2005 - 03/12/2005 03/13/2005 - 03/19/2005 03/20/2005 - 03/26/2005 03/27/2005 - 04/02/2005 04/03/2005 - 04/09/2005 04/10/2005 - 04/16/2005 04/17/2005 - 04/23/2005 04/24/2005 - 04/30/2005 05/01/2005 - 05/07/2005 05/08/2005 - 05/14/2005 05/15/2005 - 05/21/2005 05/22/2005 - 05/28/2005 05/29/2005 - 06/04/2005 06/05/2005 - 06/11/2005 06/12/2005 - 06/18/2005 06/19/2005 - 06/25/2005 07/10/2005 - 07/16/2005 07/17/2005 - 07/23/2005 07/24/2005 - 07/30/2005 07/31/2005 - 08/06/2005 08/07/2005 - 08/13/2005 08/14/2005 - 08/20/2005 08/21/2005 - 08/27/2005 08/28/2005 - 09/03/2005 09/04/2005 - 09/10/2005 09/11/2005 - 09/17/2005 09/18/2005 - 09/24/2005 09/25/2005 - 10/01/2005 10/02/2005 - 10/08/2005 10/09/2005 - 10/15/2005 10/16/2005 - 10/22/2005 10/30/2005 - 11/05/2005 11/06/2005 - 11/12/2005 11/13/2005 - 11/19/2005
|
|
|
 |
| |
|
