Thursday, December 11, 2008
The Business of Forgiveness
I read today that forgiveness is giving up all hope that your past will get better. Isn't this the truth? So many times, I have spent countless hours building invisible fantasies in my past, neglecting my present and impacting my future. But, today, I will spend my day forgiving those who have hurt me. I will spend time forgiving myself for hurting someone else, for not being strong enough, or for being too strong, or for whatever thing is keeping me from reconciling with myself and God. I will not lament over things I should have done, or over how my love is far superior to another's. I will remember that I crave that love, and that a woman who was going to surgery on yesterday told me that she wished she had risked more in her life. That is what life is about. Forgive. Let's get to it.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Definition of "American"
I am an American. I don't believe in the wars. I don't believe in war. I don't believe in the rapture. I don't believe in a trivial, warring, or vengeful God, only trivial and vengeful people that created and promulgated a trivial, warring, or vengeful god. Still I am an American. I believe that George W. Bush is a patriotic American, as is William Ayers, as is Bill O'Reilly, as is Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright.
We have lost it as a people to believe that we are not dynamic creatures. We have lost it to think that we are not complicated organisms of varied emotions and personalities and mores. It is a fallacy to think that we can destroy terrorism with the capture of Osama Bin Ladin or any individual. It is also a fallacy to think that "those we know" are without the propensity for evil. We all are the culmination of good and evil, and the redemptive moment is when we are propelled to operate in what is good.
I am one who tends to believe that the most needed act of reconciliation is the one we owe to ourselves. No more compartmentalization. No more requirement for people to stay in little boxes that bind and do not allow for people to fail and succeed, and ultimately, for anyone to be all of who they are.
I saw Oliver Stone's "W" today, and though I believe Bush is an idiot, Stone, perhaps inadvertently redeemed Bush in a way through this movie. Anytime someone's humanity is revealed is a God moment. Sure, it was filled with Hollywood conjecture, but it was a great beginning to forgiveness for the least popular president in history. The movie didn't fix anything for me, but at least now there is the opportunity to think of Bush as something other than a single-focus nutjob intent on forwarding us to the end of the world.
So Americans, get it together! Ultimately, what makes us American is our accident of birth or naturalization. After this, it is up to us as individuals to determine what that our patriotism means--whether to hide the flag pin in our hearts or wear it on our lapels, whether to participate in war or not, whether to vote for the best candidate or just vote the party line without thought. But what we need to take on as a function of our Americanism is the intent to reach out and broaden our perspectives. This can heal our land.
We have lost it as a people to believe that we are not dynamic creatures. We have lost it to think that we are not complicated organisms of varied emotions and personalities and mores. It is a fallacy to think that we can destroy terrorism with the capture of Osama Bin Ladin or any individual. It is also a fallacy to think that "those we know" are without the propensity for evil. We all are the culmination of good and evil, and the redemptive moment is when we are propelled to operate in what is good.
I am one who tends to believe that the most needed act of reconciliation is the one we owe to ourselves. No more compartmentalization. No more requirement for people to stay in little boxes that bind and do not allow for people to fail and succeed, and ultimately, for anyone to be all of who they are.
I saw Oliver Stone's "W" today, and though I believe Bush is an idiot, Stone, perhaps inadvertently redeemed Bush in a way through this movie. Anytime someone's humanity is revealed is a God moment. Sure, it was filled with Hollywood conjecture, but it was a great beginning to forgiveness for the least popular president in history. The movie didn't fix anything for me, but at least now there is the opportunity to think of Bush as something other than a single-focus nutjob intent on forwarding us to the end of the world.
So Americans, get it together! Ultimately, what makes us American is our accident of birth or naturalization. After this, it is up to us as individuals to determine what that our patriotism means--whether to hide the flag pin in our hearts or wear it on our lapels, whether to participate in war or not, whether to vote for the best candidate or just vote the party line without thought. But what we need to take on as a function of our Americanism is the intent to reach out and broaden our perspectives. This can heal our land.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
The Lack of Diversity
http://news.yahoo.com/story//ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_diversity
My little editorial: Where is all the diversity at the GOP convention?
The fact is there is little diversity. The article I attached is spot on to say that it is a convention of homogenity personified. I could not bear to watch Palin's speech last night. It wasn't like looking away while I get a shot, but more like refusing to watch a horror movie to avoid nightmares. I did watch some of the analysis afterwords.
I don't know what I thought the speech was going to be. I think I expected Palin to wear a cape, to dance with a baton on fire. I expected her to read from the teleprompter some canned speech that we know someone else had written that would show she had some extraordinary awareness on national security, domestic issues, the economy, all the state capitals--anything. Something. Instead, the clips that I could stand to hear seemed as if she were answering questions in a pageant. As a matter of a fact, pagentry is a wonderful image to describe the whole of the convention. It was begun with some beauty queen singing the National Anthem in a tiara. It continues with an air of: "There may be something deeper here, but you will never see it through the glitter, makeup and sweat."
Ultimately, the GOP convention is not slightly interested in diversity. Chills ran down my back as I read some of the signage: America first. Anyone who is on the bottom of society, anyone who is aware of the dance of privilege and poverty, oppression and opulence can see through this phrase. It is not about America first, but about "us" first. They are all just one big family, so the cameras at the convention say. Cindy McCain holds Sarah Palin's baby, since they are old friends of 5 days. It's not about America at all, but about entitlement, and who feels they can define who is in control. It's about white, privileged males, and the group they decide are the "chosen". It's about us and them, an old theme in this country, a country whose heritage is largely defined by its inability and disregard of otherness. They cannot attract real diversity because you would have to see and recognize the value of others in order to welcome them.
The Democratic convention was a gathering of energized, hopeful people who are ready to see this country represent and uphold the values of a vastly diverse and heterogenous nation, which will in turn heal our relationship to the world. The convention was about us. It was about me. It was about my child, and the child in foster care in Tennessee, and the disabled veteran protesting by the gates of the White House. It made many of us cry because it touched a deep and meaningful place that is authentic and resonates across the American spectrum. The Republican convention is a fragile and empty attempt to portray, "See! See! We are hopeful too! We are changers! And we have energy too!" So what it feels and looks like a clan meeting? So what they attempted to use tropical storm Gustav as a screen to hide the low attendance at their convention? The analyses of conservative strategists and commentators were telling: Everything was exciting and larger-than-life! I don't care how scared we are, we will never let you know that there is a man behind the curtain. We are going to respond in unison and without any inflection: "McCain is ready on day one, and Palin has more executive experience than Obama--" which means even if we choose shaved monkeys as our candidates, so be it. It's our story and we are sticking to it--because we can. It is not unlike a concert where the Earth, Wind and Fire is the opening act to Milli Vanilli, the headliner. Everyone knows that Milli Vanilli can't hold a candle to Earth, Wind and Fire, so they lip sync's EWF's songs to compensate--poorly. It's sad.
Perhaps there is little diversity there because for people of color and other people who are not of the dominant culture, we are tired of this scene. We spend too much energy living in the space between acceptance from others and authenticity to who we are that we cannot stand another contrived Kodak moment of integration. Even if you are well paid to be the "diversity", folk get tired of being the token. The GOP convention puppeteers may also be grateful to know that everyone with melanin ain't of color; therefore, even including the brief appearances of people of color, the line-up was still homogeneous. In the end, we are left with Obama a-Biden, and McCain just Palin in comparison--pun intended.
Continuing the conversation,
The fact is there is little diversity. The article I attached is spot on to say that it is a convention of homogenity personified. I could not bear to watch Palin's speech last night. It wasn't like looking away while I get a shot, but more like refusing to watch a horror movie to avoid nightmares. I did watch some of the analysis afterwords.
I don't know what I thought the speech was going to be. I think I expected Palin to wear a cape, to dance with a baton on fire. I expected her to read from the teleprompter some canned speech that we know someone else had written that would show she had some extraordinary awareness on national security, domestic issues, the economy, all the state capitals--anything. Something. Instead, the clips that I could stand to hear seemed as if she were answering questions in a pageant. As a matter of a fact, pagentry is a wonderful image to describe the whole of the convention. It was begun with some beauty queen singing the National Anthem in a tiara. It continues with an air of: "There may be something deeper here, but you will never see it through the glitter, makeup and sweat."
Ultimately, the GOP convention is not slightly interested in diversity. Chills ran down my back as I read some of the signage: America first. Anyone who is on the bottom of society, anyone who is aware of the dance of privilege and poverty, oppression and opulence can see through this phrase. It is not about America first, but about "us" first. They are all just one big family, so the cameras at the convention say. Cindy McCain holds Sarah Palin's baby, since they are old friends of 5 days. It's not about America at all, but about entitlement, and who feels they can define who is in control. It's about white, privileged males, and the group they decide are the "chosen". It's about us and them, an old theme in this country, a country whose heritage is largely defined by its inability and disregard of otherness. They cannot attract real diversity because you would have to see and recognize the value of others in order to welcome them.
The Democratic convention was a gathering of energized, hopeful people who are ready to see this country represent and uphold the values of a vastly diverse and heterogenous nation, which will in turn heal our relationship to the world. The convention was about us. It was about me. It was about my child, and the child in foster care in Tennessee, and the disabled veteran protesting by the gates of the White House. It made many of us cry because it touched a deep and meaningful place that is authentic and resonates across the American spectrum. The Republican convention is a fragile and empty attempt to portray, "See! See! We are hopeful too! We are changers! And we have energy too!" So what it feels and looks like a clan meeting? So what they attempted to use tropical storm Gustav as a screen to hide the low attendance at their convention? The analyses of conservative strategists and commentators were telling: Everything was exciting and larger-than-life! I don't care how scared we are, we will never let you know that there is a man behind the curtain. We are going to respond in unison and without any inflection: "McCain is ready on day one, and Palin has more executive experience than Obama--" which means even if we choose shaved monkeys as our candidates, so be it. It's our story and we are sticking to it--because we can. It is not unlike a concert where the Earth, Wind and Fire is the opening act to Milli Vanilli, the headliner. Everyone knows that Milli Vanilli can't hold a candle to Earth, Wind and Fire, so they lip sync's EWF's songs to compensate--poorly. It's sad.
Perhaps there is little diversity there because for people of color and other people who are not of the dominant culture, we are tired of this scene. We spend too much energy living in the space between acceptance from others and authenticity to who we are that we cannot stand another contrived Kodak moment of integration. Even if you are well paid to be the "diversity", folk get tired of being the token. The GOP convention puppeteers may also be grateful to know that everyone with melanin ain't of color; therefore, even including the brief appearances of people of color, the line-up was still homogeneous. In the end, we are left with Obama a-Biden, and McCain just Palin in comparison--pun intended.
Continuing the conversation,
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