The Inauguration and its protests
I am not watching the annoint....er....inauguration. Instead, I have C-SPAN2 on. It's carrying the protestors. As much as I laud and support the protestors efforts, I also find the protest lacks something essential, especially coming as it does a few days after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
What was it MLK brought to the civil rights movement? What's the difference between MLK's "I have a dream" speech and what the protestors are shouting today?
It's a rather difficult quality to put one's finger and not many may understand its meaning, but what MLK had was depth, the deeply spiritual kind that goes beyond all particulars to reach the common bond of our humanity struggling against tyranny and oppression.
The trite chanting of the protestors today does not reach into the deep well of human suffering nor does it help us turn to each other and join hands in solidarity. The protestors today do not speak of a vision we can share and work to build together, though I cannot blame them for their strident anger. Unfortunately, without spiritual depth, little will come of today's protest against Bush, the Iraq war, and the continuing injustices of American policy.
What we need is a spiritual vision of what life could and should be like and to feel a spiritual connection with our fellow humans. Only then will we have the depth and wisdom to guide our energies into a transformational force of social renewal and a rebirth of the human spirit.
Let us put our differences aside to find what binds us together as human beings. Let us stop insisting on I, me, and mine and begin thinking about us, we, and ours. All of our individual lives are inextricably bound up together in deeply interconnected but unseen ways. Let us wake from the delusion of isolation into the reality of our shared humanity. And let us dream of a real equality, real justice, and a real peace.
What was it MLK brought to the civil rights movement? What's the difference between MLK's "I have a dream" speech and what the protestors are shouting today?
It's a rather difficult quality to put one's finger and not many may understand its meaning, but what MLK had was depth, the deeply spiritual kind that goes beyond all particulars to reach the common bond of our humanity struggling against tyranny and oppression.
The trite chanting of the protestors today does not reach into the deep well of human suffering nor does it help us turn to each other and join hands in solidarity. The protestors today do not speak of a vision we can share and work to build together, though I cannot blame them for their strident anger. Unfortunately, without spiritual depth, little will come of today's protest against Bush, the Iraq war, and the continuing injustices of American policy.
What we need is a spiritual vision of what life could and should be like and to feel a spiritual connection with our fellow humans. Only then will we have the depth and wisdom to guide our energies into a transformational force of social renewal and a rebirth of the human spirit.
Let us put our differences aside to find what binds us together as human beings. Let us stop insisting on I, me, and mine and begin thinking about us, we, and ours. All of our individual lives are inextricably bound up together in deeply interconnected but unseen ways. Let us wake from the delusion of isolation into the reality of our shared humanity. And let us dream of a real equality, real justice, and a real peace.
posted by NeoLotus at 11:36 AM
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