We Are One; let’s put that into action.

Thank you, Sweet Honey in the Rock for cleansing my soul and my dusty ass of its usual misanthropy this morning; I swear I’ll try to remember your clear message more in the future; it rings like a bell, and the sound vibrates my very bones.  May it stay with me, and with any of you who feel it, too.

The message images send my spirit cartwheeling and careening through the cosmos, collecting more bits of the luminous stardust of which we’re made…  And I can feel some understanding that all time happens at once, and echoes go forward as well as backward…in time.

For each child that’s born
A morning star rises
And sings to the universe
Who we are.

Who we are, and were meant to be; not how we are collectively behaving just now.

And what are the children of our nation to believe about us, who we are being instead?  That we allow millions of them to go to bed hungry at night, or thousands and thousands of them to die each year from lack of health care?  That they may be drinking poisoned water or GM-contaminated food, or allowed to use products that industry and big pharma have declared safe, only to discover that…they are not.  They are inheriting a planet we are quickly choking to death; they cannot live with that, nor will they live with the calamities climate change will bring: the floods, the food shortages, clean water shortages, the Diasporas soon to come, as in Southern Pakistan, where hundreds of thousands are starving to death as I type.  And of course, the children and the elderly are dying soonest.

How have we allowed The Few Profiteers and Ruling Plutocrats to convince so many of us to abandon what we know in our hearts are the best, simplest and most loving ways to live our lives in favor of the acquisition of goods and possessions that are so meaningless come the end of our days?   Why have we allowed them to keep us dependent on the Black Gold, Texas Tea that fuels our economy as it poisons it, and is the basis for our horrific foreign wars and occupations and Empire?  Or to steal our futures, and worse, the futures and well-being of our nation’s children and grandchildren?  Why do we allow ourselves to buy into competition instead of the cooperation we know is best for us and the planet at large?  There is enough to go around if we share, and work cooperatively and carefully.

We’re not supposed to be these other people, we’re:

We are Mothers of courage
Fathers of time

Daughters of dust
Sons of great vision

We’re sisters of mercy
And brothers of love
Lovers of life and
Builders of nations.

(not destroyers of nations)

Yet we’re letting The Few break even further the social contract (thanks, Fairleft) we and others around the globe have lived under for so long; in the name of austerity these children will suffer in our names unless we push back, and push back soundly against their cavalier treatment.  We’re allowing them to ruin the lives of brown and black people the world over while pretending we’re exporting freedom and democracy to them; and we allow the lying corporate news organizations to get away with their active promotion of the next war in sight, calling the next nation on the agenda ‘The Enemy’ with impunity.  Why are we allowing them to pretend that we’re not all made of the same bits of stardust, and forget we are all related to the San Bushmen through our Y chromosomes?  We can look at these ancestors and clearly see all races in their faces; see ourselves, and see that we really are One.

We’re better and wiser than that:

We are
Seekers of truth
Keepers of faith
Makers of peace and
The wisdom of ages.

We can choose to open our hearts and inner minds and feel the truth of that, and the inherent generosity implied within it.  We can choose now to set aside some of the petty stuff that divides us,  work within our communities, and find a new and simpler dream to live, one that includes us all: housing, adequate health care, clean water, good food, sustainable energy, and public banking.

Progressives seem to be afraid of power.  We’ve learned to fear it, and for some good reasons.  But we need now to exercise it, and keep each other balanced and mindful of the pitfalls that too often come with it: the toxins of power can be great.  (And yes, the idea deserves a diary of its own.)

But if the Good Guys abjure power in fear, who then, owns it?  You know exactly who does and will keep owning it!  Don’t fear it, just be cautious of it.  Call it to you, call out for it in a clear voice: Speak the Truth to all you can; love one another as you are able, and above all: do it for the children and those who come next, if not for yourself and your life.

We are our grandmothers’ prayers.
We are our grandfathers’ dreamings.
We are the breath of our ancestors.
We are the spirit of God.

(or the Great Mandala, or whatever belief you hold; I’m easy…)
Rant, write, speak up, stand up, and be counted.  Take back our nation in the name of the children!  Don’t fear feeling your power; you should reclaim it as your ancestors would ask of you.  And listen again, if you please: