Hey
Been a while...
Just came across this one today.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/republicans-block-paycheck-fairness-act-again
Not sure how I missed it a few months ago.
I have been doing a lot of thinking about how I could best help the world. I know that sounds a little grandiose. But I am not really thinking that big. I am just trying to be realistic and truly helpful. Helpful to real people rather than to some larger than life idea of "society" or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, my ego.
My thoughts have lead me to a simple idea that seems to explain all the upsetting things I see in this life.
Our active life always reflects our values. Our choices verify to ourselves and others what we claim our values to be.
As I observe how our life manifests itself, it seems to me that, as people acting in the world, we have lost two of our most important values: equality and compassion.
We have rationalized them away.
We are so talented at twisting words until they mean nothing. We are able to persuade ourselves that what deeply matters to us in the abstract might not actually matter to us in practical circumstances. Then we start the process of trying to feel better about our moral compromise through denial and distraction. Soon we simply ignore the idea of values. It is too painful to acknowledge. The internal conflict demands either change in behaviour or change in values.
So we ignore the values.
But in that process we erode the foundations of our own self.
At one point or another you have to ask and answer the question, "Are all people truly equal?"
It's a yes or no question. There is no middle ground. When you answer it from your heart it will require a response in your life.
I have come to the conclusion that although we espouse equality, we really don't believe in it.
It is a nice idea but really we have so many exceptions to the rule that it has become meaningless.
If all people are truly equal then inequality in all forms is a fundamental violation of life.
Then there is another fundamental question, "Am I my brothers' keeper?"
It too, is a yes or no question. There is no middle ground. And when you answer it from your heart it will require a response in your life.
When we answer these questions using conditions and circumstances to slide between the only two options - yes or no - we are only dodging the question. Such questions could never be contingent on circumstances. They are the questions that resolve circumstances and provide the direction we need in making life choices.
When we answer the questions directly, we are compelled to accept the obligations that flow from that response.
And I think if the unanimous answer was really "Yes" the world would look very different than it does.
So,
I am sorry to sound so pessimistic but I think we have lost those values. And let's at least be honest with ourselves that we may never really have believed in them anyway.
But we could believe in them.
We could ask and answer the questions today. We could let the change begin within ourselves.
We might even find some peace.
So I ask you, and encourage you ask as many people as you can today,
Are we all equal?
Are we our brothers' keeper?
Peace to you all.
