NPR : Deadly London Bombings Paralyze City
NPR : Deadly London Bombings Paralyze City
My thoughts and prayers are (obviously) with the people of London today.
*********
Lately I've been having some interesting conversations about the 'power' of the people as it were. One good friend, Mr. Hess (over at Have Coffee Will Write has been 'fighting' along side other residents of Cleveland to put a stop to Wall-Mart (and I wanted to make it to the meeting last nite but helping another friend with moving was of a bit more importance (sorry gang) - at any rate I often play devil's advocate in these issues becuase I see the world as a place where most adults no longer care/no longer wish to be bothered by trivial things (at least in their minds) - like keeping an 'evil' force like Wall-Mart at bay...
Yet last nite, as I was helping my friend I was making a comment about how furious I am with gas prices and why is it we can't 'band together' to stop what seems to me to be price gouging by gas stations???
So WHAT HAS HAPPENED to us - to all of those former flower children, hippies, sons and daughters of the 50s and 60s that stood up to protest Vietnam, that rallied to get Richard Nixon out of office - what happened to those people (even I am afraid to admit - to myself?)
When the war began (unjustly) in Iraq - my son cornered me as he often does taunting me with the 'why aren't you doing something, mom?' question - he often does this - he means protest of course. But let's think aobut this - let's say we want to 'create a stir' in our country - let's say for the sake of argument that we want lower gas prices - what do we do??? Do we all stay at home for one day and not buy gas (or ALL of us use public transport - hoping of course that it doesn't get blown up - ride our bikes etc) - do we all stop buying GAS GUZZLING vehicles??????
(please stop buying these huge monsters to drive around in you idiots - do it for the sake of the planet - OK??? Humour me here) What do we do? Further, what do we do about places like Africa?? DO we all make our kids go hungry for a day? Do we work in soup kitchens? Do we send care packages?
The point Mr. Hess made was - you have to pick you battles. I agree with that. The point my friend made last night when I suggested we all boycott gas for a day or two - was - people don't care, they won't do it - they just wnat to live their lives in peace and be left alone - it's hard enough to get through the day....
Is it now? Is it really THAT hard? What happened to passion? Is THAT all gone too? Does someone near and dear to you have to die BEFORE you'll stand up to injustice? And how about the G8??? Do we really think that the fate of the ENTIRE WORLD should rest solely in the hands of 8 'so-called' leaders who all have their own agendas?
Just throwing the shit out there...talk amongst yourselves.
I say that if you want peace you have to fight for justice and the only way to make a change in the world is to start by becoming the change you wish to see in this world (paraphrasing Ghandi here), but you get my point - or maybe you don't, or worse, you just don't care....
Do any of us realise the power we have? Just one person (take your pick, Ghandi, Dr. King, Rosa Parks, John F. Kennedy, Bishop Tutu, Nelson Mandela) can change the world - just 1 person....imagine that.
Are you going to be one of us or one of them?
My thoughts and prayers are (obviously) with the people of London today.
*********
Lately I've been having some interesting conversations about the 'power' of the people as it were. One good friend, Mr. Hess (over at Have Coffee Will Write has been 'fighting' along side other residents of Cleveland to put a stop to Wall-Mart (and I wanted to make it to the meeting last nite but helping another friend with moving was of a bit more importance (sorry gang) - at any rate I often play devil's advocate in these issues becuase I see the world as a place where most adults no longer care/no longer wish to be bothered by trivial things (at least in their minds) - like keeping an 'evil' force like Wall-Mart at bay...
Yet last nite, as I was helping my friend I was making a comment about how furious I am with gas prices and why is it we can't 'band together' to stop what seems to me to be price gouging by gas stations???
So WHAT HAS HAPPENED to us - to all of those former flower children, hippies, sons and daughters of the 50s and 60s that stood up to protest Vietnam, that rallied to get Richard Nixon out of office - what happened to those people (even I am afraid to admit - to myself?)
When the war began (unjustly) in Iraq - my son cornered me as he often does taunting me with the 'why aren't you doing something, mom?' question - he often does this - he means protest of course. But let's think aobut this - let's say we want to 'create a stir' in our country - let's say for the sake of argument that we want lower gas prices - what do we do??? Do we all stay at home for one day and not buy gas (or ALL of us use public transport - hoping of course that it doesn't get blown up - ride our bikes etc) - do we all stop buying GAS GUZZLING vehicles??????
(please stop buying these huge monsters to drive around in you idiots - do it for the sake of the planet - OK??? Humour me here) What do we do? Further, what do we do about places like Africa?? DO we all make our kids go hungry for a day? Do we work in soup kitchens? Do we send care packages?
The point Mr. Hess made was - you have to pick you battles. I agree with that. The point my friend made last night when I suggested we all boycott gas for a day or two - was - people don't care, they won't do it - they just wnat to live their lives in peace and be left alone - it's hard enough to get through the day....
Is it now? Is it really THAT hard? What happened to passion? Is THAT all gone too? Does someone near and dear to you have to die BEFORE you'll stand up to injustice? And how about the G8??? Do we really think that the fate of the ENTIRE WORLD should rest solely in the hands of 8 'so-called' leaders who all have their own agendas?
Just throwing the shit out there...talk amongst yourselves.
I say that if you want peace you have to fight for justice and the only way to make a change in the world is to start by becoming the change you wish to see in this world (paraphrasing Ghandi here), but you get my point - or maybe you don't, or worse, you just don't care....
Do any of us realise the power we have? Just one person (take your pick, Ghandi, Dr. King, Rosa Parks, John F. Kennedy, Bishop Tutu, Nelson Mandela) can change the world - just 1 person....imagine that.
Are you going to be one of us or one of them?
posted by Colette at 4:17 PM
2 Comments:
Shalom Colette and Terry,
One life, one belly, one starfish.
To repeat the cliche, better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
B'shalom,
Jeff
Terry and Jeff Hess -- That's very Buddhistic of both of you. I also disagree with both of you. What makes history? Change. What brings about change? Active struggle. Even Ghandi's method was a sort of active struggle. Passively doing your good deed in obscurity, or lighting a candle in the darkness -- what is this but veiled complacency? Be courageous. Dare to believe in something, and stand up for it.
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