In a message dated 9/12/01 12:26:15 AM, [email protected] writes: << Today, I am jolted into reflecting on the ways I have contributed to terror. Small looks, feelings, actions, angry outbursts, and rejections. I am moved to see my pain, from which they arose, and the cost for humanity. >>
Dear Friends on the List, I'm a newbie on this list and I am struck by a need for historical perspective. And, for the idea of concrete action as well as holding the psychic/energetic space with love. We need to see clearly, without projection---very difficult when unpopular views are aired, which I suspect some of these will be. The seeds of this tragedy we are experiencing are long and deep, all imho, btw. They can be seen to be growing with our failure to recognize the plight of the Jews, Gypsies and other "non-persons" in Nazi-led Germany. Our (in the US) isolationism and distaste for the wars on the "Continent" kept us blind for a long time. The United States turned back a large shipload of Jews who were desperately seeking asylum---returned them to France where most were rounded up and ended up in the gas chambers of the "Final Solution". Our great guilt and grief, when the Holocaust was revealed, caused us to commit another causal act of this terrorism we experienced today---we, in the West, supported the ripping up of 4 to 5 million Palestinians out of their homes and land to make a place for the diaspora of the Jewish religion, now called Isreal. We were seeking atonement. Then, rather than immediately doing a "Marshal Plan" for those dispossessed so they would also have hope, could also create a new, more prosperous life, we left them in squalid, fetid, camps to fester, to live hopeless lives, to become angry at a level we cannot comprehend, to grow in hatred of the United States and the West. Meanwhile, desperate forces continued to try to destroy Isreal, and are still doing so today. Make no mistake, until the land/economic issue of hope and access to the holy places is solved, the Middle East will remain in turmoil. We made other mistakes too numerous to mention, because we had the power and controlled the oil (until 1973), all the while blind to the seething resentment and grinding poverty of the majority of the Islamic/Arabic peoples in the Middle East. According to what I have read (remembering that paper does not refuse ink), Osama bin Laden was a millionaire guerilla fighter in Afghanistan against the Soviets (how many of us would be millionaire guerilla fighters---I'm not one, I'll be the first to say). He was turned from at least a neutral attitude towards the West to a deep hater of the US by our use of Saudi Arabia's "holy soil", his home country, to launch our attack against Iraq to save Kuwait---to save Kuwaiti oil for the West. If Kuwait had not had such huge amounts of oil, do you think for one minute we would have cared if Saddam took Kuwait? Imho, not a chance. And, we still have troops in Saudi Arabia, which is a deep offense to bin Laden. For another, contrasting example, the break up of the Slavic federation caused us just a little notice and a surgically clean air campaign, for which we will also pay, some day in the future. They had no oil. Now the Muslims are doing to the Christians and Gypsies what was being done to them. Very sad. All imho. (btw, this is not to, in any way, excuse what are likely bin Laden's despicable actions, not at all. He must be caught and tried in courts of law. But, it is to show that we have a part in the dance, too, that we largely don't want to see, which is our shadow side of this real-life drama.) We people in the United States and Western Europe do not, for the most part, realize, at a gut, visceral level, what an incredible tub of butter we live in---how incredibly wealthy and privileged we are. Oh, yes, we see the statistics, but they have no real, gut-level meaning to the average person enjoying an unimaginably comfortable life (in the sense of physical goods, comfort, and ability to travel and communicate (like I am doing now )---spiritually and psychically is quite another matter or Prozac, etcetera would never be such big sellers) while much of the rest of the world languishes in unimaginable poverty and hopelessness. We are going to hold OSonOS X? in Australia next year. We don't question our ability to do so. To far more than half the world's people, doing so is simply not in their consciousness. They never leave where they were born because they are unable to do so. Well, that's quite a litany of issues, causes and problems, past and present. What to do? Most certainly not what we are likely going to do, punish someone with military might when we get their address. Entering the revenge cycle is one of the core problems in Kosovo, most of the Balkans, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, etc. Someone needs to begin the forgiveness cycle. Very difficult unless we see a wider humanity, which we are as yet unable to do across religious lines. We need to raise our vision and create hope for the millions in the Middle East through a form of effective aid, and tax ourselves to do so, as well as getting out of their way to develop as they see fit and not depend on their oil. We, including us all here, must also do with less, imho. Especially less gas and oil. Get out of our SUV's and bulking trucks that get 8-12 miles to the gallon. Tax the hell out of gasoline the way Europe does (where it's $4 a gallon and more). Get an effective fast rail and rail sub-systems throughout the United States (Canada and Mexico, too?) so we don't need to drive or fly so much. Yes, I know, it will cost tens of billions of dollars, from gas taxes?---but if we were not oil-dependent, we would not be messing around in other people's lands. They could develop themselves and look at reallocating their wealth in a more democratic fashion. They could have their own revolution. We need that help here, too, but that's another discussion. Think, besides holding Open Space for peace, what acts of using less can you personally take? How might I/you/we all use less electricity, or get into renewable sources of energy (solar is down to about 18 cents/kwh now, still at least twice what we in the US pay, I think. In the NW, where I live, it is 3.5x what we pay. But that is how we must begin to think, imho.) How might we use less packaging, less plastic (comes from oil), less, less, less---(I'm aware of the simplicity movement, they have some very good points). In What Ways Might We.......(Fill in your own statement). There is an iron law of responsibility that is promulgated in the Bible and probably elsewhere that I don't know about. Paraphrased: "From those who have much, of them will much be required." We have incredibly, unimaginably much. What are we going to do with it? How about a project to bring clean water to the entire world?? How might we do that?? Just, that, alone would release millions of person-hours (mostly women's) from gathering water, create an immediate leap in children's health with increased survival rates and then dropping birth rates. Maybe Rotary International who, through their Polio Plus campaign, have changed the health of the world's children, too, might like to take that on---humanity certainly has the drilling and other pure water technologies to do it. Just one idea. I'm involved in a project through Rotary to build a small hospital in a small town in Latvia (we have a Latvian community here as well as an active Rotary). We have done more with less than we could ever imagine. Many, many hands, including some from Canada and Europe, leaped in to help through Rotary. One small project, so much time. One man spearheading the whole vision. What might happen if we began to see the deep needs of the truly poor of the world? I'm going on too long. Blessings on you, and forgiveness for the injured and the injuring. love, paul everett * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
