"We were left behind on the side of the road like yesterday's trash." -- woman in the Houston shelter on Oprah's show Wednesday.
The unfolding truth of the lack of regard for the poor, especially the poor and black, has dramatically revealed itself in New Orleans. Is it right to treat human beings like yesterday's garbage?
The ugliest aspects of our prevailing attitude are coming to light -- we are seeing the consequences of a long standing bias toward wealth, the consequences of long standing racism and self interest and it is sickening most of us. We've found an infestation of cockroaches in our own supposedly pristine cupboard. The cockroaches are the beliefs that money is the only thing that matters, that race is a determinant of the value of a human being.
We knew it was there -- we didn't realize it was that bad. Guess we don't open that cupboard often enough.
Once we see the cockroaches, finally, we get to decide what to do about the infestation. We get to examine what does truly matter and what humans deserve simply because they are human.
History has propelled us toward the conclusion that human beings deserve honor and respect as a consequence of the simple truth that they are human and alive.
If that is the conclusion we draw, then we need to turn to those most disadvantaged and say we are sorry. We have not, by any means, been widely acting on that belief. Not in the day-to-day.
We also need to turn to that part of ourselves that holds the secret belief that we are not worthy of being rescued. What do I possibly have to offer this world? That part of us resides in us still. It occurred to me yesterday that much of religions are based on the very idea of the unworthy human who must be saved or made right. No wonder we feel unworthy at some deep level.
Now this seems at odds with the conclusion that humans deserve respect and honor simply because we are human. We'll have to sort that one out.
In this grand sorting out, let us be kind to one another. Let's loudly demonstrate to those from the Gulf who have been devastated that we believe they do deserve honor and dignity and respect, without condition, because they are human on this earth.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Monday, September 05, 2005
The search for new solid ground
"The people we see suffering on television are our brothers and sisters. It's incumbent on all of us, as American citizens and fellow human beings, to do our part to help them through this terrible tragedy." Chicago Mayor Richard Daley on Sept 2.
The old solid ground is giving way, sinking like New Orleans. What we thought we stood on has crumbled -- we're coming to realize this with the inescapable evidence from New Orleans and the Gulf coast after Katrina. The institutions of government do not support us as they exist now. At every level, government has demonstrated clearly that they cannot care for the most vulnerable. When that happens, we lose faith that they can care for any of us. The rumblings of that realization are vibrating through our entire culture right now. It has woken me up with nausea at 4 AM.
As a writer, I can see the metaphor our subconscious is likely grappling with: Do any of the institutions we've relied on have anything to give us? Or do we find the places we've been ordered to go barren and quickly become hell with no escape? That we're used to relying on institutions for answers makes this question deeply disturbing.
If we needed proof of our concerns about the focus of current institutions, we've received it. If we needed proof that money is the only thing we consistently value, we've got that.
This neglect manifesting dramatically is the direct result of long-standing ways of treating each other -- ways we've grown used to -- but the underlying ugliness is being made clear to us now. One example is excruciatingly painful:
Rescue 'ticket'
Posted: 6:24 p.m. ET Sept 5, 2005
CNN's Drew Griffin in New Orleans, Louisiana
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/05/scene.blog/index.html
"I am stunned by an interview I conducted with New Orleans Detective Lawrence Dupree. He told me they were trying to rescue people with a helicopter and the people were so poor they were afraid it would cost too much to get a ride and they had no money for a "ticket." Dupree was shaken telling us the story. He just couldn't believe these people were afraid they'd be charged for a rescue."
Human beings in New Orleans hold the belief that they are too poor to matter to anyone... that no one would go out of their way... that the only reason they'd be rescued is if they had enough money. Are they far wrong based on what we've seen? The squalid Superdome evacuation was interrupted on Friday when school busses pulled up so 700 well-dressed guests of the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line.
“How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?” exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage. The 700 had been trapped in the hotel, near the Superdome, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9175611/page/2/
Is this the message we want our nation regularly communicating to its citizens with every daily interaction? Is this what we secretly believe too, and it utterly frightens us? Is this how we want to be?
Now we need to own our ability to respond. We need a crash course on how to evaluate and be honest with ourselves about what's going on in our own hearts. You can be sure we are not being taught these skills in school or at work. Perhaps we can make space enough to teach each other anyway.
My deepest wish is that you can make use of this vessel of Imagine Festival to find solace, comfort, connection. New solid ground, if you will. A space within which grows the belief in the capacity of the human heart and soul, a belief that we are perfectly capable and perfectly enough to take up the ability to respond to what we see with our own eyes and know with our own hearts.
The old solid ground is giving way, sinking like New Orleans. What we thought we stood on has crumbled -- we're coming to realize this with the inescapable evidence from New Orleans and the Gulf coast after Katrina. The institutions of government do not support us as they exist now. At every level, government has demonstrated clearly that they cannot care for the most vulnerable. When that happens, we lose faith that they can care for any of us. The rumblings of that realization are vibrating through our entire culture right now. It has woken me up with nausea at 4 AM.
As a writer, I can see the metaphor our subconscious is likely grappling with: Do any of the institutions we've relied on have anything to give us? Or do we find the places we've been ordered to go barren and quickly become hell with no escape? That we're used to relying on institutions for answers makes this question deeply disturbing.
If we needed proof of our concerns about the focus of current institutions, we've received it. If we needed proof that money is the only thing we consistently value, we've got that.
This neglect manifesting dramatically is the direct result of long-standing ways of treating each other -- ways we've grown used to -- but the underlying ugliness is being made clear to us now. One example is excruciatingly painful:
Rescue 'ticket'
Posted: 6:24 p.m. ET Sept 5, 2005
CNN's Drew Griffin in New Orleans, Louisiana
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/05/scene.blog/index.html
"I am stunned by an interview I conducted with New Orleans Detective Lawrence Dupree. He told me they were trying to rescue people with a helicopter and the people were so poor they were afraid it would cost too much to get a ride and they had no money for a "ticket." Dupree was shaken telling us the story. He just couldn't believe these people were afraid they'd be charged for a rescue."
Human beings in New Orleans hold the belief that they are too poor to matter to anyone... that no one would go out of their way... that the only reason they'd be rescued is if they had enough money. Are they far wrong based on what we've seen? The squalid Superdome evacuation was interrupted on Friday when school busses pulled up so 700 well-dressed guests of the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line.
“How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?” exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage. The 700 had been trapped in the hotel, near the Superdome, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9175611/page/2/
Is this the message we want our nation regularly communicating to its citizens with every daily interaction? Is this what we secretly believe too, and it utterly frightens us? Is this how we want to be?
Now we need to own our ability to respond. We need a crash course on how to evaluate and be honest with ourselves about what's going on in our own hearts. You can be sure we are not being taught these skills in school or at work. Perhaps we can make space enough to teach each other anyway.
My deepest wish is that you can make use of this vessel of Imagine Festival to find solace, comfort, connection. New solid ground, if you will. A space within which grows the belief in the capacity of the human heart and soul, a belief that we are perfectly capable and perfectly enough to take up the ability to respond to what we see with our own eyes and know with our own hearts.
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