Planet Waves | May 9, 2005
I read today
that John Kerry wants us all to get angry about the current situation in
America. Well, gosh, didn't the progressives already do that? Howard
Dean did that very successfully and then coverage of his victory howl branded
him zealot and left the field open for John, who, I guess, wasn't all that angry
last year. To be fair, he was caught in an "attack/defend" loop that cut the
knee's out from under him -- but if John had a bunch of good ideas about
how to fix the nation, he kept them to himself. Too bad. Good ideas
trump rhetoric any day.
Granted, anger is a terrific motivator. Anger
shot-gunned out without foresight creates chaos -- anger turned within ourselves
creates depression -- but anger as a catalyst to focused action is a creative
force to be reckoned with. When we use our anger to respond to a stimulus,
rather than simply react to one, we are creating a mighty wave of energy that
ripples out before us.
The worrisome thing about anger, though, is that
it ... like fear ... channels through our adrenal glands. Most of us have
been angry and/or afraid a long time now, and this nation -- most of the world,
I'd think -- is suffering adrenal exhaustion. We're weary ... and we've
still got so much to do, so far to go. Interestingly, it's almost like somebody
put on a "slow dance," recently ... a little breathing space. Our congress has
slowed down, too -- nose to nose and not moving at all. Sometimes slowing down a
little is a good thing, a way to notice what's going on in ourselves.
One of the things I've noticed in the last several weeks is a kind of
"energetic opportunity" -- I call it the "Do Over" energy. I see it
happening in the lives of people I know, in the news ... in my life too. We're
having opportunity to re-do some situation that didn't turn out as we'd hoped
the first time, didn't satisfy us. It may not look just the same as it did in
our first encounter, but if we get quiet we can see the similarities. We will
find out how much we've learned by how we approach an old pattern -- how to "do
it differently" this time. Hopefully, we know ourselves better, now -- maybe
we've matured a bit and see where we went wrong the first time -- perhaps now we
will respond to our situation, rather than react to it. Look in your life and
see if you can find such a situation ... I think you'll find something you're
challenged by today has resonance to something that has happened before, some
echo from your past. If you find opportunity for a Do Over, realize that you're
blessed.
There are a LOT of things that could use a Do Over, don't
you think?
In my perfect world, our anger would be harnessed into
thoughtful, productive problem solving. What if we took our anger and allowed it
creative expression in new ideas to replace the one's that are running our
politicians through hoops today? What if we put our heads together and drew up a
dynamite new idea to solve Social Security solvency? What if we developed
and introduced a crackerjack energy plan that would wean us off of fossil fuels
without assault to our environment? How about a thoughtful plan for securing our
borders that neutralizes racism? The politicians would sneer at all this, you
say? So what? A good idea has punch that a failed idea can't hope to compete
against. A truly worthy idea captures our imagination and inspires our
cooperation. A great idea can't be denied. If John Kerry had been brimming
with great idea's he'd have been able to leap over the "fear tapes" that played
us into another four years of George Bush, and land on his feet,
running.
A hopeful article I read today [link below] says that the
majority of Americans ... Democrat, Republican and Independent ... are tired of
the war in Iraq. The Brits have already had their say -- its clear they're tired
too. The withdrawal from Vietnam, a knowledgable reporter of the time suggests,
came to a close not because of the anti-war demonstrations but because the
nation just got tired of war. It takes a lot of juice to do a war -- it takes a
lot of juice to protest one -- and Vietnam was a Granddaddy of a war and a
protest movement. At some point, when the weariness sets in, it dawns on the
collective that it wasn't such a great idea to start with and it gets worse the
longer we think about it. We start questioning the drum beat and the
nationalism and the things the politicians are telling us. Here's the Good News
-- the polls suggest that we're coming to that collective point, today.
It's time to take a breath, see where we are, and re-think the
situation. If the polls are right, more of our neighbors are with us than we
think. We need to turn our energy toward solutions that have some chance of
making our world a better place in which to live, come to some determinations
about what "safety" and "homeland security" actually look like, brainstorm on
how to bring the international community back to the table. We need to be
able to say something more than "We told you so!" when this nation backs up far
enough to say, "What next?" We need to hold our legislators responsible
for offering creative solutions instead of dancing endlessly at
cross-point to old dilemmas. As always -- write, fax, e-mail, talk and
ponder ... the opportunity is upon us to change the direction of the
conversation ... the public is hungry to hear it. So am I.
"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming
up wars for young men to die in," said George McGovern.
I'm with
THAT George -- it's time for a world-wide Do Over -- and we need some fresh new
collaborative ideas to replace these old ones, to insure that the old men do
just that ... dream, in their rockers ... out on the porch at the
ranch.
Peace ~ Jude
Democracy, What Democracy? Troops Out Now.
Laura Flanders http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0508-30.htm
Eric Francis is on holiday. Jude, the editor of
Political Waves, is standing in for his daily blog this week.
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