Most of us are humble and brilliant. When I take the time to speak with anybody openly, I find treasures of greatness all around.
Not all of us are monumental sexist-racist-dictators-of-evil like Mr. Bush...
I hate our system in which the most destructive among us rise to the top. Bring back the round table.
The United States of America: The Great Melting Pot: The land where anything is possible...
It needs to be possible for us to have a government in this country that looks similar to the mix we see when surveying a table at the United Nations.
One black candidate, one woman — it is a start, but only a start.
I want to live in an America where women and men - Asian, Latin, Eastern European, Jewish, Arab, African, Indian, Native American, Peruvians - of a wide range in age and experience come together and offer forth the true story of a country so large and so complex. I want to see cabinets and Congress reflect the true diversity of this country.
How can we live up to our potential as a nation when we are living by the laws and ideals of so many boring old white men?
It is not just enough to bring in some different shades and a few women in power suits — the winners of the 'race' are always the individuals who most closely mirror and shadow the ideals of the dominate force.
I am so tired of the bi-partisan monotone.
Let's hear the voice of America — let me hear you sing.
It's time to make the tune catchy enough that it spreads like wildfire and it is time for the possibility to be set into motion...the kinetic energy would be enough to blast us with bombs of reason and sensibility.
We have everything we need. Let's build the infrastructure, let's stop being submissive to the corporate machine. Come on, take the whip in hand and beat some hide raw.
I say it is time to throw the corporate big-boys into the corner for a nice long time-out.
Let us take the chance and make the chance to build businesses that service the community and that are formed with the mission that a better world is possible and that each and everything that we do adds or detracts from that mission.
It is time to take back personal responsibly and live up to our personal potential — this is the only way to make way.
I refuse to continue to be pulled under by the tides of a capitalist society that is only benefiting the top 1%...The top 5% are living large. There is still a trace of a middle class, but if you travel across America you will hear more stories of hardship and struggle than of flourish and triumph.
The majority is not only lacking financial success, but is also facing spiritual emptiness, families are by and large shipwrecked; health is failing as we almost all have some ailment.
Creditors are prowling. The average American is in debt double their annual income. We, as a nation, went from having the largest surplus in the world to the largest national deficit in the world in less than a decade. The average family income in this nation has actually dropped over $1000 annually in the last six years while the cost of living has risen astronomically and government-funded programs have been cut more extensively than ever before.
We are exhausted and running as fast as we can and still most of us fall farther behind as our position in the world sinks lower and lower with each passing day. Suicidal thoughts abound, and 60,000 people follow through on that impulse per year (That is double the homicide rate — we are murdering ourselves in droves. Something is terribly wrong — a bi-polar hopeless nation will play off prejudices until we implode.)
Racism flourishes (until we are able as a people to critique our potential leaders based on the content of their character rather than their outward appearance, we have more work to do to free our socially constructed limitations of each other.) Fear is thriving like never before - we use color codes for everything. We shake our heads in the most patronizing ways - at the gangs in LA...the Bloods and the Crypts. We call them 'niggers'. We blame it on that animal instinct, that urban jungle; we put it on the news every night only to condition us to see why killing those 'sand-niggers' in a desert hell is justifiable. News anchors speak about the red and the blue states, and the Red Alert, as if there is any difference? Some political refined 'experts' sit in a glowing box and masturbate with propaganda on "60 Minutes." I think to myself, "How terribly wrong this has all gone." I still hear the cheers for America and so many young beautiful Americans are in Iraq dying in vain, dying from the greed of a few and a lack of mobilization by the masses.
We have the power to overturn our government. It is built into the foundation of this great nation. And yet, they have us on this frantic chase to the top — some heaven where everyone is rich and pretty with big fake boobs and abs of steel where all they do is fuck all day long to the next radio hit and play it cool.
More people are involved in lawsuits than are involved in community life...
This is not the America I know is possible. We are living in our own shadow. Light the flames and turn on the heat. Let's fuel the fire in our bellies and learn to demand more of ourselves, more of the world around us.
I think a Native American should really be holding office. I think we need to remember how much blood of the sacred and the holy was spilled upon this land before Europeans planted their crops. We need to remember beyond the hypocrisy of 'Thanks Giving': All the buffalo that died, the children, the chiefs, the medicine men, the wise women, the healers, the virgins, the old ladies with little wrinkled hands - they all lost their lives so that we could be here now. Where is our respect, our conscience, our ability to look back and then forward?
Thank thank thank you to those who are trying, and to those of us joining hands, hearts, and forces.
With gratitude, I remind myself that sharing the little things each and every day it makes us who we are.
We may not have the time or the energy to act as superheroes but there is a possibility everyday to become a little more aware. There is someone within reach of you now who has something to share, and something you need to give or receive is just around the corner.
I will not support this insanity. I will, however, work.
Never in vain.
Every little step.
It is a collection of moments bringing us farther.
It is the way you take breath in — how deep you let it go...*
"Our breath is recycled from someone else's lungs, our enemies are the very air in disguise...you know I fight fire with words, words are hotter than flames, words are wetter than water." -Ani Difranco
Sweet dreams,
Even sweeter waking life.
//layla
1 comment:
First, my sympathies concerning your mother. Mine has had MS for seven years now. I know the struggle. I wish you the best of luck.
I'm afraid the rest of my comment will be critical. I understand that you don't like the course of things in our country. I don't either. But do you not see how divisive you are being by blaming "old white men" for the problems. No matter what country, no matter what time, no matter where, led by what color person fo what gender, every country engages in war. It is not an activity peculiar to the old white men who founded this nation. It is worth noting, however, that those old white men did have the peculair notion to start a country where people can speak whatver they wish, wherever they wish, to whomever they wish. This blog, and my comments, were secured by the blood of countless white men, and black men, and women. Blaming problems on white men is just as racist and sexist.
Men are not the problem (I say this as a lesbian woman). If women ran this country to the degree men do now, there would be no difference. We are all animals in the end. We live only by desire, no matter how noble. Those desires will always find resistance from other people and other lands. We need to find a way to tolerate each others' desires and accept everyone's (even men's) humanity. I honestly don't know if that goal is, even in theory, possible while maintaining the sovereignty of each individual. How much humanity are you willing to pay for the quiet?
Finally, my mother did bear me, but she was not the only one who gave me life. My father did as well, and I am bothered by those who would discount his role in my being. So I offer credit to my mother, but also to my father, who happens to be the best person I have ever known.
Once again, best wishes to your mother.
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