Well, we are packed. We fly Monday for our annual Lent homage and family visit and I am hoping to subside some anger. Buddhist lent is fairly awesome, a real community event . The highlight for me is making coconut rice candy in the forum with the town. It may sound corny , but it is an excersize of team building with strangers that beckons what this country means to me and what it may never be.
I look forward to our time of relaxation , meeting new people and seeing what community is on a small scale. I see the country I love descending into third world status because no one wants to address wealth separation (a HUGE CAUSE OF THE DEPRESSION) and petty differences keep us from potential. Yes, potential. Potential of what we could and should be.
When we land I will have to go to a river to find a clam or other mulask to do the whole 'baptism thing'. Basically a monk and a chosen individual cut your child's hair, put the hair inside the clam and put it back in the river or ocean. It is a wonderful ceremony . I get emotional for other parents so I am guessing I may get that way for my son.
My day of reflection over the previous years was about our president and how disgusted I was , last year was about hope and this year I am hoping to lose disgust. We have Democrats in Orange County saying some god awful things based in bigotry (and it has been largely ignored here) , a movement of screaming white people who don't want 'one of them' in charge and 'news' people bating the entire country. Not Rick Dirty Sanchez, all of them . The 24 hour cycle has concentrated so much on whatever divides us ,and we all bite , that it is all that seems real.
Obama did not represent a post bigot America to me , I felt the inference was bigoted in and of itself. I think a majority of the country listened to him speak , felt the depth of his charisma and voted for him. I may have heard what I wanted to hear after 8 years of insanity , but I don't recall ever thinking about the color of my presidents skin. I am not preaching, just stating my feelings.
Now the crazies are all out. Economic turmoil caused by corporate America hunkering down as to not lose power is the real cause. We all see it, the demand for less workers to do more followed by the threat of shipping your job overseas if you don't participate kind of stuff.
It is all bating . These jobs are shipped to places where there is no minimum wage, safety standard, where unions are illegal and child labor is called the large part of the work force. I see the entire scope of bigotry in our inability to address even the smallest issue - like Mexico City being the Murder Capital of THE WORLD. The city where most children want to be contract killers. WHAT HAS YET TO BE SPOKEN OF ? Yes, even your beloved War Profit funded liberal network (MSNBC) won't speak of it because it will cut into parent company profits. The reason is not because this is what brown people do . This city was touted as a flagship city of what NAFTA and other trade treaties would be, AND IT IS. A highlight in our race to the bottom, what happens when companies give people deplorable working conditions, inhumane wages and no hope ! Sure, Mexico can unionize, but the last time anyone tried that the companies fled for the safety of Indonesia , where speaking of a union can garner 40 years in prison.
I have ranted enough. I am hoping when my time of reflection comes I can find some answers. I am hoping I can see where it all turned in this country. Why have so many latched onto the stupid. What is the explanation for a Glen Beck or Sarah Palin continuing popularity, and why has bigotry come so far out in front of everything.
It can't be a simple explanation , it just can't be. I sent in my absentee ballot and have 1 request if you live in Pennsylvania - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE get out and vote for Joe Sestak . You know what, even if you hate him, just get out and vote anyway.
The change can still happen, we just have to believe.