I've posted this on my blog, at The Arcanum Cafe´, and in my column at the studio 8 community. I also sent this out to my email distribution lists, but I never posted it here. An obvious oversight.

Aside from saying that people like me have forgotten about 9/11, people say that we're filled with anger, that we only look at the negative sides of society.

I've personally been accused of being filled with rage, for being angry, sad - and justly so. Since The Regime worked with bin Laden to get flunkies to fly planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to justify an unjustifiable war in Iraq, nearly 2,200 American pawns have prematurely lost their lives, dumbed down Americans have supported this mass murders, cowardly arm chair warriors who have nothing to lose have cheered on the young men and women turned into sitting ducks in a region to which they should never have been sent, thousands of young Americans have been physically and psychologically ruined for life and possibly hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have never gotten the chance to dip a finger in purple ink.

I don't think that you have to be a member of the forums to go to the discussions at Arcanum or studio 8. You can see the responses to this essay. In those discussions, I've explained that this essay is about hope, not anger not sadness.

I can say this; within the past four or five years, ever since I became a truly active activist, I've felt more alive than at any other time in my life. When my health has allowed, I've been out on the street, listening to speakers who share my social views, singing at rallies of the Mount Diablo Peace Center, marching against this illegal war, before it was ever unleashed upon an unsuspecting Iraqi citizenship.

Theres's a sentence in the following essay. "I long for a day when those who don’t believe in spirits at all realize that this is the only life and the only world they will ever know and that they must use this life to make this world a much better place than they found it."

It's obvious that the best thing we can do while we're here is to make this place a better place than we found it.

Yes, I'm angry and I'm sad. I'm extremely disappointed in those who think that there's nothing to be angry and/or sad about. They are the enablers of The Regime. They are the delusional ones, the ones who fall for sophistry spewed by those for whom the lie is the most widely utilized form of communication.

But, so much for sadness or anger. I hope that you can see that there is a response to those who effect anger, sadness and, indeed, disappointment for those of us who'd really rather not experience those emotions.

I write this for every human being who would humble me by reading it.

I realize that is a fraction of a fraction of all humanity, but it may be, if I’m graced, humanity just the same.

I wonder why I write so much about injustice. I wonder why I’m so passionate when it would be so much easier to be oblivious.

It dawned on me.

I long for a better world.

As, if I remember correctly, my birth certificate has no expiration date on it, I felt as if I should share my longings in a timely manner with as many people as would be so kind as to share them with me.

For example, I long for a day when those who possess more than most of us could ever dream of will begin to share their riches with those who struggle and can only dream of possessing the basic necessities of life.

I long for a day when people accept spirituality in one of two ways.

I long for a day when those who don’t believe in spirits at all realize that this is the only life and the only world they will ever know and that they must use this life to make this world a much better place than they found it.

I long for a day when people of faith, people who believe in a spiritual world, people who believe in a higher power, a Creator, cease to believe in the creator of the books, cease to believe in a vengeful creator, a jealous creator, a murderous creator, a creator who commands its very own creations to set upon one another in death and destruction, especially upon its own behalf.

I long for a day when people who believe in a Creator believe in a Creator whose intent was for its creations to exist without war and destruction, from beginning to end.

I long for a day when such beliefs birth tolerance;

tolerance among those whose skin pigmentation produces hues of appearance which significantly differ from one person to another.

tolerance among those whose language and culture of ethnicity differ dramatically.

tolerance between genders so that each gender looks upon the opposite with total respect and equality.

tolerance towards those who love, cherish and honor another human being to the point where the two human beings wish to spend their lives together and share those lives, no matter the race, ethnicity or gender of either of the two.

I long for a day when all people everywhere realize that earth is finite.

I long for a day when all people everywhere appreciate the gifts that earth has given us.

I long for a day when all people everywhere realize that the entity earth has needs as well.

I long for a day when all people everywhere give back to the earth by, if in no other way, realizing that earth is finite and belongs to every creature which travels upon it.

I long for a day when people realize that life is a process.

For all of recorded time, humanity has had its eye on the goal, the finish line, the prize. It has either not realized nor cared about the process used to reach its goal.

Subsequently, the process has been trampled upon and flawed and filled with destruction.

Consequently, when the goal was reached, it was not sustained.

Throughout recorded history, there have been communities that have lasted for many years, but, by far, the greatest number of communities of note have failed. The great communities of note are no longer with us. They all ultimately failed.

I long for a day when humanity keeps its eye on the process and that process contains everything for which I long.

If humanity is more attentive to the process which contains everything for which I long, it will reach a goal and that goal will be called Peace.

Peace is giving and accepting.

I doubt I will see Peace in my life time, but maybe, just maybe if we all long for it with the intensity needed and we are acutely attentive to the process, a generation someday in the future may experience world wide Peace for the first time in history.

That goal will be sustainable.

That goal will never fail.

To friendship,
Michael

“You want to claim this the land of the free? Then the symbol of this country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest.” – Michael Douglas from “The American President”

Home                                                         About Michael                                                       Essays, Letters, Opinions