The Real Revolution...

Reflection given to the Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP) – December 12th, 2014.

Recently, I found myself out of step with ICUJP and at a time when ICUJP was literally on the march. It was over the Grand Jury decision not to indict Officer Wilson in the death of Michael Brown last August in Ferguson, Missouri. Being essentially impartial and unfamiliar with this aspect of American politics, I did not believe that the twelve jurors exposed to all the evidence could – or perhaps, would – get it wrong. Later, I watched the testimony of Officer Wilson being interviewed on ABC television and again I found someone who I felt was telling the truth. I may be wrong and I certainly don’t wish to re-hash it, but we each have to make our own decisions without being carried along by the crowd, much as Phil inferred in his recent reflection recalling Mark Twain’s experience inside a church; and also in the reminder by Andy in his email quoting Martin Luther King of the need to stand up for truth, at least as we perceive it, even though we may be criticized or afraid that we will lose our popularity. However, I will admit that my credence in the American jury system somewhat fell apart with the follow-up verdict in New York with regard to the case of Eric Garner.

These incidents, no matter the actual rights or wrongs of either case, led to demonstrations, riots, looting and other forms of mayhem in cities around America while the rest of the world looked on.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, we had the Senate Torture Report which revealed if nothing else, a similar deep mistrust, fear, hatred, and a perverse lack of empathy for our fellow human beings.

However, perhaps through my own apathy or an even greater feeling of despair, I do not share the same sense of injustice and outrage over any of these incidents as I suspect, and not unjustly, pervade most – if not all – of the people gathered in this room and in the greater community of ICUJP. Perhaps I should. I certainly don’t condemn such outrage, but I am against fighting fire with fire. Fighting rage with rage only begets more rage. As Mahatma Gandhi pointed out, “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”  My far deeper concern looming over all of this is that America, and indeed so much of the world, is heading for revolution: a revolution perhaps in the name of justice and peace – but whose justice and peace? We see it especially in the Middle East, in Syria, with ISIS and Boko Haram; and in the unresolved and seemingly irresolvable conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. We see it in the growing disparity between the haves and have-nots in Europe, in America and the world at large. We see it in the lack of real opportunity for growing swaths of young people many of whom, at least in this country, find themselves already saddled with debt without any realistic chance of ever being able to create the kind of life they had once, and quite naturally, hoped to expect.

Indeed, system breakdown, chaos and lawlessness loom over us all. Rumor has it, and it seems far more than just rumor, that the American government has stockpiled billions of bullets in preparation for what: Martial Law? But revolution, should it come, sparked by mistrust, injustice, lies, poverty, a lack of real opportunity, financial collapse, and extreme political instability combined with interstate war-mongering, and perhaps even all of the above coming together, will not be fun for anyone. Which is why I so like the bumper sticker which says “The Real Revolution will be Love”. In other words, a revolution not born out of issues of anger, injustice, and the seeking of revenge.

It is to this cadre of society to which I most belong. In the spiritual philosophy I have adopted of The Aetherius Society, a much greater, cosmic perspective is offered of our worldly predicament. Referring to Love, the point is made that “after the Initiation called Death, we will be asked why we did not use this energy more fully.” In other words, we are here in this gifted opportunity of life primarily to love. Not to consider or defend ourselves as Jew or Arab, black or white, Christian or Muslim, Sunni or Shia, or any of the other differentiations that we make. Ultimately, these same teachings that I choose to follow remind us to give up any sense of possession, pointing out that in reality, we don’t even possess our fingernail. It is, like all other Earthly matter, solidified sunlight. Yet it seems that we are at the tail-end of having forgotten these essential things.

At the time of the Ferguson shooting, I was in Detroit, Due to the worst rainstorm in almost 100 years two days later, freeways were closed and all the main roads were clogged so in order not to be ridiculously late for the interfaith conference I was attending, I chose to take the side-streets. These were through the astonishing neighborhoods where all white folk are warned not to go. It was shocking and extremely troubling to see such dereliction and poverty; this scarred face of America. But my decision to go where no other moving car was encountered, was rewarded with a wonderful piece of art painted onto the wall of a burned out home amidst all of this abandonment. It was of a colorful mural which included these simple yet wonderfully poignant words of none other than Father Greg Boyle: “At some point we forgot that we belong to each other.” This, I believe, is the real tragedy and cause of all problems that we have on Earth, and the one that can only be overturned by a Revolution of Love - beyond the anger, beyond the riots, beyond the looting, the shooting, the finger-pointing, the injustice and the blame. And without this real revolution – the only one that ultimately matters – chaos and complete breakdown is just about all we might otherwise expect.

And while we may persist in our individual sense of indignation, however justifiable and worthy we each make them, we need be cognizant of another equally great crisis hanging over us all and which, in its own way, makes a mockery of all our human outrage and separateness. 

It is a situation well described by Gus Speth, former Dean of the School of Forestry at Yale University, in the Introduction to his award-winning book The Bridge At The Edge Of The World. Even as far back as 2008 which, at the present rate of change seems more like the distant past, he writes:

Half the world's tropical and temperate forests are now gone. The rate of deforestation in the tropics continues at about an acre a second. About half the wetlands and a third of the mangroves are gone. An estimated 90 percent of the large predator fish are gone, and 75 percent of marine fisheries are now overfished or fished to capacity. Twenty percent of the corals are gone, and another 20 percent severely threatened. Species are disappearing at rates about a thousand times faster than normal. The planet has not seen such a spasm of extinction in sixty-five million years, since the dinosaurs disappeared. Over half the agricultural land in drier regions suffers from some degree of deterioration and desertification. Persistent toxic chemicals can now be found by the dozens in essentially each and every one of us.

In reading this, I hear again the prophetic words of that wise and elderly man, the Rev. Jim Lawson when he addressed ICUJP two years ago in this very room when saying: "The problems we are facing are almost insurmountable…" Frankly, from my perspective – wrong though some may deem it – politics, marching, riots or any other form of disgruntlement and revolution will not resolve them. Only Love can do this, and that requires a thorough re-examination of who we are and what this humbling, precious, God-given life is really all about…