Questioning Our Values … and much more

Our  country is and has been very divided and the corruption in politics has been shown to have been running rampant for quite a while. Some of the questions that come to mind might be: What are our values and priorities? Can and will our government reduce the reality of the wealthiest 1% elite financial system? Can we lower the volume on considering ourselves (and boasting that we are) the top-dog of all nations?  Do we regret the fruits of starting wars for nefarious or unsubstantiated reasons?  Do we believe government and corporations should not have the right to trample on the lands and rights of citizens?  Will our infrastructure be fixed? Should citizens know what's going on within federal agencies such as FDA, CIA, Dept. of Interior's Wildlife Dept. and others that have serious shadows via rogue factions in some of their activities?  I'm just tip-toeing through the tangled mess of issues that I've become aware of.

We have a new president now and he and the congress have a mammoth job ahead of them in working toward unifying and fixing so many facets of our country. I believe the time has come for each one of us, as citizens, to abandon hate, political violence, corporate greed, bullying, unaccountability, and anything else that could invite negative energies and destructive actions. It's time to let the dust settle and then for government and citizens to adopt an attitude of ethics and peace.

As a nation, we need to seek and legislate for solutions that will be helpful to middle-class American citizens who are in an economic, healthcare, and employment squeeze-play. Also as a nation, we need to seek and legislate for what will be positive solutions for Planet Earth's well-being.

Worldwide, a peaceful human co-existence is the only way for our planet and all of its people and interconnected life forms to survive. Most Americans are nice people ... and most people in other nations are nice people. I'm asking us to put aside residual and/or unclear thoughts about other established countries and their perceived positions as friends or enemies. Rather, consider that most of them are very much like us under the skin. Peaceful discussion is always a good idea. Even people in war-torn areas and suppressed nations have feelings like we would have if we were in their situations.

Also, please consider the birds flying in the sky, our wonderful fellow creatures THE ANIMALS who DO NOT have a vote in human politics, NATURE'S SUPREME ARTWORK the flowers, adorable bumble bees, butterflies and honey bees currently being wiped out by insecticides, THE TREES who give us shade and beauty and who supply us with oxygen so we (even asthmatics like me) can breathe, the wondrous beauties of nature on Earth. Consider the CHILDREN. Should all THE INNOCENTS I've just mentioned suffer and be annihilated because of our behaviors, political gestures, and choices? Better to choose a compassionate, ethical course of interactions ... so that life at a cellular level can have a chance to survive and so that our planet will never be made devoid of life. Whether the  human race evolves or devolves, depends on the choices our human species will make now. There is a whole lot riding on our planet's big picture. We each and collectively can heal ourselves and our world if we really want to. If we really, really want to.

Please check out my Healing The Earth Family blog and listen to the song that is included called 'I Love All The Voices"; it is at http://healingtheearthfamily.blogspot.com.  

Civility And The Earth Family –

Saddening are some of the cruel comments that some people post in response to media news articles. Whether bigoted and/or hate-filled, response comments done anonymously enable writers to feel no need to be civil, accountable, or respectful; and so, their writings and ramblings exhibit a bad case of ugliness. Remember the "old days" when no letter-to the-editor would be published without the name of a real person whose authenticity was verified by the publisher?

There is, indeed, a thread of violence. Today, most of us probably consider ourselves adherents to the concept of civility. But there is still too much hate around, folks. It seems that it is time for us to realize that we need to work together for the greater good. We are all in the same life boat, the same cosmic canoe!

Bumper Stickers, Messages, and the Quality of “Wild” –

Today I saw a truck in the shopping center parking lot that was loaded (as is mine, though at the opposite side of the spectrum) with bumper stickers. I did not want to stick around until the truck’s owner showed up – to see his/her face and eyes and countenance.

The messages were pregnant with blatant and bold hate and intolerance. The one that hit me first and hardest was "Liberals are terrorists". Others included a little rhyme, "I won’t hide my white pride", "Seal our borders", and a message that was nastily directed (in a racial sense) at those who voted for President Obama. It saddened me to read them, so I made a conscious effort to re-direct my attention and thoughts to the quest for positive and longed-for solutions to this kind of blind hatred and intolerance. What a wonderful world we could have if we were to replace all hatred with compassion. Picture it!

Bumper stickers are the one way we can and do "advertise" what matters to us, what we believe, the way we think, where our spirit resides. Bumper stickers do affect people who see them. How often have you giggled when you found yourself waiting in traffic in back of a vehicle with humorous bumper stickers? Or shifted your thinking while viewing profoundly inspiring bumper stickers? Seen any political bumper stickers that were either to your liking or kind of got your hackles up?

Most of my bumper stickers are about kindness to animals, compassion in general, love, and beauty. One of them has an inviting message about Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Another of them (one of my oldest and original bumper stickers that I’ve had to shellac to help preserve it from the elements) says "Wild Women Don’t Get The Blues" (though I assure you they definitely do get the blues). Women tend to like that bumper sticker and view it with humor, sort of in a way that is equal to a wink. During the first couple of years my truck wore the message, I had two incidents involving gentlemen who were incensed by it. One shouted to me in traffic on the Kingston Pike, "You will burn in hell!" The other said something equally harsh about damnation. Another time, in front of the post office on Sutherland, a young man asked, in a very sincere tone, "Is it true that wild women don’t get the blues?" I replied, "It’s not true". He responded in a thoughtful tone and with downcast eyes, "I didn’t think so...wild men get the blues, too". Poor kid, I thought – he must be going through something.

Those zealots of judgement (I like the "e" in the word "judgement") among us who see things totally in polarized black and white – superior and inferior – bad and good – those who put disparaging labels on others for the sake of elevating themselves, apparently equate the word "wild" with "immoral" or "wicked". No! "Wild" means wild – untamed, free, natural, able to make one’s own decisions and travel on one’s own path, able to respect, honor and be at one with nature, able to be humane and human, able to recognize one’s interconnectedness with the rest of creation, able to err and forgive oneself (and others). I will strive to live out my days as a wild woman in all those ways.