Miguel,
I agree we need help.
I think that "too busy" and "stretched too thin" are smoke screens we use for protection. Collaboration requires opening up, baring one's soul, being vulnerable. Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.
Imagine the time we would save if we worked together instead in competition.
We consider that admitting we need help is a sign of weakness -- quite the opposit. It takes courage to come out from behind the protective screen of "I can do it myself."
When the social, economic and environmental systems around us collapse we will have more incentive to start turning to one another. Even then there's no certainty. We could just as well turn to violence and chaos; we know that road better.
jim
Yes Jim. We have forgotten to collaborate because we are too busy, stretched too thin. Interestingly, not busy enough to pack a movie theater or a sports stadium. I love movies and I don't deny anyone who is a sports enthusiast, but most of us rather look at "something" else than at each other. We rather comment at the screen or at a football play than communicate with each other. We are an unhealthy society needing help.--
From: jimbelcher350@me.com
Subject: Re: {PBJFlorida} "Blood on OUR hands"
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:09:00 -0400
To: pbjflorida@googlegroups.com
Thank you for this Miguel.This would be a great starting point for conversation, creativity and action toward a new cultural possibility. It will take bold individual and collective/collaborative action to respond to this cultural crisis of our own making.You said, "We have not come to accept that violent tragedy is social." The lack of real response on this list serve of some of the brightest, most caring people in our community tells me we have forgotten how to collaborate. Pontification we know, we've mastered "being right"; Collaboration and collective imagining -- not so good yet. I think this is the heart of the matter AND also the doorway to a new possibility -- a new cultural narrative.
And you said,"until we take a good long look at ourselves" and "until we start teaching our children how to think and learn" and I might add, we must begin learning (relearning maybe) and teaching ourselves and our children how to get along with each other -- actually, how to get along with all others. We forgot how to do compassion, caring, support, and love of ourselves especially and others -- as in each other person and in loving, caring and supporting ourselves and all species. This is the work, our work.This blood is on our hands now. It is up to us, not the politicians.jim
The article is good but the commentator neglects the fact that what gets you elected president in this country is a show of machismo. A violent society as ours wants a fictional Rambo, not a real Gandhi. Remember the Willie Horton campaign ads? Strength is shown through incarceration and arming your nation and your home to the teeth. Plus, the NRA is one of if not the strongest lobbying groups in this country. Their power, money, and influence is immense. Anyone who directly opposes the NRA does not have a long political career. Just remember what happened when Obama was elected. Although he kept mostly quiet in his campaign and throughout the administration, gun sales rose to an all time high. Could you imagine if he did speak about tighter weapon laws. Now imagine if Obama, or even Romney, started to advocate tighter gun restrictions in this campaign. Gun sales would go through the roof and whoever is the proponent of tighter weapons control would not be elected. Fifty percent or more of the population does not want gun restrictions. It may sound counterintuitive, but the more you advocate for gun control, especially in the South and Southwest, the more gun sales go up. Therefore, even after Aurora, nothing will change.
Furthermore, we can blame our politicians, TV, and violent video games only so far. I am sure that they all play a part. However, Europe, South America, Asia, and the Middle East display violence on their big and small screens. The Middle East, Mexico, and parts of Central America is constantly plagued by real violence. I believe the difference between those countries and ours is that they live in reality. Although their movies may from time to time contain hardcore violence, and even sex, their endings are all to real, often tragic and rarely happy (or at least not happily ever after). In the U.S. we escape into escapism. We ignore the soldiers still fighting and dying in Afghanistan, yet we go and watch gore, mayhem, and horror in our theaters. We become so enraptured with sports and that our university administrators and coaching staff turn away from credible reports of child sexual abuse. In the U.S. we tend to believe in and want happy endings. But that is not reality. We all die sooner or later. Families split apart. Lovers end love affairs. The poor are marginalized. Children are abducted, abused, scarred for life, or never to be seen again. Yet, most of us tend to pull away from these realities, preferring to believe in and live in fairy tales until violent tragedy strikes us individually. We have not come to accept that violent tragedy is social. Aurora's nightmare is Orlando's nightmare. It is an American nightmare.
Many of the killers have come from middle class or privileged backgrounds. One cannot say that their financial situation played a part in their crimes. Perhaps they faced some types of mental or physical abuse. However, what we do seem to hear is that they all faced some type of disappointment in their lives. They refused to face up to disappointment. Rather than see a worthy challenge they saw unforgivable failure in themselves and in society. Somewhere along the line they traded reality for fantasy. They refused to see live as it is, with its ebb and flow of joy and suffering, and instead adopted the Hollywood, and perhaps even Puritan, version of happy endings. When that happiness was not fulfilled, they could not cope with reality. They sought then, to make sense of life not as it is but as they wished it for themselves. They forced their own twisted view of life into an all to real act of violent death.
And what about the rest of us. We are a sick nation unwilling to look at ourselves in the mirror. We are no healthier than those who commit the horrible mass shootings. We are just one heartbreak or one layoff away. We are looking for quick fixes and happy endings. How often do you hear about protests outside the NRA main headquarters? When we get the chance to non-violently confront the money interests and corporate powers, we back down as soon as they send the police. And we back down to the police because instead of non-violent tactics we use violence and violent words. We often ask our political leaders what will they do? They have done what we have allowed them to do. The question is what will we (the people) do in the wake of Aurora, Virginia Tech, Colombine, and so many others.
Until we courageously confront the forces of profit over people, until we take a good long look at ourselves in the mirror, until we start teaching our children how to think and learn for themselves and deal with disappointment instead of teaching them what to learn so they can graduate to make money (that will mostly likely end up going to pay school loans anyway), there will sadly be more killers and killings such as in Aurora. And the blood will be (as it has been) on all of our hands.
God forgive America!
Miguel
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2012 08:03:44 -0400
Subject: {PBJFlorida} "Blood on the hands of Obama, Mitt, and NRA"
From: pennyvillegas31@gmail.com
To: pbjflorida@googlegroups.com; smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com; ckavalec@valenciacollege.edu; Junebug49@comcast.net; mamabear888@gmail.com; kerryp817@bellsouth.net; arnp189@cfl.rr.com; pennyvillegas31@gmail.com; robinmarie27@att.net; bbobsan2@aol.com; siddhisatori@yahoo.com
Here's a columnist with guts.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/blood-hands-obama-mitt-nra-article-1.1119049--
Penny
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PBJFlorida" group.
To post to this group, send email to pbjflorida@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to pbjflorida+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/pbjflorida?hl=en.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PBJFlorida" group.
To post to this group, send email to pbjflorida@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to pbjflorida+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/pbjflorida?hl=en.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PBJFlorida" group.
To post to this group, send email to pbjflorida@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to pbjflorida+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/pbjflorida?hl=en.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PBJFlorida" group.
To post to this group, send email to pbjflorida@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to pbjflorida+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/pbjflorida?hl=en.
No comments:
Post a Comment