Shame
on Us
“When
one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the
rest of the world.”
John Muir
I am almost speechless
this morning, sitting on my porch listening to the singing of birds.
So much is roiling inside me that it will not form into words that
can be written. Two sides of my brain are in rebellion. One side
keeps believing that stronger, smarter heads will prevail in America
today. People will rise up and say enough—enough of this
autocratic, dictatorship-in-the-making. Enough of the isolationist,
self-aggrandizing, arrogant, bellicose chaos coming from our White
House. And yet, day after day, no one with the power to do something
about it intervenes. I feel the same way I felt watching the soldiers
of ISIS knocking down the ancient temples in Palmyra. Something
beautiful, something soulful and cherished is being daily destroyed
in America. It breaks my heart.
Perhaps we were never the
shining city on the hill. The United States has committed atrocities
of its own—with our native people, and on battlefields around the
world. Perhaps our moral compass has never pointed to true North. But
this feels somehow different to me. It feels as though we are willing
to put our planet, and every living thing on it in jeopardy in order
to make money. That we are willing to offend the entire world by
thumbing our noses at its leaders and calling that a “good deal for
America.” I find it sickening.
I would appeal to the
President, but I don't believe he has a viable moral compass.
Instead, like Muir, I will go for a walk, and enjoy the wonderful
scents of summer, and listen to the birds sing. Muir said, “I
only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out until
sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” If
Americans have ever “gone in” and asked the big questions about
love of country, love of humanity and the natural world, now is the
time to do it.
In the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment