Oh No! -11/3/10

What's a Buddhist to do? What's a Democrat to do? What's a Buddhist Democrat to do? And are there any Republican Buddhists anyway? I try to practice my equanimity, but the thought of having those Republicans dominate the House of Representatives makes me shudder. The thought of what they have already made clear is the top of their agenda--to cripple Obama and his presidency--leaves me in a frenzy. The anticipation of a return to their already failed and demonstrably inequitable economic policies and their disastrous tax cuts (cut what?) sends shivers down my spine.

This is change I do not welcome, even while I realize that it must be accepted. It's what happens. No matter my thoughts and feelings about the American electorate (I will spare you them--today) I cannot personally bring about the kind of change I seek: to end our wars; to ensure economic and social justice for all; to serve the interests of all our citizens and to be good citizens of the world; to take positive action to end our dependence on fossil fuels and address the issue of climate change; to end the unnecessary perpetuation of world hunger, disease, and violence of all kinds. Grand goals, perhaps, but achievable, if we had the will. Instead, we seem intent on picking the lint from our own pathetic navels.

We saw Fela last night, on Broadway. An amazing show. An amazing story. Fela Kuti, the Nigerian musician on whose life the show was based, was an activist and a populist who spoke for the impoverished and the voiceless of his nation. But the story of this musical is bigger. It's really the story of post-colonial Africa with its dreadful wars and genocides, its widespread disease and social neglect, the poverty of many of its populations while military and political elites rape the natural riches of of their nations. It's the story of the survival of the spirit--of the beliefs, traditions and rites that served different African peoples for centuries and which now fight for survival in a brutally changing world. It's the story of the powerful values of family and fellowship, of creativity, and song, and dance, and poetry in a cultural environment where money threatens to replace those values--and the power of the gods.

All of which has a particular and uncomfortable bearing on who we are, ourselves, as a people, in the current circumstance of the 2010 election. From my perspective, we have been bought and sold. We have allowed ourselves to become the slaves of corporate interests, and have abandoned the true meanings that made this country "great." I am, truly, this morning, one dispirited aspiring Buddhist...