The Approaching Storm

It has been a crazy few months here in Florida. I presently live in North Palm Beach, and from the end of August to the end of September, Florida was hit by four major hurricanes. Two of them impacted Palm Beach County as virtual direct hits, and a third had an indirect, but unwelcome presence here as well. Life here was seriously disrupted for the better part of two months, with loss of electrical power, refrigeration, stoves, air conditioning, in some cases water, and often, the ability to even move around in search of remedies, due to gas shortages and police curfews. In short, many of the things we all take for granted as just the normal things we enjoy in America were suddenly gone....and it was pretty uncomfortable. I took solace in knowing why it was happening, and that it was a temporary condition. And just when I thought things started to feel like life was returning to normal here again...a much more frightening storm has appeared on the horizon, and the consequences from this approaching storm, although just as uncomfortable, and just as foreign to me as an American, do not appear to be something any of us in this country will be able to recover from any time soon...because this storm is not of natural origin...it is a result of the apathy, the gullibility, the closed-mindedness, and the conscious choice of millions of Americans to surrender their rights, their freedoms, and their country to a group of people who, as I write this, are already wasting no time in consolidating their positions of power, and who are systematically, but very speedily, removing the checks and balances that were designed into the Constitution by our very wise Founding Fathers. These safeguards have been the only means we have had to keep very powerful people from usurping the power of the people...which derives it strength from the diversity of many voices and many points of view, in essence, the truth...and they were created to prevent the narrow agenda of any one group from dictating life, values, morality, and the definition of what is patriotic or "American" to the rest of us. Our National Motto has always been "E Pluribus Unum...Out of Many...One." We need to remember that our diversity is our strength. The Election of 2004 is behind us. Regardless of whatever political persuasion any citizen may identify with...one thing is very clear. There are two very different parties...and both are equally valid. Both reflect very clear-cut differences of opinion and values about freedom and democracy...and on which direction we, as a country, should be headed to best reflect those values. But both have a lot of common ground. The tactics of fear and divisiveness have obscured that truth. We are so distracted with semantics, negativity, and drivel, that we fail to see the deeper truth. We all love America, and on most points...we all agree. One of the things I have learned on my own spiritual journey is that there are truths I hear with my head, and others, the deeper ones, that I know in my heart and my gut to be the real truths. So today, with all that is within me, I believe that our Common Welfare must come first. Our personal rights and freedoms depend on national unity. It is our common love of freedom, fairness, free speech, tolerance, and mutual respect, and doing what our hearts tell us we must, that demands we make sure those values are preserved, for they are the core values that truly bind us together as a people, and as a nation. Those commonly shared values we all have as Americans far outweigh the differences of opinion we, as a people, may have on other matters...and it is those basic values and rights that now, are in jeopardy...and are so close to being stolen from us...and the irony is...the deed is being "packaged and wrapped"  in religion and patriotism...even though the two...where matters of government are concerned...are supposed to be forever seperate. Americans are split right down the middle on the question of...in what direction should this country be headed? By the narrowest of margins, we have elected a team to "guide" us for the next four years. There will always be a winning side and a losing side in any election. But make no mistake about it...there is no winning side...if the country loses its soul in the process. If that happens...then we are all on the losing side. A very narrow (and some people believe fraudulent) margin of victory will never translate as a mandate or consensus by all the people...or as a justification for adopting one political agenda over another... if it essentially means disenfranchising half the people of this country in order to do so. To do that, is to ignore every premise of fairness, democracy, civility, truth, justice, tolerance, and respect for others that this country has survived by for over two centuries. So the real question is...did the people who voted for four more years of this team really know what agenda they were voting for...or were they sold an image...wrapped up in an American flag? Was this team honestly represented to the American people...or was their record and their agenda obscured by the distortions in judgment that always arise when people let their fear and their anger make their choices for them? And four years from now, will the free election process that has made us the model for the world for over two hundred years...really be a process that still operates as it was intended to, or will it be totally corrupted, altered, or worst of all...just a memory? This seems to be the direction we are headed in. In less than two weeks since the election was conceded, there has already been a massive shift in this government. Its new face reflects the installation of, in nearly all the primary positions of power...a very small and select group of like-minded people who have their own agenda...an agenda which completely ignores the concerns of half the population in this country...and misrepresents their agenda to the rest. It appears that this new administration believes that if half the country doesn't want, or is offended by, all the changes that are happening so quietly and so quickly that even the media is dizzy trying to keep track of them all...the message clearly being sent is...that they just better get used to it...because like it or not, those changes are being imposed anyway. When the issues of Pre-emptive War, War under False Pretenses, Secrecy in Government, Erosion and Elimination of Constitutional Protections and Due Process of Law, the legalized Poisoning of our Air and Water, and complete fiscal irresponsibility with regard to the issues of Taxation and National Spending...all take a backseat to issues of religion and "moral"values...then we, as a people, have surely lost our way. Those are issues that do not require government interference...in fact, our country was founded on the premise that the people should have the right and the freedom to make those choices for themselves...rather than have the government make those decisions for them. To allow that to happen would be no less than all of us surrendering our Constitutional guarantees, and  is inherently improper, since "morality and values" are subjective, by definition. I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, that sounds a lot like what was happening in Germany in the 1930's, and back then too, much of that country was divided about what was happening there...but the superpatriots,  the zealots, and the fear-mongers in Germany who believed they were "superior" carried the day, and in the end even they were overwhelmed by the speed in which things in their own "homeland" changed beyond their control...and how fast even their rights dissolved into the mantra of "this is the way it is...comply or be arrested." My mind keeps going back to the words of Mr. Spock, from the Star Trek series, who in his relentless and irrefutable logic stated..."the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few...or the one." What I clearly see today are the wants of the few, outweighing the needs of the many...wrapped up in a hollow message of concern for the greater good, even though the evidence, and the actions of those claiming that...prevent those words from ringing true. I know that what I see happening...and it isn't what I'm told is happening. No matter what my head wants to believe...when something feels wrong...it's because it IS wrong. And so I am afraid for us as a country. I am afraid for all of us. The problem with not learning the lessons of history...the problem with not paying attention...is that if we don't pay attention, if we don't learn from history...it will repeat itself. We are travelling very quickly down a precariously slippery slope...and the abyss looms directly ahead...unless we slow down and pay real attention to the road we are on. Although I believe that ultimately, everything happens exactly as it supposed to, and that the Universe is always unfolding as it should...I have come to know that sometimes the Universe teaches us through consequences...because pain is the greatest motivator for change. I pray that we can change the course we are on before we fall into that abyss.  I believe pain is inevitable in life...it is how we learn, and how we grow...but misery is a choice. I hope we choose to pay attention to the path we are on, while we can still change it. The time we still have left to do that grows shorter with each passing day. And no less than the survival of "The Great Experiment" in human civilization is what is truly at stake.