Where is our compassion and tender regard for one another? We are being assaulted by brutal and irrevocable cuts to employment, salaries, savings, safety nets, health care, nutrition programs, education, stability, freedoms to speak and assist our neighbors.
There is an accumulation of power and riches that promises to overwhelm human decency while spreading fears and distrust.
As the specter of the Brown Shirts and the gestapo grows, we must raise the alarm. There is not time to wait for the perpetrators of disaster to show a kindlier face. Destruction and dismantling are their objectives, along with the accumulation of power and riches. It is foolishness to await more evidence.
With a generosity of spirit, we must invite collaborative caring, relentless opposition to bad behavior, open-hearted communication, not through a crack in the door or behind a big desk, but face to face, unafraid.
Let the perpetrators hide in fear. Their strategy is to stifle, dismiss and silence criticism. Unlike, the greed and power grabbing, we must offer a human and healing response. Not necessarily quiet, but forceful, consistent, nonchaotic, welcoming, with the values we all treasure.
A prison warden can wash the feet of those in his custody.
A leader can wash the feet of his followers.
A politician can bathe the feet of his constituents.
A statesman must wash the feet of his strongest opponent.
Take this as a metaphor or try it out physically to feel its power.
In the Light,
George Munger
Amherst