[Think] Words form Chip August - a teacher of mine [9.13]

[Fen Labalme]

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From: Chip August <chip@hai.org>
To: --a HAI mailing list--
Subject: Chip's LGS


I'm still quite affected by the terrorist attacks.  I notice its hard to
think about anything else.  I get angry, frustrated, sad.  I want the
universe to to be a more just and less violent place, but have little
hope that it will ever be that way.  I'm not happy with those who see
this as a call to war.  And I'm equally not happy with those who see
this as punishment for American sins, and I'm not happy with those who
think we can pray our way through it.  I'm not happy.

I know that often when we are faced with our own deep sense of
powerlessness the emotion that bubbles up is anger.  And, because so
many of us equate anger and violence, there is often an immediate
backlash from anger into piety and "niceness."

IMHO it seems that most of us are more comfortable in our heads, trying
to figure out what the right response might be, while too few of us are
in our hearts, feeling the pain and grief of so much senseless
slaughter, myself included.

I might be more comfortable with the emails and shares about what we
should do to the perpetrators if I had more confidence in the
information I was given.  But everything I know I've learned from the
news media, a group of businesses with their own agenda, with info
provided by the government, an organization with its own agenda.  So its
hard to have confidence that we citizens are getting anything close to
unbiased information.  This isn't just paranoia, as a student of
history, and a regular reader of the daily press there are countless
times that the news we've been given has been manipulated by
paternalistic corporate and/or governmental groups.  So, while I believe
it is useful and empowering to question authority, I can't see a way out
of the morass.

It is my belief that justice demands that we seek those responsible for
committing atrocities and subject them to the rule of law.  I do not
seek revenge.  I believe actions have consequences, but I do not believe
that there is a simple and direct chain of causality for acts of
senseless violence.  There are times when it is useful to defend one's
boundaries.  In the end, we are either a civilization of laws, or not.

But justice often takes time and information.  Justice requires careful
collection and examination of facts.  Justice requires proof of guilt
before action.

And right now, at this moment, we are still digging for bodies in the
rubble of lower Manhattan.  Right now we are still hoping against all
hope to find more of the living.  Right now distraught family members
roam the streets hoping to find that their loved one somehow made it
out.

So for me, right now is still the time for sadness and pain and coming
together to share the deep wound that this has inflicted on all of us.

love
chip