Clock Background www.freedigitalphotos.net
Hands In Teamwork. Artist: Rawich www.freedigitalphotos.net
“It’s kinda funny how life can change
Can flip 180 in a matter of days…
One love – for the mother’s pride
One love – for the time’s we cried…
One love – gotta stay alive
and will survive
One love – for the city streets
One love – for the hip hop beats
One love, Oh I do believe
One love is all we need…”
By Blue, 2002, Virgin, Innocent Label. Please note that Bob Marley, Curtis Mayfield and 15 others wrote these lyrics. (Wikipedia; AZ Lyrics, both 2015).
One of my favorite blogs, “Accepting Differences” dated 9.29.2014 https://lindamarsanico.com/#!ACCEPTING-DIFFERENCES/c1byv/80F0A819-82BD-4572-A04F-455361CDA0AF shows separate videos of Roberta Flack and Elton John, two of my favorite performers. I celebrated them for their talent and minority status: Flack is African American, and John is gay, married with children. I understand that Lady Gaga is the Godmother for his first child.
It seems to me that we are working more deeply on divergence since bi-racial Barack Obama became President of the United States. Prejudice and racism have come out of the closet, even mainstream…violence in the street is prevalent…between some police, and men of color!
Beyond the issue of color and gayness, are the transgendered men and women who face
vicious discrimination, even death, for their sexual category. As the issue of ‘difference’ deepens, borders are being closed against the tide of hundreds of thousands of fleeing refugees who have faced death’s peril during their journey from the wars in the Middle East and Africa. Peoples’ reactions to ‘difference’ have reached a tragic peak as some countries fear that their religion and culture have to be defended from those who are different.
Of course, in the United States, we are not strangers to the issue of immigration in the name of Mexicans who flee from poverty to cross our border. We know well the challenges of sharing wealth from the debate about immigration that has raged for a decade or so. The sharing of resources with those who are different can be a divisive issue as history has shown us.
There are no easy answers for assisting the men, women and children who are yearning for a meaningful life. How do we show compassion for ourselves as well as for the newcomers? How willing are we to share our community and explore differences?
If we are thinking that they are ‘them’ and we are ‘us,’ we are not including these settlers in our collective sensibility, thereby missing the spiritual message…of connectedness. Love and compassion can go a long way…even to create the willingness to work out strategies to share assets and community. We can ask: “What would kindness, wisdom and inclusion do here?” This is a smart requisite for creative economic policy…
What would it look like if we as a country (with immigrant Mexicans) and as a global community (with fleeing Syrians, etc.) demonstrated love and compassion for all of us? How can we help desperate and weary refugees find safety, stability and a meaningful life? What about a commerce policy designed to fairly trade, and share with the poorer nations of our global neighborhood in the effort to shore up their financial affairs for a collaborative atmosphere?
I’ve posed a lot of questions…and given no answers. As a beginning, let’s throw a lot of love at the issue…and continue the dialog…
Speak to you on October 5th…
Linda
