http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGrrR6omcFE
Just the other day, after speaking with someone to rightly
credited among the world's most immense and accomplished in knowledge of the
impending environmental Armageddon, who had at no level could grasp the death
fast, I reflected upon what I know of
the Unviolent warriors throughout history, the Unviolent change agents, that
had seemingly brought about miracles of change.
And it hit me that there is one word that distinguishes these miracle
workers from the others, who often had been working longer on the issues, than
they had. 'Now.' ‘Now,’ is that word. When Alice Paul came on the scene back in 1917
or so, there was a long established women's suffrage group in DC; elite women,
women of money, women of some level of education, who had been working the
issue, having meetings, having meetings with the president, from long
time. Some of them were probably as
intelligent as Alice, but they didn't have, in fact they were horrified by,
what Alice had; which was, 'now.' No,
it's not to be another year that our daughters don't have the right to
vote. Yes, I understand that WWI is
raging. I understand the opposition that
people that would have to raising another issue at a time of War, the violent
opposition.
"Now," we are not waiting any longer, our
daughters are not waiting any longer. We
are not going to wait any longer. This
was the Egyptian revolutionaries last year - we don't even see how to win! We are not waiting any longer. 'Now.'
I handful of people.
‘My problem is not the violent racists. My problem is the
‘good people,’ that say, ‘yes, your issue is true, is just, is righteous, but
not now, not so fast, take time, don’t be so aggressive.’ MLK Jr paraphrase.
As far as I know in this country in the 30s, 40s, 50s, a
handful of people who were black, stood up as a human being should stand,
knowing full well the price that they would likely pay, and they did, getting
lynched. 'Now.' I'm not going to wait to be a man. I'm not gunna wait to be a woman. Now.
The 30 students in college in Nashville - 'We're not going to our final
exams tomorrow. The freedom ride buses
were just brutally stopped. No, the
freedom rides aren't going to stop; were not waiting for that seat in the bus
terminal labeled 'whites only.
'Now.' No, president Kennedy, no,
attorney general Robert Kennedy, we're not waiting. 'Now.'
Fusion is the type of nuclear power, we don't yet know how
to do yet, as I understand it; it's pretty clear that eventually we will, and
the notion, as I recall, is that a containment chamber of lasers or super
magnets is necessary so that enough pressure can be built within, for the reaction
to take place, and they don't know how to do that yet, but they know that
that's what's required. Certain
temperatures can't be achieved with heat applied to water, as I understand it, unless
pressure is applied; a pressure cooker.
Miiracles don't happen, miracles never happen; miracles are
not brought about by human beings, except those human beings that embrace, 'Now,'
and embody, 'now,' the living pressure cooker of a fact based, situation
based, human needs based ‘now.’ If you
haven’t, stop now, and watch the immensely troubling, immensely important
movie, Denzel Washington, “John Q.”
‘Now.’
And conversely, when they do and embrace ‘now,' often
miracles are no longer unlikely. It
jumps the human nervous system a quantum in terms of its focus, it's courage,
it's integration of information, vision, energy, stamina, vision, readiness to
appropriately risk, fail, succeed…. It's
a leap beyond ego, beyond the things that we waste our lives and soul on. It jumps focus a quantum; it jumps desperation
for the truth a quantum. We become
different beings when we embrace, and are embraced by 'now.'
If you can think of a miraculous change agent, Unviolent, throughout
history, that has not been in the embrace of 'now,' willingly, aggressively, greedily... I can't.
And, if you can think of even one of these situations where
the outside forces made ‘now,’ likely, or obvious, I can’t. It was the 30th, not first, not 3rd,
the 30th year of Mubarak’s brutal reign. It was entirely, vehemently NON OBVIOUS to
the women of 1918 that now, was, uh, ‘now.’
The Berlin Wall coming down when it did was entirely non-obvious.
A famous case, real life, Kitty Genovese, as I recall, a
woman was brutally raped at the base of a massive apartment complex in the NYC
area – screams of help and hell and horror for hours. No one responded. No one called the
police. Why? Subsequent studies indicated – everyone
thought someone else would. The deadly
absence of ‘now.’
30 years before any sane legislation science became clear –
cigarettes cause cancer. Vested
interests, the status quo, would have lost trillions if the legislation had
passed. They knew (Marshall Institute, Linzen of MIT, “Merchants of Doubt” is
the authoritative book, I think) that all they had to do was maintain
doubt. Grandma was dying an excruciating
death from cancer, a 3 pack a day smoker for decades. Mom was dying, uncle was
dying – lightening strikes, evidence, proof, right in the next room. For 30 years we did nothing.
“I could have rescued 1000’s more, if I could have convinced
them that they were slaves,” Harriet Tubman.
No comments:
Post a Comment