Us.
and they are some of us.
In terms of ethnicity (not religion):
Shortly before I was born, my people ‐ German-tried to exterminate my people ‐Jews. In my damn bones, I REALLY do not like the business of regarding some people as other, as not‐us, as those whose lives matter less than ours, as THEM.
Also… I was watching television news in a previous century. Collateral damage: people weeping, shouting, gesturing toward the camera … pan in on the tiny body on the stretcher.. pan in closer to see the dead Palestinian baby girl.. O god that I don’t believe in, I saw a dear Jewish baby, my sister’s daughter. And my heart tore and I will never for a moment ever see the difficult situation in that part of the world in terms of us and them.
It is too easy for people to think in terms of us‐and‐them. But it is not necessary. It is, damn it, NOT necessary—for us to be us—to pretend that some people are not us. It is in fact pretend, because it involves a dishonest narrowing of ourawareness of the folks we “them.”
Please, please, fellow hominids of Sol 3, please, although it is so easy for us to us‐and‐them, please let us be us.
I hope our human collective thought process is working on this one:
WHAT WORKS?
People too easily conclude: Situation desperate, change vital, nothing else works, have to resort to violent means of change. Unfortunate, I think, because —for one thing— even when it is hollow, the threat that people may resort to violence is a damned excuse to restrict our freedom. Sometimes it is used to facilitate the persecution of innocent people. Also, the use of violent means by desperate people is likely to fail, to meet an armed
response from those who are very much better equipped for violence. And of course violent revolution is all too likely to result in thugs gaining power.
And, I basically dislike violence and don’t want to hurt people.
So, what does work?
I am not looking for simple answers, here. I am looking for a whole field of study.
How, in gentle determination, can people effect change?
From Molten Wood and Feral Ideas chasens.ca/book