by Don Hynes
|
|
| Vantage Point | Culture and Politics by Don Hynes |
|
|
"No man is prejudiced in favor of a thing, knowing it to be wrong.
He is attached to it on the belief of its being right; and when he sees it is not so,
the prejudice will be gone." - Tom Paine
July 07, 2003 With the Wind and Tides I’ve just returned from seven days of kayak cruising the San Juan Islands where my whole concept of energy and the supposed energy “crisis” shifted. I say I visited the islands, but the islands are the smaller part of the larger sea, and the greater power flows in the water. The energy it takes to move a garden hose can be laborious for some yet the moon lifts and lowers the sea four times each day in a 28 day cycle drawing the vast waters of the oceans in an elliptical flow around the globe by the gravitational pulls of the moon and earth. The center of the Pacific Ocean will raise 3 feet in an average tide, 3 feet, and some days it’s an effort to drag out of bed! Early morning each day the seas were flat calm. As light began to brighten the eastern sky subtle changes in temperature caused the air to move, how many thousands of feet up I don’t know, but moving in the dawn thermal differential the wind stirred and began to ripple the sea until the entire surface was enlivened in a play of wind and light. How fast does sunlight and it's warmth travel? Veteran sailors will tell you these forces can be dangerous, and it is true that one must move upon the water with respect, but it’s foolish to project emotion on the creation. We can anthropomorphize the wind and tide like the ancient Greeks did their pantheon of gods but in reality these forces simply are and we are a small part of their movement. We lend ourselves importance by imagining that creation at the energetic level is toying with us. This avoids the deeper and more difficult calculation of how we may be congruent with these forces, in grace and wisdom. After a few days of paddling and sleeping on the beach the pulse of the ocean became a part of my body, an intrinsic rising and falling within. I felt this movement as a part of the ocean when floating on the water, integral with the sea. When ashore the pulse seemed more isolate to my physical body and I’d find myself looking out to the water, anxious to be back in my boat. Returning to the everyday world was strange, with the design of our civilization and its roaring engines and burning fuels, designed to cut across the forces of nature. My car plows ahead on the freeway, oblivious to the wind. The diesel motors of the ferries and freighters grind away, echoing for miles, condescending to the currents only when necessary, although always on a delivery schedule abstract from the larger table of time. This same conflict resides in most every field of endeavor, from global politics to genetically altered agriculture, the attempt to override the dictates of nature and to be independent from the real God of this planet. We’ve even devised our own religions, gods who govern from some other world, a world we hope to someday be as we continue to trash this one. Primitive is the word that kept occurring to me, not like the Bushmen who heard the sound of the stars or native people who moved with the rhythms of the sea, but dense like the cave man, straining at the imagination of a rock rolling more easily if aimed downhill. In this humanly created world, with all the passion and energy I can muster, but not of it, my soul is more at home in the depth of the sea, my heart warmed by the fire of the sun. I sense my origin and I imagine my destiny in the play of these original and powerful forces, and I raise myself as a living prayer, crawling out my little tent each morning into first light. Post Independence Day The local fireworks may be over but there’s plenty of vital discussion and quality perspective on the internet that contribute to our dreams of freedom. Cultural Shock and Awe by Pepe Escobar, the world class journalist for Asian Times, reveals how US cultural arrogance is destroying the limited popular support available within Iraq. “Baghdadis don't want the Americans to leave - at least for now: this would be the road to civil war. But they are practically unanimous in their critique of both American inertia - in terms of improving living conditions in the capital - and obsession with their own security.” War Words by Tom Engelhardt is another fine article by this outstanding web author, but make sure you scroll down to “the End of Victory Culture” where Engelhardt provides insight to the current Administration double speak by comparison with an earlier war of words, Vietnam. “Seeing Vietnam as a quagmire was one way in which Americans attempted to distance themselves from the war's reality. It was part of a language of self-deception and cover-up that painted an oddly flattering picture of a nation unfairly experiencing an "American tragedy." A Patriotic Left by Michael Kazin on TomPaine captures the growing movement to recapture a thoughtful progressive patriotism and provides an articulate and inspirational vision for America in which he quotes the timeless African American poet Langston Hughes: Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed -- Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above... O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath -- America will be! Prime Minister Abbas recently offered this quote of George Bush: "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East.” John Belushi may rise from the grave to help this latest mission from gatt. I’ve been wondering when Christians in America would get tired of this Republican right religious hijacking. Right Christians is a thoughtful web log that links the forward thinking Christian faith community to a progressively pragmatic vision. Check out MediaWhoresonLine the “site that set out to bring the media to their knees but found out they were already there.” And lastly, James Carroll of the Boston Globe, on Why You Love America, a Fourth of July treat. Ways to Help I thought it was satire from the Onion or WhiteHouse, but apparently George Bush and Tony Blair are being suggested as nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize. Who’s next, Mike Tyson? Here’s a petition you can sign to slow the descent down the rabbit hole. Help Ben Cohen and True Majority bring sanity back to our energy policy. Help Common Cause continues the FCC fight in the House. The Bush Administration is struggling to fill the Strom Thurmond gap with another Old Testament homophobe Supreme Court nominee. Oppose Bill Pryor's nomination at the Nation activist website. Lifting the Earth Lifting the earth in their lonely row along the street, trees shade the sidewalk while their roots slowly break it apart, effortlessly raising common ground to the sky. Peace. *** |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
|
|||||