The day after elections of November 2nd, I wrote a poem which said in part: "It is hard to realize/ that I do not know/ my country/ so much of it scoundrels & fools." A harsh judgment perhaps, and some took offense. (Perhaps I should have also said, misinformed and afraid.) Some said the judgment came from my holding to an ideology different from theirs. Perhaps, but both ideology and judgment come from values, morals if you will, upon which both are founded. I withdraw my accusation of villainy and foolishness for the sake of opening discourse. My values, my morals are informed by what I was taught as a child were the teachings of Jesus the Nazarene (not the Old Testament, not John, not Paul, not Augustine, but the one we call Christ.) These values in their essence say that life is sacred, that the hungry must be fed, the naked clothed, the homeless sheltered, the sick healed, the ignorant taught, those in prison visited. They say that the law is made for the sake of humanity and that justice must be tempered with mercy. They state that the sword should be sheathed, that everyone is equal in the eyes of god, and that we are responsible for the welfare of our brothers, our sisters. Their highest standard is love. And so I still believe. Today those we have consented to rule this nation of the United States of America violate the tenets of this code for reasons of greed (the hoarding of the wealth in the hands of the few) and lust for power (over other nations and the helpless in this country and throughout the world) while the hungry go without food, the unclothed naked, the homeless without shelter, the sick without care, the children and youth poorly educated in schools hand-tied by lack of funds and a cynical law they dare to call “No Child Left Behind.” They lie, invade a country without cause, and kill its people. They violate and abuse the very Earth of whose fabric we, humankind, are but a thread; I call this villainy and foolishness because, not matter how wealthy and powerful they or we be, neither they nor our children can hope to live breathing the poisoned air, drinking poisoned water, eating food grown in poisoned soil, in an atmosphere so harmed that it can less and less protect us from the fire of the sun. In my eyes, to choose for one’s narrow self-interest at the expense and suffering of others is villainy; to choose against one’s self-interest is foolishness. But, for the sake of discourse, I withdraw my accusation. I am told that many voted for the sake of two issues they found abhorrent to their values: one, the choice of women to terminate a pregnancy, and two, the legality of marriage between persons of the same gender. As to the first, let me say that no one I have ever known or heard of favored abortion. It is a painful thing for a woman, physically and emotionally, not done on a whim. But situations arise when a choice must be made between the life of a woman and the incipient life of the zygote, the embryo she conceives. The only one who should make the painful choice to abort or not to abort is the woman herself. Christ never spoke to this issue that I am aware of, but he honored women and they formed an integral part of his ministry. He defended our sisters from an abusive patriarchal law and warned us to judge not. What is at issue is not abortion, but the rights of women over their own bodies and their lives. Neither did he address the second issue of marriage between persons of the same gender. Indeed it seems he was indifferent to the matter. We must ask ourselves, what harm is done if two people seek happiness with each other in marriage, no matter their gender? Who are we to deny them their happiness in each other? All must be equal under the law, subject to its obligations, entitled to its benefits. The law must not allow prejudice and predilection to make others unequal, to deny their rights, to infringe upon their happiness. In this matter we have no moral right to judge much less prohibit. To vote on the basis of these two issues, ignoring all the rest, is in my eyes moral blindness and a skewed sense of values. To be sure, misinformation and fear also influenced the choices the nation made in the election. But we were lied to; there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We were lied to; Iraq had no links to terrorists. When those lies were exposed, we are cynically told that we invaded Iraq to bring it democracy, even as our Constitution and Bill of Rights are shredded to stifle the right to dissent and to take away our civil liberties, our own democracy undermined by a series of oppressive “Patriot Acts.” We are lied to and manipulated by a campaign of fear of a vague enemy called “Terrorism.” Terrorism is a technique of violence, not a nation, not a people. It is the last recourse of those with nothing, or with everything, to lose. The only way to eliminate terrorism is through justice, justice under truly international law. It is villainy and foolishness to believe that terrorism can be fought with mass terrorism of our own, invading another country and killing its people. For what end? I see none but the further enrichment of the already rich, aggrandizement of power of the already powerful. We are now in a reprehensible war justified by lie upon lie in which we are sacrificing our young and turning them into torturers, killing thousands upon thousands of innocent men, women, children. If this does not outrage the teachings of the “Prince of Peace,” I do not know what does; it offends my values, it violates my sense of morals. Some say they voted by their values and morals as dictated by their god. What am I to answer? What god? There are multitudes of gods, each an idea tabernacled in each human being’s head. There are as many brands of Christs, of Jehovahs, of Allahs as there are monotheists. Blind faith in one's idea of god, in a president, in a government, in a nation is too much like the cultivation of ignorance, too much like idolatry. Faith must be clear-sighted and open to reason, informed above all by love — love without boundaries, all-embracing love. When asked if I support our troops I am dumbfounded. Taxes are taken from my earnings to send troops to Iraq; I am forced to support the troops with no choice in the matter. Who are these troops but young men and women some of whom were my students, many with inadequate education, many facing a future without prospects who see the military as their only viable choice against poverty and the violence of the streets. The wealthy do not constitute our troops; the poor do (and they also are by far the majority in the prisons.) I support these young men and women morally in their right to jobs, to food, shelter, medicine, schooling. I want them home safe and sound. I do not want them in another country killing other people whom they do not even know, for despicable ends that lead to no good. Let us examine our beliefs and determine a system of values, a morality, that will respect life, protect the Earth and equitably share its largesse with every being, in equality and justice to all beings — one that will ensure humanity’s survival and the sustainability of the Earth, one that will honor a true morality. Let us love our country, ourselves, each other enough to change for the better. Our democracy needs healing and amplification. Our economic system of predatory corporate capitalism is not working for humanity or for the Earth. Let us change what needs to be changed and let love, love of one another, of humanity, of our country, of our world, of the Earth be our guide. Nothing less will do. I am asked if I am not proud to be a citizen of the United States of America. And my answer is yes, just as proud as I am to be a human being — no more, no less. And knowing my kind and the history of my nation, I say this with the painful knowledge that my pride is tested by my shame of the sordid aspects in our history — of humanity, of our institutions of which the United States of America is but one. I am proud of some things I have done in my life; I am ashamed of other things I have done — or did not do. It is no different with nations; I am proud of what are the highest, most generous reaches of our thought and ideals in these United States of America as codified in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I am shamed by the betrayal of those standards and ideals, foundations of our law. I am committed to non-violence and am patriotic — that is to say that I am committed to the good of my country, not divorced from the rest of the world, but part of it. Beyond labels and category, this is my ideology, my values, my code of morality. I believe in democracy, in a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” That means that if the government that represents us is not responsive to our needs and those of the Earth, if it lies to us through its teeth and its policies are destructive to the nation and to the Earth, then we not only have the right but the obligation to make it responsible or choose another government — else simply we are not a democracy or we are a democracy made up of scoundrels and fools. To speak truth, what we have is not so much a democracy as a plutocracy, an oligarchy of the corporate rich. Such is not in accord with my sense of morality nor with my definition of democracy. If there is a note of anger and impatience in what I say, it is because my love is outraged. Please do not allow my exasperation to stand in the way of discourse. If this country is ever to be united, it must be so in mutual respect and reason and honesty — and a viable code of morality that embraces all of humanity, all of the Earth. And it must begin with those one loves. © Rafael Jesús González 2004 Reprinted with permission of the author.
Rafael Jesús González is a published writer and poet, a visual artist and a Professor of Creative Writing and Literature who has taught at the University of Oregon, Western State University of Colorado, Central Washington State University, the University of Texas at El Paso, and Laney College, Oakland (where he founded the Mexican and Latin American Studies Dept.). He has also taught in the public schools under Poets in the Classroom. In 2002 he received the Annual Dragonfly Press Award for Literary Achievement and was honored in 2003 by the National Council of Teachers of English & Annenberg/CPB for his writing. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the University of Creation Spirituality; on the Latino Advisory Committee of the Oakland Museum of California; and on the Alameda County Office of Education Arts Alliance, and Peace Education Network. You may contact Rafael at P. O. Box 5638, Berkeley, CA 94705 or by email at rjgonzalez@mindspring.com |
