In troubled times such as these, we look increasingly for reassurance. Living with uncertainty and danger, we seek to know that the soul of the nation is sound and centered. Many look to the media giants on the nightly news or to our leaders in Washington. Our soul is not there. The talking heads and "experts" on the news stations are simply powdered faces speaking banalities. Similarly, in Washington there is only the much rehearsed rhetoric tossed to focus groups and refined in secret meetings where the "will of the people" is fabricated and promoted by sanitized officials who are bought and paid for by special interests. The soul of the nation is not to be found in Washington’s cauldron of lies or cable TV’s rating driven drivel.
Yet, we are a nation in fear and a nation at war. Serenity and, most of all, victory, are only to be achieved when the true soul of the people is made manifest. So, where does that soul survive?
Our heart and our soul can be vividly seen in the actions of our police and firefighters who sacrificed themselves on 9/11. It can be seen in the courage and compassion of those ten brave individuals who chained themselves to the doors of the infamous DEA this month, braving arrest to speak for the thousands of disabled being terrorized by their own government for seeking relief with medical cannabis.
Our soul can be seen in the millions who came out to vote for a Green or a Libertarian or an Independent, knowing that elections must be lost rather than compromised if real victory is to be possible in the future.
This writer sees the soul of the nation working in hospice volunteers; marchers for AIDS research, in home bible studies, in after school volunteers, in our folks in uniform far away, and most of all, in the broad and bountiful Internet. It is on the Internet that the most basic aspects of our national soul are expressed. Democracy and freedom prevail. Speak your mind but don’t hurt your neighbor. Do what you please so long you don’t harm others. Help the poor help themselves. Care for the sick and the dying. Pray or not pray as it suits you. Be responsible and work hard. Care for the children and the old. We have a simple soul. It is elegant.
Our American soul is one of compassion, generosity, and common sense. We are giving and patient. We are slow to anger. Anger now, though, is smoldering. The government and the media have lied to and attempted to deceive the true soul of the nation for too long. They offend our intelligence.
Remember, governments have no conscience. They cannot be appealed to. When they are as out of step as they are now then it the duty of those who possess a conscience to speak out and demand change. Either speak out and act or be ruled by the narrow views of those with a will to power.
If the government and our social institutions fail to reconcile with our most basic nature and hopes then they are doomed to failure and we are doomed to disappointment and tyranny unless we resist.
The lies and grabs for power are far too numerous to list but the failed and hypocritical War on Drugs and the new mantra of Homeland Security are two obvious examples not to mention the outrageous fire sale of our natural resources.
The government seeks to channel all of our anger and attention to foreign enemies. Perpetual war for perpetual political power seems to be the game. When fanatics attack us, as they have, our anger is natural and justified. Yet, may we take care not to be so distracted by this foreign threat as to miss the dangers right here at home. We do not have to abandon our liberties to fight terrorists. We do not have to ignore the DEA raids on the sick to be protected from Bin Laden and his sick fellows.
In fact, if we ignore the unconstitutional, unethical, and cruel actions of our government against its own people then any victory over foreign threats is empty and meaningless. What profit is there in defeating our foreign attackers only to lose our national conscience? Even more important is the observation that final victory over foreign rivals is impossible if we are not the America of the heart.
We cannot rally the world with a voice of hypocrisy. We cannot be a beacon of freedom overseas while maintaining our own domestic dungeons. We cannot win the hearts and minds of the world while losing our own.
This heart and this soul are grieved nearly beyond measure by the callous and cynical actions emanating from the power elite in Washington. I am sustained by the knowledge that true Americans do not and will never support a government that wars on its own people. The current President may gain comfort in 70% approval ratings in the midst of war but that popularity is a balloon about to burst. The Attorney General can take solace that the bare breast of liberty is now cloaked but her sword is still unsheathed and pointed now at the desecrator.
The time of rascals and pretenders is drawing to a close as the true soul of a nation rises in indignation at the acts committed in its name. Share your heart and your mind with your friends and your neighbors. Together we will recover our liberty and our soul for they were never really ours to give away.
