The party is over, on its last legs, and the Citizens’ Movement has begun
An initiative of The Center for American Studies at Concord, MA, USA: www.concord-ium.us
Where 1, 2, 3, 4 and more shots were fired "heard' round the world".
"As usual, you (Concordians) are years ahead of us,” Dennis Kucinich, Congressman, Presidential Candidate, Public Servant stated in 2021. Might the time be at hand?
The Respectable Scoundrels
Welcome to the Citizens Movement:
A Future Worth Envisioning Together
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​​​Addressed to those whom the state of our union, nation and world may, indeed, concern.
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“Many are called; few are chosen.”
And fewer still make the choice.
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Ever More???
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Do you question, friends, the fact that there always has been and — until kingdom come here on earth — there always will be “bad guys” and gals, scoundrels?
Is this not a simple fact of life, of our all so mortal existences? Indeed, have not we ourselves, at times — our
lesser selves — fulfilled such a role: that of the “bad guy/gal," scoundrel?
It is not poetry alone, but the law of physics, optics that reminds us that we cannot have light without darkness; darkness without light . . . . reminds us — might we add? — that the task of the darkness, itself, is to highlight the light and, thereby, to set our humanity in ever fuller relief?
If this is clear, we are “free,” so to speak, to either recognize the foregoing facts, or to deny, bemoan them, to curse the darkness, curse those who, at first glance, appear to us to be the “bad-guys” and gals: the scoundrels. And if we glance/gaze more deeply . . . ?
Be that as it is, in either case you can imagine that the state we find ourselves in — for not only better but invariably for worse — is as it is for a reason?
A dear deceased friend and colleague, Arun Gandhi, spoke to this reason with respect to his grandfather, the “Mahatma,” whose work Arun carried on:
“Thank God for those God-damn South African racists. If they hadn’t kicked my grandfather off the train [the turning point in Gandhi’s career], he would have continued merrily on his way as a self-righteous, self-serving, self-important young lawyer.”
Instead Mohandas Gandhi became who he truly was: the “Mahatma”/“Great Soul”. That is, Gandhi became who We, the People truly are. Each and every one of us -- if we could but awaken, come to our senses, recall our All-American / Universal “Calling”:
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And crown thy good with sister- and brotherhood from sea to shining seaS
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“The state we find ourselves in . . . . is as it is for a reason?” What might that reason be with respect to the scoundrels spoken of?
If it wasn’t for the “bad guy,” Donald Trump, would concerned democrats be stirred, roused from their indifference, their slumber? Might one say?
If it wasn’t for the (other) “bad guy” Joe Biden, would concerned republicans be stirred, roused from their indifference, their slumber? Might one add?
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The point being: What, friends, do we know — truly?
Do we believe everything we read — from the main-stream corporate media; God bless it? Do we believe everything we are told? As convinced, convicted, as adamant as each side may be, can both sides be right, absolutely right? Are either side absolute, all-knowing, omniscient? Are these matters that engage us as black and white as many would make them?
Indeed, do we recognize ourselves what we, many of us have told others? “There is always another side to the issue,” a balancing perspective. Have we made the effort to get ALL the facts we can? To be pro-active, as opposed to re-acting, re-active, re-actionary — thereby seldom clear, forthright, enlightened in our thinking?
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The further point being, friends: We speak, here on these shores, of our dream, “American Dream.” Without — can one say? — recognizing that, if We, the People are dreaming, we are, indeed, asleep.
If this is the case, what will it take for us to awaken, awaken as Americans from, and to, our Dream. . . . our true dream: Before that dream becomes the nightmare that many fear, before the awakening becomes a rude one, indeed?
Passages from Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address” return to heart and mind.
The passages will be rightly understood if we can imagine that the “God” of which Lincoln speaks is (note) that “Power” that is greater than — and yet no less a part of — our/yourself, your self, your True Self. In the words of an ever “New Testament” itself:
“I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. AND I AM IN YOU.”
I am . . . .
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Lincoln writes: "Both [parties] read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other . . . . But let us judge not that we be not judged . . . ."
"If we shall suppose that American Slavery [then, the MOUNTING divisiveness, civil war today] is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South [East & West], this terrible war [division], as the woe due to those by whom the offense came . . . ."
“With malice toward none;” Father Abraham concludes, “with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle [division], and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
The essential point being, friends:
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DIVIDED, WE, THE PEOPLE ARE CONQUERED.
If we can’t love our alleged enemy, might we become the same, the very same: Our own enemy? In the words of old Pogo of comic strip fame:
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WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY, AND THEY IS US!
The alternative to the love spoken of is the age-old curse:
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
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Indeed, would you be surprised to discover that that is exactly what the “respectable scoundrels” are counting on, confident about?
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Through the polarizing news coverage that they “dish up” to us, they are counting on kindling a blinding hatred, on inflaming our passions so mightily that, while we insist on our OWN convictions, our OWN stands, demand our OWN freedom of speech, we would deny the same fundamental rights and responsibilities to others with whom we disagree.
Are these words clear? What could be more Un-American?
The scoundrels noted are convinced that We, the People will lose sight of what unites us as a nation: the FULLNESS, breadth, richness of perspectives envisioned in the words of the “Sacred Seal” of our land.
E Pluribus Unum / Out of Many, One.
A Truly UNITED States
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Will the People, We fulfill the scoundrels’ expectations, succumb to such a ploy? Will we renounce, reject our role as the 4th, and critical check and balance in our “participatory democracy,” our constitutional democratic-republic and . . . . thereby, let the scoundrels, themselves, their better Selves down, down?
Or, remembering who We, the People are, will we forge unity out of our abundant diversity, our richness, our FULLNESS?
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Will we embrace our All-American / Universal "Calling," the forging of:
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ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE,
WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.
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​Post Script: The inspiration behind We, the People: The Citizens’ Movement to Revive the Spirit of Public is, as noted, in the wind, borne in the breezes — that spirit that “cometh and goeth as it will.”​
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One of the most astounding, most significant, and most awe-inspiring instances of such movements not only follows on page 31 of this link — an extract from the birthday greeting sent to Klaus Schwab, Founder of The World Economic Forum at Davos, that introduces Klaus to his Mother most dear. But, as glimpsed in the following, that blessed movement is ongoing, as we speak.
The Top-Line, the moral of the story, friends, is that there is not only the “real world” in which we find ourselves. There is the REAL “real world,” the world of surprise, synchronicity, of grace, Amazing/Saving Grace. Indeed, as noted within the folds of this web site, such miracles are the “stuff,” cornerstones, the very foundation not only of America's history, but of our very existence itself.