drew dellinger - planetize the movement

Quote on Humility

"Humility is not necessarily considering ourselves less important or valuable than other people. It is not a lack of self-esteem; nor is it a form of modest behavior, and it is not the result of humiliation.

Humility is the right attitude of the finite to the Infinite, the conditioned to the Unconditioned, the part to the Whole. Humility is our awareness of our dependence on something greater than ourselves, and our interdependence with our fellow human beings and all of life."

  --Kabir Helminski, The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation

"The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun." --Buckminster Fuller

The United States has never had real democracy, it is true.

But democracy has always been a dream that pulls us forward.

A country where people bring guns to town-hall meetings has given up on democracy.

When threats and intimidation are allowed, democracy founders.

Every year I watch American politics, I see something unbelievable, whether it's warrantless wiretaps, or torture, or political firings of US attorneys, or...etc...

But I find myself agreeing with Chris Matthews when he says we've never seen anything quite like this in our modern politics, though, I would add, the confluence of guns and politics is a large part of our history of white racism.

I think this current moment teaches us something about the depth of white racism. If this display of guns around presidential speeches has never happened before, how does that relate to the fact that we have also never had an African American president before? This attempt at intimidation also teaches us about right-wing "politics" and the Authoritarian Conservative stream in our culture (to use John Dean's term).

I dream that one day love, democracy and nonviolence will thrive in our hearts and relations. The shattering history of political murder in the US gives us all the more reason to embrace compassion and reconciliation. Our future depends on it.

About forty years ago, on April 7, 1968, Nina Simone gave a concert just three nights after the assassination of Martin Luther King. Simone sang a song written by her bass player in the wake of King's murder called, "Why (The King of Love is Dead)". Stopping in the middle the song, Simone addressed the audience and spoke of her heartache and despair. "Do you realize how many we have lost? Then it really gets down to reality, doesn't it? Not a performance. Not microphones and all that crap. But really something else." With her mournful voice breaking into sobs, Simone added, "We can't afford anymore losses. Oh no. Oh my God. They're shooting us down one by one." At the end of her impromptu speech, just before starting to sing again, Simone repeated, "We can't afford any more losses."

Less than two months later, Bobby Kennedy was killed.

The assassinations of 1968 broke the nation's heart, stole our hope, and shattered our soul. Our country has not yet recovered. Nor have we recovered from the killing of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

In the shadow of this palpable history, bringing a gun to an event with our current president is especially vile and callous. It is anti-democratic. The assassin's bullet pierces every heart, attacking the very dream of democracy. The shadow of the gun casts a pall over all of us.

Some have predicted potential calamities in the upcoming years between 2010 and 2012. I pray that political violence is not among the challenges ahead.

Freedom from threats of violence is our right. Let us claim it, and safeguard our elected leaders, our democracy and our future.

We can't afford any more losses.

Drew's Poetry Translated into French

Bob Herbert on Systemic Racism in Policing

Bob Herbert's column in yesterday's New York Times (Aug. 1, 2009) is a must-read, and perhaps the best thing written on racism and the police in the wake of 'Henry Louis-gate'. It is worth quoting at length. First, Herbert points out that only five or six minutes elapsed between the initial report of a possible break-in, and the moment that Professor Gates was cuffed and arrested for being "angry while black."

Herbert writes:

     "The President of the United States has suggested that we use this flare-up as a 'teachable moment,' but so far exactly the wrong lessons are being drawn from it -- especially for black people. The message that has gone out to the public is that powerful African-American leaders like Mr. Gates and President Obama will be very publicly slapped down for speaking up and speaking out about police misbehavior, and that the proper response if you think you are being unfairly targeted by the police because of your race is to chill.

     I have nothing but contempt for that message."

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Drew's Poem Translated into Spanish

Click on this link to see Drew's poem, "love letter to the milky way," translated into Spanish.

http://comunidadplanetaria.blogspot.com/2007/12/carta-de-amor-la-va-lctea.html

(Thanks to Ernesto Martinez Morales of Valencia, Spain, for his translation.)