Do we love ourselves? by Carol Wolman

Do we love ourselves? by Carol Wolman

Mark 12: 31 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

 

The Golden Rule is very practical.  It leads to cooperation, to working for the common good.  A village cannot afford feuds and festering rivalries. 

 

Our planet is a global village.  Global warming affects us all.  Fine radioactive dust in the atmosphere affects us all.  The winds blow all around the globe.  Ocean water circulates. 

 

The Golden Rule assumes self-love.  This is a biological given.  Every living organism seeks to protect itself and pass on its quintessence, its DNA, to the future.  One cannot love one's neighbor without loving oneself and one's seed.

 

We in the US find it hard to love ourselves these days.  We know that we live in a rogue nation, despised by the rest of humanity for the bullying, greed and destructiveness of our supposedly elected leaders.  We know that both elections were stolen, by dirty tricks during registration, by justice buying, by machine rigging.  Yet we tolerate the thugs who have hijacked our nation, and the fawning press, and the false shepherds.

 

We in the US are on the brink of disaster.  We are bogged down in a military swamp in Iraq, yet our "leaders", are threatening to start a new war with Iran.  No outcry from the public.  We continue to eat, drink and be merry.

 

Our dollar is falling, and our national debt is out of control.  Congress passes yet another huge military budget.  Where is the outcry?

 

The new Homeland Security Law places our precious freedom in the jaws of a steel trap that can snap shut at any moment, at the whim of the pious rulers.  The rulers do not answer to   we, the people, they answer to the corporate beast, which has stolen our personhood, legally, and worships only money.  Where is our outcry?

 

Do we love ourselves? 

 

Please do a quick exercise with me.  Leave your computer and find a mirror.  Look yourself in the eye and say to your reflection:  "I love myself.  I am doing everything I can to choose life, for myself and my seed." 

 

Then come back for the next step.

 

Were you able to assure yourself of your self-love?  It's not easy these days.  No matter how hard we are working for justice, for the poor, for our environment, it does not seem to be helping.  The enemy is consolidating its power.  With Bush's neonazi friend Ratzinger now in the papacy, the European Union in shambles, and the RRR (Radical Religious Right) seeking to impose a theocracy at home, it seems hopeless.

 

Do we love ourselves?  The RRR tells us that God will save them because they hate Muslims, and homosexuals, and treehuggers, and women who abort their embryos rather than bring a child into an intolerable situation.  We try to dialogue with these brainwashed nuts, and to love them.  They do not love us, although we are their neighbors. They are aiming for mass suicide, and taking us down with them.  They tell us we are at fault because we love life, and we persist in loving our neighbors, no matter what beliefs and sexual practices they follow.

 

Is it too late?  Should we resign ourselves to the fate they foresee for us, consumed in a lake of radioactive fire?  Or shall we reclaim our lives and our future?  Do we love ourselves enough to act on our own behalf?

 

Here's exercise # 2- do this some other time. 

 

Find a child in your neighborhood, look that child in the eye, and say:  "I love you as I love myself.  I am doing everything I can to choose life, for you and your seed." 

 

Are you crying yet?  I cry every time I think about that radioactive dust blowing off the sands in Iraq, getting into the upper atmosphere, accumulating in the gene pool forever.  Is it too late?  Have we already sown the seeds of death for the biosphere, with our radioactive weapons?

 

God, the God of life, love and justice, God is giving us a precious opportunity to reverse the course of events. God has inspired some brave souls in Britain to publish a secret memo that provides a "smoking gun", clear proof that Bush knew he was lying to the American people, Congress, and the UN about WMD's in Iraq. 

 

God has provided us with the internet, so that news of the Downing Street memo is penetrating the consciousness of citizens of the US, despite the blackout by the official US press and TV. 

 

God has provided us with a Constitution that lays out a clear, peaceful method for getting rid of corrupt politicians that are committing high crimes and misdemeanors.  Certainly lying to take the country to war, and twisting intelligence to back up the lies, falls into that category.

 

God has provided us with a leader, John Conyers, Jr. (Dem-MI).  Conyers is the second most senior member of the House of Representatives, and the founder and dean of the Congressional Black Caucus.  He was a friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and was instrumental in making MLK Day a national holiday.

 

Mr. Conyers holds a key congressional position, as ranking senior member of the House Judiciary Committee.  It is this committee that initiates and carries out impeachment proceedings.  Conyers was on the committee in 1974, when impeachment hearings were held against Nixon over Watergate.  He also participated in the impeachment proceedings against Clinton. 

 

(Impeachment is like arraignment, the House acting as the DA who brings formal charges.  The Senate, acting as the court in Clinton's trial, refused to convict him, so he remained in office).

 

Mr. Conyers has already taken several steps on the road to impeaching Bush.  He has sent Bush a letter, demanding an explanation of the "smoking gun" memo, cosigned by 88 congresspeople.  He has put out an appeal to the public to cosign the letter, which you can do at www.johnconyers.com/ .

 

Citizens' groups are mobilizing to support the impeachment effort.  Atty John Bonifaz, on behalf of these groups, has written to Conyers: 

 

The recent release of the Downing Street Memo provides new and compelling evidence that the President of the United States has been actively engaged in a conspiracy to deceive and mislead the United States Congress and the American people about the basis for going to war against Iraq. If true, such conduct constitutes a High Crime under Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution: “The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

In light of the emergence of the Downing Street Memo, Members of Congress should introduce a Resolution of Inquiry directing the House Judiciary Committee to launch a formal investigation into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its constitutional power to impeach George W. Bush, President of the United States..

 

Do you love yourself and your seed enough to join the effort to impeach Bush?  You can read the entire Bonifaz letter to Conyers, and become a member of the citizen's coalition, at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

 

One final exercise.  Take four deep breaths, through your nose.  Listen to sound of your breath.  It whispers: YAH WEH,  YAH  WEH,   YAH  WEH,     YAH  WEH. 

 

(That means, in Hebrew, I AM WHAT I WILL BE.  It's how YHWH told Moses to identify himself as he returned to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of slavery.)

 

Say to yourself: The great I AM, who gives me life and breath, who inspires me, will give me the spirit, the courage, and the love, to love myself and my seed, and my neighbor. 

 

Again, take some deep breaths, through your nose.  Listen to sound of your breath.  YAH WEH,  YAH  WEH,   YAH  WEH,     YAH  WEH. 

 

Now, talk about impeachment to people.  Don't think of impeachment as impossible; the rulers want you to feel helpless.  Take a breath and call on your Creator, the giver of life.  Sign the Conyers letter.  Join the citizens' coalition.  You can do both at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

 

Let's overturn the tables and reclaim our country!

 

In the name of the God of justice, who so loved us that he sent His only begotten Son to save us, and show us the peaceful way to survive,

 

Carol Wolman