The Revelation Revolution

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

My computer went wonky last night and I lost about half of my files as updates to Firefox went awry, making the program inaccessible and taking my bookmarks with it. Insult to injury, even my e-mail is spitting in my eye, refusing to spell-check or format, so I’m limping along today, bemoaning the unlucky stars (or Aries point energy) that put a monkey wrench into my works, that created a wall to bump my nose against.

Frankly, this tops off a head-shaking news week, ranging from Israel bombing Southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006 to Syria’s despicable act of genocide using chemical agents in Damascus; from a dispiriting report that someone barbecued one of the Queen’s elegant swans at Windsor Castle to an absurd poll revealing that a majority of Pubs in Louisiana blame Obama for Hurricane Katrina. Yes, in a shit-happens world you can count on the unexpected and you can even assume the worst, but our ability to betray our better instincts never fails to startle me.

It is disheartening. Read BuzzFlash or Huffy and you’ll find article after article revealing truths you’d rather not know, raising your stress level and adding to the feeling that no one’s watching the store. For instance, although little was initially made of the severity of the Manning sentence until she decided to make a declaration as transgender, those pundits who suggest that 35 years in Leavenworth is better than 90 have a point, but not a very good one.

Chelsea gets to spend her youth in lockdown while Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Tenant and all those who whitewashed Abu Ghraib don’t miss a night’s sleep or otherwise pay the piper? Money and power, like cream, rise to the top, protecting the wealthy from accountability while leaving the little guy to turn on the spit? No wonder the peasants ate the Queen’s swan.

Call me starry-eyed, but had just one of those Bushy transgressors had the grace to have written something as candid or selfless as Manning’s statement to the president regarding motives for breaking the law, American consciousness might be a lot farther along:

The decisions that I made in 2010 were made out of a concern for my country and the world that we live in. Since the tragic events of 9/11, our country has been at war. We’ve been at war with an enemy that chooses not to meet us on any traditional battlefield, and due to this fact we’ve had to alter our methods of combating the risks posed to us and our way of life.

I initially agreed with these methods and chose to volunteer to help defend my country. It was not until I was in Iraq and reading secret military reports on a daily basis that I started to question the morality of what we were doing. It was at this time I realized that (in) our efforts to meet the risk posed to us by the enemy, we have forgotten our humanity. We consciously elected to devalue human life both in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians. Whenever we killed innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any public accountability.

In our zeal to kill the enemy, we internally debated the definition of torture. We held individuals at Guantanamo for years without due process. We inexplicably turned a blind eye to torture and executions by the Iraqi government. And we stomached countless other acts in the name of our war on terror.

Patriotism is often the cry extolled when morally questionable acts are advocated by those in power. When these cries of patriotism drown out any logically based dissension, it is usually the American soldier that is given the order to carry out some ill-conceived mission.

Our nation has had similar dark moments for the virtues of democracy — the Trail of Tears, the Dred Scott decision, McCarthyism, and the Japanese-American internment camps — to mention a few. I am confident that many of the actions since 9/11 will one day be viewed in a similar light.

As the late Howard Zinn once said, “There is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.”

I understand that my actions violated the law; I regret if my actions hurt anyone or harmed the United States. It was never my intent to hurt anyone. I only wanted to help people. When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty to others.

If you deny my request for a pardon, I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society. I will gladly pay that price if it means we could have a country that is truly conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all women and men are created equal.

As a military prisoner, Chelsea will have access to mental health professionals and social services, but there is no provision made for hormone therapy or sex-reassignment procedures so we can only hope that she is eventually pardoned and enabled to live the life she chooses. Perhaps that will come at the end of this clash between Pluto in Capricorn, blooming institutionalized repressions from the darkened corners of structures gone brittle, and Uranus in Aries gone harsh and destructive in Damascus and Iraq, pensive and philosophical in countries that count themselves civilized but are no longer confident that’s true.

Perhaps after we’ve cataloged all the broken pieces of our socio-political melt-down, instituting reality in a more meaningful way, Manning will be appreciated for her service to liberty and freed to live her life as she pleases. With the exception of the elders ensconced in worship of an earlier social construct — currently comprising an entire political party, more’s the pity — the public seems fairly straightforward in letting bygones be bygones these days.

Twenty years ago, news on Manning’s sexual preference would have stood the nation on its ear, as confused on transgender issues as in determining if blow jobs were “sexual relations with that woman.” Now Brad’s morph into Chelsea is a ho-hum interesting factoid to add to the ongoing debate of her status as patriotic whistleblower vs. Commie traitor.

The public has evolved into a more fair-minded, free-thinking entity than the politicos would have us believe, and you don’t have to look far to find confirmation. Our younger generation reflects the changes that occurred while the political parties were sleeping, and the fact that socio-political growth is here to stay is a drum beat we can no longer ignore.

We can see it in the language we choose, and one word that comes out of the White House with regularity illustrates it: “evolve.” This week we learned that while Obama has not yet evolved on medical marijuana, we can only hope it occurs as dependably as his evolution on gay rights did, greasing the skids for gender equality to round the corner into everyday culture. That’s helpful for Chelsea’s cause as she seeks her gender identity; on the other hand, Obama doesn’t appear interested in evolving his stand on whistleblowers anytime soon.

The Department of Justice has seemingly “evolved” on a number of topics recently, with Holder announcing that he is ready to go after some of the big banks for their culpability in bringing the economy to its knees. This evolution has yet to show any teeth, although people like Elizabeth Warren — bless her — keeps showing hers, reminding me of one of those little dogs that locks their jaw on the seat of your pants and won’t let go. Elizabeth recently wrote Holder a letter criticizing “the federal government’s timid enforcement strategy against the nation’s largest financial institutions,” protecting the lenders while throwing borrowers to the wolves. If there’s going to be evolution on this issue any time soon, Holder better get busy issuing warrants.

Regarding the war on drugs, the Attorney General’s recent declaration that the justice system is “broken” and in need of “sweeping” reform probably won’t reduce the burgeoning numbers at private prisons, thanks to our hard-assed policy of punishing immigration offenders. As quickly as drug offenders leave the system, ICE fills those slots with the undocumented. Clearly, until we evolve past the profit factor, we ain’t evolved at all!

So once again we’re back at Square One: plutocracy, elitism, the level of wealth that buys policy and prefers to stand on its pile of money and influence, well above the law. And while the public seems ready to forgive and forget on the morphing cultural issues of our time, it’s much more skeptical about influence peddling as political policy. It views the dark underbelly of institutional regulation with a jaundiced eye, watching to see if American rule of law is still worth the legal paper it’s written on.

What’s interesting is that it’s typically the older generations busting balls over money, railing against well-financed lobbyists, struggling to figure out how to manage the economic downturn while re-thinking expectations for the future. The younger set just goes about its business, adapting gracefully. Our recent discussions of finding our authentic selves, of discerning the difference between what’s good for me-me-me as opposed to the needs of we-we-we, are moot when you look at what goes on with the under-thirties.

OK, disclaimer: it’s true that many of our youngers are still living with the folks, and taking advantage — if they can — of the Obamacare expansion of health benefits on a parent’s policy. And yes, their level of unemployment is disheartening, especially among communities of color. Yet perhaps it’s because of their level of free time, not despite it, that psychic seer Edgar Cayce’s warning that we “serve or suffer” seems to have been seeded in the hearts of the younger crowd, who are at ease with the concepts of service and volunteerism.

Populist Jim Hightower recently wrote a post about a very wealthy hedge fund manager’s Wall Street Journal op/ed complaining that the nation’s homeless were being coddled by those not allowing them to fend for themselves (the bootstrap argument.) What is interesting to me isn’t his philosophy, which I find tediously Randian and egocentric, but the fact that he wrote it because his 16-year-old son had volunteered at a homeless shelter. This caused him to develop a plan to solve homelessness by shutting down shelters that allow these underachievers to live on someone else’s dime rather than stand on their own two (shoeless, sockless) feet. Wonder what his kid thinks about all that? I’ll bet his philosophy is a good deal more nuanced than his father’s.

If we look around, we can find examples of the almost effortless altruism I’m talking about. VH1, the music channel, recently aired a star-studded presentation for young activists called the Do Something Awards, highlighting programs developed by young people providing service to society and choosing five winners to receive sizable grants to further their cause.

The Do Something organization advertises itself as a “teen-led web-based organization” that has over 2.1 million members on its website, and estimates that through media and marketing, it reaches over approximately 11 million young people annually. It has corporate sponsors that develop content but does not exclude support for original projects.

This year, four $10,000 grants went out to talented winners:

Sasha Fisher founded Spark MicroGrants, providing grants to rural poor communities in Rwanda and Uganda to build their own social impact projects such as schools, water wells, and health centers.

Lorella Praeli won for her work with United We Dream, a national organization dedicated to earning immigration rights for the 11 million DREAMers in the U.S.

Jillian Mourning founded All We Want is LOVE (Liberation of Victims Everywhere) to educate the public about sex trafficking in the U.S., provide training for those exposed to it and rescue techniques for victims.

My favorite winner, Ben Simon, started the Food Recovery Network at the University of Maryland, which uses college volunteers who recover leftover food from their dining halls and donate it to local soup kitchens and shelters in their communities. This project has spread to seven campuses, nationwide: The University of Maryland College Park, Brown, UC Berkeley, Pomona College, Claremont McKenna College, University of Texas Austin, Rhode Island School of Design and Providence College. They’re looking for others to join them.

Why my favorite? Because it’s so simple, so obvious, so intuitive. Volunteers collect excess food from dining services each evening and transport it to shelters and food banks for redistribution. Simon estimates that Americans waste over 35 million tons of food — $165 billion dollars worth — every year. His Food Recovery program has redistributed 166,354 pounds of food since September of 2011. What’s not to love?

The big Do Something winner this year, recipient of a $100,000 grant, was Daniel Maree of New York who started the Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, successfully agitating for national attention in getting Zimmerman arrested and putting the spotlight on racial profiling. You may recognize that name from headlines that recently announced the Virtual March on Washington — joined by the Trayvon Martin Foundation, NAACP Northeast Region, New York Urban League, One Million People United for Change and The Roosevelt Institute — commemorating Dr. King’s march on Washington 50 years ago. That event is happening today.

Just kids, right? Just righteous, evolutionary kids? Now watch this YouTube about a young man in Detroit who decided to bypass the promises of local government and create a solution where one was desperately needed. When we think about how none of our local, state or national policy issues are easy to deal with, perhaps we should entertain the possibility that none of them are as impossible as we’ve been told, either. Especially when we think intuitively.

Clearly, the young ones have drive and passion, they exude vision and commitment. They’re brimming with sensitivity and courage, as well. Play this from the Voices Project and remember that ten years ago — even five — we wouldn’t have seen this clip or been moved by its awareness; it would have been hidden out of sight and mind. We have evolved.

It is a fact of physics, as well as metaphysical truism, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So while we can mourn that there is a good deal of darkness in the world, let’s remember to celebrate that it is countered by a good deal of Light. There is a revelation revolution going on, not just in what’s wrong with the world but in what’s right, as well.

Fifty years after King’s march on Washington, there has been evolution regarding those demanding good jobs, economic equity and civil liberties. No longer principally about race, they include youth, minorities, gay and lesbian citizens, women and immigrant voters. They are a contemporary constituency working toward reproductive rights, marriage equality, livable wage and labor reform, racial, immigration and climate justice. And while we honor the traditions of collective non-violence and encourage one another to activism and civil disobedience, let’s also validate the innovation of those whose volunteerism and dedication to social justice change the world one loving, creative act of social benevolence at a time.