{"id":66870,"date":"2013-05-11T08:13:47","date_gmt":"2013-05-11T12:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=66870"},"modified":"2013-05-11T10:31:05","modified_gmt":"2013-05-11T14:31:05","slug":"resolving-our-growing-pains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/resolving-our-growing-pains\/","title":{"rendered":"Resolving Our Growing Pains"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

It’s been a rather amazing week, full of human interest stories. I’d say that those kinds of reports are diversions from our larger problems of climate change and global toxicity, but, hey! If we’re not examining our human condition with an eye toward discovery, toward growth, toward evolution, it won’t matter whether we have a world to plunk our junk in or not.<\/p>\n

\"Political Meanwhile, politics remain obtuse: two separate world visions<\/a> colliding in a crash of fury and frustration, stalemate the result. With the Republicans newly candid about their strategy to deny the black guy any wins at all, it’s evident to all of us that we’re going nowhere, fast. Perhaps, this hitch in our giddy-up is — like the wolf told Grandma — all the better to see with, my dear.<\/p>\n

When we’re stopped from forward movement, stymied by such outrageous circumstance, we must — as my late father would say — adjust, migrate or die. Adjusting to our current situation means accepting that there are several versions of reality floating around out there, and we’ve seen that it will take more than the sharp pin of logic or science to pop the bubbles. Yes, some of us may migrate, some of us die, but the majority will learn to adapt by looking carefully, learning to recognize what we’re seeing, even glimpsing the shadow side of ourselves.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Everything seems like a Rubik’s Cube these days, a puzzle hard to solve. Let’s take the attack on the American Embassy in Benghazi, for instance. During Bush’s tenure, there were assaults on our embassies in Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Athens, Serbia and Yemen. I don’t remember any of them and evidently, neither do the Republicans, because those attacks are never EVER mentioned on their side of the hall. And yet, looking for any event that might illustrate Obama’s weakness in handling foreign affairs (which they consider their own political bailiwick), they did everything — are STILL doing everything — in their power to create it as a stake through the heart of the Pretender in the White House.<\/p>\n

In a narrative that began as the sitting president and Mitt Romney faced off as candidates last summer, the Pubs had it that not only had Clinton mismanaged an expected attack but that Obama was personally micro-managing a cover-up. Romney was twice bitten by his inability to sell this to the American public, but he didn’t give up, nor did his party. The rhetoric continues to ratchet up these many months since, with ridiculous allegations from prominent Pubs calling this a scandal worse than Watergate. Wing-nut ex-Governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee announced on his radio program that when the scope of it is revealed, “… this president will not fill out his full term.” Busy wrestling REAL problems in our respective worlds, few of us have invested in this paranoia.<\/p>\n

There are layers of speculation, beyond the obvious, for this unhappy event, heatedly discussed on FOX<\/em> and offered for sampling by people like Lou Dobbs. The story lines are diverse: this was Obama, Clinton and Petraeus in cahoots with the CIA in mishandling a gun-running adventure with Syrian rebels. Or it was an Obama campaign plot in tandem with terrorists — an October surprise — to kidnap Chris Stevens, then earn security cred by exchanging him for Blind Sheikh Omar. Google any of this and you’ll find it in the far-right blogosphere, along with the absolute certainty of the fringe that Obama would be moving into his new mansion in Hawaii in January this year, as he handily lost the election.<\/p>\n

For further details on alternate realities, Yahoo<\/a> has the story on “Benghazi-truthers” and — I had to laugh — one of their sponsors is newsmax.com<\/a> (favorite of the foaming, frothing right) which, at my reading, advertised an article entitled “3 Early Signs of Dementia.” I couldn’t have said it better.<\/p>\n

Tragic though Benghazi was, and unprepared as we may have been — hampered funding, some $300 million cut from the embassy security budget, squarely placed at the Pubs feet, thank you — there was limited fallout during the election, and the blame seemed to shift mainly to the shoulders of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, denying her a potential appointment. Beating this dead horse into a bloody pulp and anxious for a do-over, the Pubs invited “whistleblowers” to Congress this week. Carefully orchestrated by strong-arm specialist Rep. Darrell Issa, State Department employees came forward with details of the tragic incident but little new information regarding culpability. As CNN contributor David Rothkopf, noted<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Rep. Darrell Issa must be ruing his bad luck. The hearing he carefully orchestrated to pick at the scab of Benghazi was stepped on by the verdict in the Jodi Arias murder trial and by the story of three women held captive and brutalized for a decade in Cleveland. He was out-sensationalized and out-tawdried this week despite his own best efforts and those of his committee colleagues and staff members.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Out-sensationalized and out-tawdried. Yes, all of the above, yet these glaring and disturbing crimes did give us a closer look at ourselves, as does everything we see these days. Sometimes, we find a silver lining, a potent mirror to reflect us back to ourselves. Occasionally, we even find a miracle or two.<\/p>\n

In Ohio, an animated gent named Charles Ramsey earned stars in his crown by responding to the frantic calls of a young woman in the house next door. He figured, he said, that it must be a problem of domestic abuse, something of which Charles has familiarity having served time for a similar crime. But this was more than a family squabble and violence. It turned out to include multiple counts of rape and kidnap, a decade of imprisonment as sex slaves for three missing women, all at the hands of a mild-mannered neighbor with whom an amazed Charles shared barbecue.<\/p>\n

Something of a social observer, our good Samaritan had this to say when an ABC reporter asked him to recount the incident: \u201cBro, I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man\u2019s arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway. Dead giveaway. Deeeeeeeeeeaaaaaad giveaway. Either she\u2019s homeless, or she\u2019s got problems. That\u2019s the only reason she\u2019d run to a black man.\u201d<\/p>\n

It should be noted that after that first sentence, the reporter studiously began to back up, but Charles, bless him, kept leaning in with his steady stream of chat<\/a>. It’s corporate policy that the press has turned into such a sissy-ass impediment to hearing hard truth, avoiding the politically incorrect at all costs, and it’s an embarrassment to the profession and a detriment to the integrity of the national dialogue.<\/p>\n

If we want a look at news with a bite, we have to click over to Comedy Central and watch Jon Stewart go after ghoulish Nancy Grace, for instance. Grace is a woman full of bile and accusation, linked to two prior suicides due to her aggressive questioning and innuendo. Nancy enjoys high ratings among those who favor the tabloids, and now that Jody Arias has been found guilty, she’s in search of another case that will mesmerize and mystify. In this clip<\/a>, she relishes the taste of Ariel Castro on her tongue. Doubtful that she can resist a case so obviously perverse and tragic for long.<\/p>\n

In other improbable news, a surprisingly healthy woman was discovered by workers digging through the 7,000 tons of debris left from the Bangladesh factory fire that occurred 17 days ago. She had survived by eating bits of dried food and drinking bottled water in the tiny space she inhabited. This is not only the kind of miracle that delights us all, but also offers a reproachful look at the unregulated 20-billion-dollar garment industry that feeds clothing and specialty items into the Western market. Workers paid as little as 17 cents an hour were virtual prisoners in the failing factory infrastructure, warned they would lose a month’s pay if they did not show up for their shift.<\/p>\n

Only a problem in undeveloped nations, you say? Think again. Outside of Oxnard, California, a group of strawberry pickers were warned by their foreman to ignore the smoke and ash from a nearby wildfire or lose their jobs. When they took shelter from the fire, sure enough, they were fired. Not union members, they nevertheless appealed for help from the United Farm Workers, with excellent result. When we talk about unions, the rhetoric seems to invariably pitch upwards into hysterical tones about huge paychecks and unreasonable benefits, but it seldom discusses the obvious: worker rights. Without the unions, we’re ham-strung, unprotected and unable to negotiate for our own good.<\/p>\n

Over a thousand wage-earners in Bangladesh died without advocates, while fifteen in California summoned the spirit to protect their health and well being, then seek intercessors. The neo-liberal policies that have created us all as worker bees, directed to dine on the crumbs from the plates of the wealthy but never join them, are still vulnerable to the remaining bits of law that inhibit them. Like holding up a cross to a vampire, that moment’s hesitation<\/a> felt by the owner of the strawberry fields was the A-HA we must notice, and expand.<\/p>\n

THAT’s what we should focus on as we read this story, as we read ALL these stories of slavery and abuse, of manipulation and exploitation. It is not enough to cluck our tongues, as we have over the school shootings and congressional obstruction. The laws of our country reflect the moral compass of our souls, and it is a harsh truth that the progressive rule of law that we have relied on for close to a century is in tatters. The lawmakers have failed us, as we have failed our candidates — and, as we have failed to defend the liberties of others, we have lost our own.<\/p>\n

The days of finger-pointing must end. Can we see any of our selves in those we scrutinize, I wonder? Are we brave enough to face our shadow-side? In some small way, are we like the Daryl Issas of the world, conniving and controlling in dogged pursuit of our goals? Can we relate to the despair of someone like Ariel Castro when he writes in an (unaccomplished) suicide note that he can’t help himself? Have we had the courage of a Charles Ramsey, his unguarded, unselfconscious dialogue telling (racial) truth that makes his listeners uncomfortable? Even — Gawd help — is some bit of us like Nancy Grace, harsh judgment at the ready, invested in the drama without assessing the consequences?<\/p>\n

If you can’t get a glimpse of that within yourself, here’s an idea: ask your best friend — the one you trust the most, the one who knows your secrets — to tell you about yourself. Here are the rules to this experiment:<\/p>\n

Don’t pounce on them if they step on your toe. <\/em><\/p>\n

Don’t bite them if they nail that part you thought was well hidden. <\/em><\/p>\n

Don’t defend yourself lest you betray the trust you’ve placed in that one whom you have asked to reveal you. <\/em><\/p>\n

Don’t even ask for truth unless you’re ready to hear.<\/em><\/p>\n

There is every reason to want to know those parts of you that express without your permission, perhaps even your awareness, even if it’s difficult to hear. When we know who we are, we no longer have the need to drag our baggage, our story, our unforgiveness, behind us. As we enter this quickening of eclipses — closing out old energy and ushering in new — it’s important to remember that as we grow, we OUTgrow the old. We can leave what no longer serves behind, no harm, no foul — like a chrysalis abandoned by a butterfly.<\/p>\n

When we start anew, we can be encouraged that the old thoughts, the outgrown habits, the discarded behaviors of a lifetime will no longer act as our default, our auto-pilot. We can find startling new ways to look at the world, ourselves and those around us. We can work through our growing pains to weed out the subliminal messages we tell ourselves, the dark imaginings we nurture and protect, our unkindness to self and others.<\/p>\n

Where we make space within ourselves, that void will fill with tenderness for one another, if that is our choice. When we make space for love, we dissolve pain. Then we will have changed what we magnetize to ourselves, drawing to us all we need. As we open to love, we leave the sensational and tawdry, the self-serving and manipulative behind. When we decide to forgive ourselves and one another, filling ourselves with hope for tomorrow, we discover a clear path forward. When we love ourselves whole again, we change the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves It’s been a rather amazing week, full of human interest stories. I’d say that those kinds of reports are diversions from our larger problems of climate change and global toxicity, but, hey! If we’re not examining our human condition with an eye toward discovery, toward growth, toward evolution, it … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}