Dear President-elect Barack Obama,
Please indulge me, a hopeful skeptic, for a minute. It is not that I find you or your politics (most of them, anyways) disagreeable, quite the contrary. I appreciate and find myself inspired by much of your call for change and hope. Your honesty with the difficulties ahead and your willingness to listen are, also, a mark of character. Rather, I am skeptical of the powers and principalities of this world and how, to recall Dorothy Day’s diagnosis, “our problems stem from the acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.”
President-elect Obama, you ran a campaign based on hope and change, and rightly so; this country is in desperate need of a change of leadership, direction, and values. You spent nearly $650 million getting yourself elected. That is almost 44% of the $1.5 billion spent by all the presidential candidates. That is a lot of money. Of course, it is worth noting that campaign finances are but mere pennies compared to the $700 billion financial bailout shelled out to the irresponsible and manipulative giants of Wall Street or the cost of $720 million per day to continue the Iraq war. How is this campaign money spent anyway? There are staff salaries, travel expenditures and energy costs, consultant fees, polls and campaign events, but the bulk of the budget is spent in media. Media is the marketing of a candidate, the development of the logo, creation of print, broadcast, and Internet advertising—it is the buying and selling of, in a word, the vote.
What is the folly in all of this? Has the voter finally sold out and been reduced to something we consume? Are billions of dollars spent just to manipulate image and opinion? Do battleground states trump the common good? What would the late Studs Terkel say if he were here today—does hope still die last even after the last vote has been bought for a $3 button asking for change? Can the center hold? Is it so the President can shed his clothes for the vote or is there still redemption?
Please, President-elect Obama, let us see your true colors. You played the electoral game and played it like you belonged. You took our votes and gave us hopes and dreams...could they be true or was it just another electoral gimmick for fools? The John McCain campaign prided itself on “Country First,” asking America “not to hope, but to vote.” Your adversary gave you a run for your money but in the end offered little in exchange for his vote—unlike you, who offered hope. Now what does it mean? Where does hope stop being dream and become something real? What about the economy? What about the poor? What about the strangers and the immigrants? Will the good Dr. King’s radical revolution of values from racism, materialism and militarism find a home among princes and presidents?
While you were out campaigning and promising support from the top, the bottom, the grass roots—churches, teachers, community leaders and organizers—kept the work going on. Now that you will be our president, we are asking you: Will you join us? Will you help us shut down Guantanamo? Will you help us end these mad, mad wars? Will you help us with healthcare and prison reform? Will you help us with sustainable agriculture? Will you help us with comprehensive immigration changes that are humane? Will you help us reform the insanity of campaign finances, economic subsidies and military spending—in order to, as you said, “restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace?”
Hope still dies last, President-elect Obama, but for many, you are the last hope for many Americans that justice can rain down from the White House. The shakers and movers from below are ready—in fact, they’ve been at it for decades!—to change this country by ending homelessness and combating institutional racism, rebuilding our schools and improving teachers, fixing our roads and funding public transit, restructuring power so that transparency and humility are real values and politically viable, starting organic farms and constructing renewable sources of energy, and finding alternatives to violence at home and abroad for solving conflict. The grassroots communities that helped elect you are waiting for you to listen. Change cannot wait four more years, because if it does not start now, President-elect Obama, American hope might just well have died.
You’ve said it well along: “Yes, we can.” Don’t forget us...because we are the ones who can. We are talking about changing culture, changing society, and creating the beloved community. You are right that it will not be easy, so please don’t lend unnecessary support to political structures that make it harder. I do not doubt your goodwill or your commitment. But there are forces in this world—forces like rampant consumerism and the military-industrial complex—that push humanity to live unblinkingly amidst severe poverty and expensive nuclear weapons, and this makes it harder for us, all of us, to be good. Do not fear these forces; do not be afraid. Rather, be overcome with love. For love, and a politics of love—forgiveness, the works of mercy, nonviolence, social responsibility, the common good—can bring even the most hardened of enemies together as friends. Congratulations on your election, blessings and safety on you and your family, and may you be reminded of the simple words Micah spoke to the kings of Judah: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Sincerely,
Jake Olzen
20 January 2009
09 November 2008
The "Vote"
A little late, but a collection of thoughts and comments with friends over email:
Here's a quote from the US Bishops' "Faithful Citizenship" (2007): "When all candidates hold a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, the conscientious voter faces a dilemma. The voter may decide to take the extraordinary step of not voting for any candidate or, after careful deliberation, may decide to vote for the candidate deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position and more likely to pursue other authentic human goods."
These are extra-ordinary times. The U.S. government is an Empire of political, social, and economic violence that keeps its lot off of the blood and sweat of millions of poor, oppressed and marginalized people all over the world. Do not be fooled by patriotic whims of electoral duty...a vote for any president is a vote for war and violence. Take a stand for peace and truth, withdraw consent from bloody regimes and begin organizing local, sustainable, nonviolent communities from the ground up. Quit paying taxes to the war machine. Quit our consumer habits that rape the Earth and pillage the poor. Vote by every mile you ride your bike instead of driving the car. Vote by buying fair trade, local and organic food from cooperative projects. Vote by demanding, (with our bodies, because talk is cheap these days) every power elite to shut down Guantanamo, shut down immigration raids, shut down wars for oil, shut down discrimination and hate based on age, gender, race, orientation, shut down nuclear proliferation, shut down the prisons, shut down scandalous electoral politics and hundreds of billions of dollars of campaign finance...put that money into the Dunkin' Donuts cup of the homeless man begging for a meal, a bed, a conversation. Don't let the politicians play their games of rhetoric and backdoor devilry, don't let them spit in the faces of the widows and the orphans who are turned away empty handed because all the coffers have been emptied for Blackwater and Halliburton, don't let them bleed the Earth of the life and beauty that sustains us all. The good news here is that we don't need them. They need our votes, but more importantly, they need our dollars. Tell them to take a hike and give you dough to the young veteran back from Iraq who has been left on his own to find treatment for PTSD. Give it to the local food shelf, or better yet, invite the hungry into your home and cook a meal for them and make some new friends. Give shelter to the undocumented who are being persecuted by ideologues and bureaucrats. Change starts here, not Election Day. We don't need four more years. The revolution, the real revolution, of learning to love our neighbors AND our enemies, has been going on for thousands of years. We don't need a president or elected official to tell us how to do that. We have each other, we have community...start building it now: our lives depend on it.
Is this "rhetorical flourish," or do you dare believe what you write?
And God said to Jake, "You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you" (Luke 12:20).
If what you write is true, then our lives should never...can never be the same.
Why do we waste so much time not meaning what we say or saying what we mean...I do dare to believe this. Dare I take this on faith? Dare I write this and share it with others? These are but passing fancies.
The real rub, the task at hand: Do I dare make this belief reality - or, rather - does my life become one with the creator and creation so that this daring proposition is made real? My salvation is your salvation is her salvation is their salvation is...
Who am I to say if this is true...I've merely been blessed (or cursed, the jury is still out!) to have caught a glimpse of the banquet feast at Maryhouse. The Lord said "Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people" (Ezekiel 12:2). And we are called the rebels by the ones with the bombs and the ballots!
Spare some change? Sorry, good sir, I am on my way to vote so that you are no longer poor. I would buy you a meal but gave my last to the Obama campaign. I hope you understand, but change is on its way, if you would just wait a bit longer... "Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." (Matthew 26:10-13)." So much for the least of these. The works of war (ahem, I mean politics) have once again usurped the works of mercy.
Because the structures that govern this country are inherently created for injustice to persist...it does not matter who is a part of them, violence and extortion are part of their function. A voting system exists to create illusions of control of the people. The reality is that these votes are manipulated by slick advertising, non-binding campaign promises, and cheap rhetoric that borders on idolatry. I fundamentally disagree with the way our country is governed and have strong reservations about the ability of a nation-state to even hold a nonviolent position. So I withdraw my consent and support for that structure (by not voting, paying taxes, etc.) while realistically recognizing that the dismantling of that structure will take some time. The ethical mandate of a Gospel politic (concerning citizens and interaction with the State) is rooted in the works of mercy, the forgiveness of sins, the calling of conversion to state and church powers to serve the poor. That morality, because it is rooted in truth, can be spoken to any politician or person in the power elite because it is the good news. One need not vote for one or the other because any person, whether it be in a local position or the executive branch, will need reminders of what it means to be good. That is just the nature of the beast. In the meantime, I will continue to work on behalf of the poor, the tortured, the oppressed by serving them directly as best I can and organize communities that can create an alternative social structure that eliminates the power elite and their nuclear weapons. Forgiveness and self-sacrifice is the only way God can be known and the government refuses to do either.
Here's a quote from the US Bishops' "Faithful Citizenship" (2007): "When all candidates hold a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, the conscientious voter faces a dilemma. The voter may decide to take the extraordinary step of not voting for any candidate or, after careful deliberation, may decide to vote for the candidate deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position and more likely to pursue other authentic human goods."
These are extra-ordinary times. The U.S. government is an Empire of political, social, and economic violence that keeps its lot off of the blood and sweat of millions of poor, oppressed and marginalized people all over the world. Do not be fooled by patriotic whims of electoral duty...a vote for any president is a vote for war and violence. Take a stand for peace and truth, withdraw consent from bloody regimes and begin organizing local, sustainable, nonviolent communities from the ground up. Quit paying taxes to the war machine. Quit our consumer habits that rape the Earth and pillage the poor. Vote by every mile you ride your bike instead of driving the car. Vote by buying fair trade, local and organic food from cooperative projects. Vote by demanding, (with our bodies, because talk is cheap these days) every power elite to shut down Guantanamo, shut down immigration raids, shut down wars for oil, shut down discrimination and hate based on age, gender, race, orientation, shut down nuclear proliferation, shut down the prisons, shut down scandalous electoral politics and hundreds of billions of dollars of campaign finance...put that money into the Dunkin' Donuts cup of the homeless man begging for a meal, a bed, a conversation. Don't let the politicians play their games of rhetoric and backdoor devilry, don't let them spit in the faces of the widows and the orphans who are turned away empty handed because all the coffers have been emptied for Blackwater and Halliburton, don't let them bleed the Earth of the life and beauty that sustains us all. The good news here is that we don't need them. They need our votes, but more importantly, they need our dollars. Tell them to take a hike and give you dough to the young veteran back from Iraq who has been left on his own to find treatment for PTSD. Give it to the local food shelf, or better yet, invite the hungry into your home and cook a meal for them and make some new friends. Give shelter to the undocumented who are being persecuted by ideologues and bureaucrats. Change starts here, not Election Day. We don't need four more years. The revolution, the real revolution, of learning to love our neighbors AND our enemies, has been going on for thousands of years. We don't need a president or elected official to tell us how to do that. We have each other, we have community...start building it now: our lives depend on it.
Is this "rhetorical flourish," or do you dare believe what you write?
And God said to Jake, "You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you" (Luke 12:20).
If what you write is true, then our lives should never...can never be the same.
Why do we waste so much time not meaning what we say or saying what we mean...I do dare to believe this. Dare I take this on faith? Dare I write this and share it with others? These are but passing fancies.
The real rub, the task at hand: Do I dare make this belief reality - or, rather - does my life become one with the creator and creation so that this daring proposition is made real? My salvation is your salvation is her salvation is their salvation is...
Who am I to say if this is true...I've merely been blessed (or cursed, the jury is still out!) to have caught a glimpse of the banquet feast at Maryhouse. The Lord said "Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people" (Ezekiel 12:2). And we are called the rebels by the ones with the bombs and the ballots!
Spare some change? Sorry, good sir, I am on my way to vote so that you are no longer poor. I would buy you a meal but gave my last to the Obama campaign. I hope you understand, but change is on its way, if you would just wait a bit longer... "Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." (Matthew 26:10-13)." So much for the least of these. The works of war (ahem, I mean politics) have once again usurped the works of mercy.
Because the structures that govern this country are inherently created for injustice to persist...it does not matter who is a part of them, violence and extortion are part of their function. A voting system exists to create illusions of control of the people. The reality is that these votes are manipulated by slick advertising, non-binding campaign promises, and cheap rhetoric that borders on idolatry. I fundamentally disagree with the way our country is governed and have strong reservations about the ability of a nation-state to even hold a nonviolent position. So I withdraw my consent and support for that structure (by not voting, paying taxes, etc.) while realistically recognizing that the dismantling of that structure will take some time. The ethical mandate of a Gospel politic (concerning citizens and interaction with the State) is rooted in the works of mercy, the forgiveness of sins, the calling of conversion to state and church powers to serve the poor. That morality, because it is rooted in truth, can be spoken to any politician or person in the power elite because it is the good news. One need not vote for one or the other because any person, whether it be in a local position or the executive branch, will need reminders of what it means to be good. That is just the nature of the beast. In the meantime, I will continue to work on behalf of the poor, the tortured, the oppressed by serving them directly as best I can and organize communities that can create an alternative social structure that eliminates the power elite and their nuclear weapons. Forgiveness and self-sacrifice is the only way God can be known and the government refuses to do either.
19 June 2008
Truth and Reconciliation
The Dakota people came home for too short of a time to the land they were forcibly removed from by primarily White settlers and their military. A few weeks ago the 5th annual Dakota Gathering and Homecoming happened in
One of the most powerful experiences of the weekend was the Truth and Reconciliation circle. In principle, the circle is quite a simple idea. It is the intentional creation of a space to share personal stories and pain, give opportunity for those whose voices are drowned out to speak and for those who speak too much to listen, for history to be told from the perspective of the victim. But such a simple idea becomes a powerful moment. This was the first time I've sat in on any circle of this kind where oppressor and oppressed meet to share in something. For me, I was there mostly as an observer trying to understand the pains and sufferings that hundreds of years of history have granted me privilege and power while belittled and stripped the life and dignity of others.
I just want to share some things I wrote down as I listened to powerful witnesses of pain, stories of hope, and prophetic calls for redemption.
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History: It needs to be learned. Stories of genocide and crimes of humanity are what this country is really built on.
Maintenance sobriety, language, and spirituality are of the utmost importance.
Treaties are a thing of the past, made between “governing” bodies. They are impersonal and static and allow for oppression and injustice. A covenant is about relationships and learning and growing with each other.
Oppressors can learn much from those they have oppressed. They can help us understand ourselves. And the more we learn about ourselves, the more we learn about reality. We need to step out of our ignorance and ASK OTHERS TO TEACH US.
Our minds have been numbed by a materialistic culture. We have no imagination. Our minds are contaminated. The minds of the youth are pure, do not destroy or brainwash their imagination.
The consciousness for our ethical judgments was conceived and developed through an imperialistic mentality; it seeks to control and mold the way we think.
A number of women shared their personal stories and the pain of patriarchy and sexual abuse within their lives on the reservations. The voices of the oppressed within the oppressed are what hold together life and salvation. Create space for the autonomy of women and youth to be exercised, both within native culture and the dominant culture. “A Nation is not defeated until the hearts of its women are lying on the ground.”
The Earth is retaliating for all the poisoning we have done it her. She does not care if you are brown, or white, or red, or black. We all need to become part of the Earth Community and ask the question of ourselves: Who or What comes first in your life? Is the answer the Creator? God? The Earth? My Country? Myself?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It seems to me that, as folks become more and more concerned about environmental issues (such as the Mississippi River Revival and BLEW's Save Our Bluffs), there is an inherent connection that emerges to issues of human and indigenous rights. It is obvious the the life of a people is connected to the life of the land when the spirituality is rooted within an Earth Community understanding of life. The way to address the systematic and capitalistic development of natural places and open spaces is by returning them and granting access to the lives of the people who have the closest connection to the land. Many of these spaces are sacred burial sites and if shut up and listen to the stories of our unlearned history, rather than looking for government documents to "prove" what the land is, relationships and community with displaced First Nation people and the land will be restored and protected.
02 June 2008
Freedom in Nonviolence
The coercive nature of violence is the real threat to freedom and peace in the lives of all peoples in the world today. Those of us who enjoy some semblance of "freedom" to exercise certain rights or privileges that have been granted us by some structure of government or other state apparatus experience the same coercive violence as those peoples who suffer tremendously for exercising the same rights contrary to the will of the powers of domination. The soul of the Land of Liberty is dying amidst a war of liberation and fight for freedom. Freedom is not a byproduct in need of salvation through violent conflict with an enemy. Freedom is an act of faith and an act of conscience.
Nonviolence is a choice, an expression of freedom that says to the attractive, overwhelming convincing power of violence "I don't need you to solve my problems." The martyrs who stand up for peace and justice through nonviolent speech and action and suffer the consequences of repressive state and corporate violence are the real "Freedom Fighters." They are the ones who realize Freedom cannot be bought or sold, won or lost. Their freedom is not a gift but a choice.
Nonviolence is a choice, an expression of freedom that says to the attractive, overwhelming convincing power of violence "I don't need you to solve my problems." The martyrs who stand up for peace and justice through nonviolent speech and action and suffer the consequences of repressive state and corporate violence are the real "Freedom Fighters." They are the ones who realize Freedom cannot be bought or sold, won or lost. Their freedom is not a gift but a choice.
02 May 2008
Following the Nonviolent Jesus
How is it, that as Christians - and some sects of Christianity that explicitly embrace a personal call to follow Jesus, that Christians have failed to assume the Gospel nonviolence that Jesus taught to his friends and students? The early church lived the nonviolence of Jesus, by sharing their lives with the poor and marginalized and each other in small, communal lives. They resisted state violence and oppression by living outside such systems of injustice and were then martyred for their prophetic outrage to such state domination. Have we forgotten that Jesus is an enemy of the state? Jesus was even enemy of the church, because of how he called the church to conversion and conscience.
We 21st century Christians have gotten off easy. We believe in a personal Jesus that loves us dearly but makes no personal claims on how or why we live our lives. The nonviolent Jesus is one of love, sure, but also one of conflict, one of faith and conscience, one of peacemaking and works of mercy. Is this the Jesus that is followed in most of our churches and communities? Is this the Jesus that the stranger knows, the enemy knows, the oppressed know?
Let us begin to reclaim the Jesus that our Gospel stories and traditions reveal to us. Let us remember the nonviolent Jesus.
We 21st century Christians have gotten off easy. We believe in a personal Jesus that loves us dearly but makes no personal claims on how or why we live our lives. The nonviolent Jesus is one of love, sure, but also one of conflict, one of faith and conscience, one of peacemaking and works of mercy. Is this the Jesus that is followed in most of our churches and communities? Is this the Jesus that the stranger knows, the enemy knows, the oppressed know?
Let us begin to reclaim the Jesus that our Gospel stories and traditions reveal to us. Let us remember the nonviolent Jesus.
15 April 2008
Tax Resistance: Non-Cooperation
Gandhi wrote: "When a government becomes lawless in an organized manner, civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty and is the only remedy open specially to those who had no hand in the making of the Government or its laws. Another remedy there certainly is, and that is armed revolt. Civil Disobedience is a complete, effectives and bloodless substitute."
I believe our government, "the greatest purveyor of violence" in the world, to borrow some words from another prophetic advocate of nonviolence, refuses to be accountable to the people it is supposed to represent. When Dr. King spoke these words, he was assaulted by many people. People he thought were friends accused him of betrayal for expressing his non-consent for the war in Vietnam. "Injustice somewhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Because my voice is not being heard when I contact my "leaders" or large, public actions such as protests are, at best, glazed over by mainstream media, the only way this renegade war, started and continued with very little support of the the people, is to stop giving the government the money to fund the war. Over 50% of our income tax pays for military expenditures, past and current. The war in Iraq has cost, in the past 5 years, $600 billion. Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winning economist, estimates the real cost of this war to be $3 trillion, when we consider all the factors of war (Veteran's Healthcare, Rebuilding, Reparations, etc.)
I will not fund that. The money I would have paid the government has gone to the Chicago Anti-Hunger Foundation. When votes no longer matter we vote with our dollars. I vote for the works of mercy and feeding the hungry. And if it means the IRS is gonna come knocking on my door for $119, I will offer them some food too. And if they ask for a check, I'll go with them to jail. That's another work of mercy, visit the imprisoned. If we took the works of mercy as seriously as we took our 1040s and economic stimulus package, the Kingdom of God would be at hand.
Nonviolence is a way of life, it is the way of the cross, the way of truth. There is too much suffering in the world right now. Just imagine, if all of us who profess a faith in Jesus, the man who said "pick up your cross and follow me," such great suffering would redeem us.
I believe our government, "the greatest purveyor of violence" in the world, to borrow some words from another prophetic advocate of nonviolence, refuses to be accountable to the people it is supposed to represent. When Dr. King spoke these words, he was assaulted by many people. People he thought were friends accused him of betrayal for expressing his non-consent for the war in Vietnam. "Injustice somewhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Because my voice is not being heard when I contact my "leaders" or large, public actions such as protests are, at best, glazed over by mainstream media, the only way this renegade war, started and continued with very little support of the the people, is to stop giving the government the money to fund the war. Over 50% of our income tax pays for military expenditures, past and current. The war in Iraq has cost, in the past 5 years, $600 billion. Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winning economist, estimates the real cost of this war to be $3 trillion, when we consider all the factors of war (Veteran's Healthcare, Rebuilding, Reparations, etc.)
I will not fund that. The money I would have paid the government has gone to the Chicago Anti-Hunger Foundation. When votes no longer matter we vote with our dollars. I vote for the works of mercy and feeding the hungry. And if it means the IRS is gonna come knocking on my door for $119, I will offer them some food too. And if they ask for a check, I'll go with them to jail. That's another work of mercy, visit the imprisoned. If we took the works of mercy as seriously as we took our 1040s and economic stimulus package, the Kingdom of God would be at hand.
Nonviolence is a way of life, it is the way of the cross, the way of truth. There is too much suffering in the world right now. Just imagine, if all of us who profess a faith in Jesus, the man who said "pick up your cross and follow me," such great suffering would redeem us.
09 April 2008
a way?
How tedious we have become. Grasping blindly into the dark for something to hold on to, something that will resist and hold strong as the current beats endlessly against us. We are lost, we cannot find our way.
We turn to...the church? Far off realities echo in the complacency of vast pulpits that (at one time?) were reserved for those who spoke words of peace and truth.
We turn to...the law? We urge the political machine to be wary of where they tread, but our appeals to torture and war as illegal and immoral fall on the deaf ears of the proud.
We turn to...the teachers? Words escape those who used to guide us and walk with us as we lit our own lights in the world, but now fear and insecurity lay waste to projects of the mind and freedom of discourse.
We turn to...the family? Disintegrated by a racist, sexist system of injustice that turns mother against son, father against daughter, sister against brother.
We turn to...the community? What are my neighbors names?
We turn to...ourselves? Our minds have been stolen from us and imaginations killed by drugs: those prescribed for the symptoms of a culture of death and those enjoyed by self-professed enlightened ones.
We turn to...violence? Brief sentiments of security, a sense of peace (absence of war) brought because our bombs and guns are bigger: how do we stay safe once we've killed all our enemies?
We turn to...God? An abandonment to something worse than all we have ever known: for it asks, no demands, of us a humility to the truth that we so desperately seek to hide. God, we turn to you.
We turn to...the church? Far off realities echo in the complacency of vast pulpits that (at one time?) were reserved for those who spoke words of peace and truth.
We turn to...the law? We urge the political machine to be wary of where they tread, but our appeals to torture and war as illegal and immoral fall on the deaf ears of the proud.
We turn to...the teachers? Words escape those who used to guide us and walk with us as we lit our own lights in the world, but now fear and insecurity lay waste to projects of the mind and freedom of discourse.
We turn to...the family? Disintegrated by a racist, sexist system of injustice that turns mother against son, father against daughter, sister against brother.
We turn to...the community? What are my neighbors names?
We turn to...ourselves? Our minds have been stolen from us and imaginations killed by drugs: those prescribed for the symptoms of a culture of death and those enjoyed by self-professed enlightened ones.
We turn to...violence? Brief sentiments of security, a sense of peace (absence of war) brought because our bombs and guns are bigger: how do we stay safe once we've killed all our enemies?
We turn to...God? An abandonment to something worse than all we have ever known: for it asks, no demands, of us a humility to the truth that we so desperately seek to hide. God, we turn to you.
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