I believe in a place called hope. I believe in a place where ordinary people can do extraordinary things to help bring people back together. I believe that people have been torn apart by their ideals, which have been co-opted by powerful people whose job is to divide and conquer.
I believe in a loving God. I believe in a loving universe. I believe in a world where Jesus feeds the hungry instead of supply side economics. How can we say we are Christian, Islamic, or any other religion and think that it is a good thing to have whole sections of the world living in hunger and famine?
I believe in a world where one crazy person with a gun cannot inflict so much pain in so many people in so little time. How is it possible that in a world created by love, the right to have a gun can be used in such a way that year after year one crazy person with a gun can go on a shooting rampage and change the lives of hundreds of people? Every person who had a child lost at Colombine has had a life that has been diminished by the loss of that one child. Every person on the streets of Chicago who has lost a child to gun violence has had a life diminished by the loss of that one child. Every person in Aurora who had a child killed by a man who believed he was the Joker in a Batman movie has had their lives diminished by the loss of a child. How is it possible that a man mentally disabled enough to think he is a character in a movie is able to buy a gun in the first place? Year after year we say prayers and have vigils and nothing gets done and more of our children die. They stopped the campaign for a day but does anybody think that either the Obama campaign or the Romney campaign will take on the NRA? No. We all cry for a day or two and then we think about our own rights to protect our own houses and we allow people who shouldn’t be able to buy guns to go out and buy them. When do the gun owners who only use their guns responsibly say enough is enough and use their voices to stop the hold the NRA has on our politics?
I believe in a world where 19 people cannot fly a plane into a building and start a decade of carnage, greed, death and destruction so huge and so vast that complete religions which all started with the same universal laws pick sides and cheer on the warriors. In the 10 years since 9/11 how many people have died because of those 19 lives? How many people have decided to avenge the deaths of their children and have turned against a country which was loved in those days following 9/11 because they don’t understand why they had to lose their son or daughter to 19 hijackers a world away? I believe in a world where we honor the military but only use their services in the way that would reflect what most people believe in. In the 1940s a war was used to erase one sick man’s twisted version of the world. He was able to make an entire country believe it was in their best interest to round up an entire religion and eliminate it. I learned about that when I was in the 5th grade and yet isn’t that what we are doing to the Islamic religion today? There are loving and peaceful Muslims who love their children enough to seek peace.
I could write a book on the world issues that plague us at this time in history. There are so many things the people of the world agree about. We are peaceful, loving people who live most of our lives in obscurity. We wake up every morning all over the globe and love, feed and clothe our children. We breathe the same air that blows from one continent to the next. We make love, sleep, eat, and pray every single day with the same universal physiology. And yet, all we hear about day after day is how different we are and how it is our rights against theirs.
I am a hand embroidery artist in Upstate NY who writes a blog, how come I can figure out these huge questions and people in power who can make a difference don’t seem to ever utter the words of my typewriter? Why? Isn’t any one of these children and any one of these families important enough to take on universal themes which all religions are based on? I know I’m a little fish in a big pond called earth but really people why?
Now before you say I’m Pollyanna and only a mere mortal who embroiders for a living. I will tell you that in my little corner of the world, I make peace with my friends and relatives who believe something different than I do every day. I love them and look at all the things we have in common and I don’t really care whether they vote differently than I do. I treat everyone I meet during my ordinary days with respect, compassion and a smile. I believe every person deserves respect and compassion no matter who they are. I practice forgiveness every day and try not to hold grudges for the most part. I like to hug. I get up every morning with a song in my heart and hopefully a needle in my hand. It’s not very easy to be an artist these days. We have become a society which values nothing except money, even Michelangelo has been knocked off ten million times.
But once again I have to ask, why am I writing this blog post and nobody in power has the same words coming out of their mouths? It’s sad really, very sad. As people we value the same things, as a society we value nothing.