On the occasion of the 225th Anniversary
of the Declaration of Independence (July 4,
2001) The title comes from remarks made on June 30, 2001 by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama of Tibet, in Trent, Italy at the Synthesis Dialogues II, * when he spoke about the harsh reality facing his homeland because of the Chinese occupation. All the weight of more than 40 years of having to deal with an on-going application of genocidal policies by the Chinese government is inherent in these four simple, yet powerful, words. Personally, my heart was touched deeply, and once more I found myself asking, ¡°What more can I do to save Tibet and its extraordinary Buddhist culture?¡± Exploring this inner query leads me to realize that, ¡°My Nation is dying.¡± The United States of America is, as I perceive it, out of touch with its original vision. ¡°We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with inherent and inalienable
rights, that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of Happiness. ¡and for the
support of this declaration, we mutually pledge
to each other our lives,our futures,and our
sacred honor,¡± When
Jefferson wrote the words, ¡°life, liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness,¡± he meant by
¡°life¡± the individual right to have food,
clothing, a home and work; by ¡°liberty¡±
he meant the right to think and speak freely
as well as the right to hold religious convictions
of any and all persuasions without fear of
persecution; and by, ¡°the pursuit of happiness,¡±
he intended that with the assurance of life
and liberty, every citizen would have the
opportunity to find meaning and purpose, and
thereby a deep and abiding joy. America
has lost the connection to its founding roots
and is floundering in a rising sea of chaos
caused by the presence of corpocracy, which
engulfs and devours individual liberties,
as much as it increasingly creates the cancerous
growth of an endless stream of irrelevant
product choices and mindless distractions. Our government is being controlled
by corporate interests through lobbying, PAC¡¯s,
and heavy campaign contributions. Federal agencies, whose responsibilities
are to serve the public, often act to benefit
the companies they are supposed to oversee. Former government
officials find executive positions with defense
contractors or become lobbyists, reaping great
financial wealth, because of their taxpayer-subsidized
previous employment. This, in a
much-abbreviated version, is the corpocracy. With
six percent of the world¡¯s population, we
are consuming upwards of 40% of the world¡¯s
resources because of our addiction to consumerism.
This penchant for economic growth is
supported by the sacrifice of the eco-system
and the ozone layer; the rape of natural resources;
the obliteration of indigenous cultures; the
monopolization of products and services in
the name of the ¡°free market,¡± which ironically
requires exorbitant capital to enter and engage;
the control of the communications media by
a few behemoth corporations; the absence of
ethics in the applications of capitalist principles
where ¡°the bottom line¡± and quarterly dividends
outweigh human values; and the on-going purchase
of political largesse by corporate interests
at the expense of the people¡¯s ¡°life, liberty,
and the pursuit of Happiness.¡± In short,
we Americans are aboard a rudderless ship
led by a crazed captain (the corpocracy),
whose sole guiding principle is economic-expediency
without regard to the implications for future
generations.
It is a rampant tyranny of the
future.
It calls to mind Jefferson¡¯s eloquent
statement, ¡°I have sworn upon the altar of
God, eternal hostility against every form
of tyranny over the mind of man.¡± I
recognize in myself the need to speak out
and reveal that the emperor has no clothes,
the foxes are in the hen house, and the whole
enterprise is a house of cards, begging for
a recovery of meaning and purpose, a return
to the spiritual underpinnings of American
democratic ideals as set forth in 1776 within
the Declaration of Independence. It is a time
to move beyond blame and judgment, while not
ignoring the dangerous erosion of civil liberties
and personal freedoms, which have occurred
during the past quarter century. Compassion
and kindness are the soft weapons required
to overcome the unconsciousness, which has
allowed it to occur. At the same
time, the age of leaders is over, and each
of us must avail ourselves of the leader within. Working together,
each from the deepest center of our hearts
and using our intelligence, we can transform
the present malaise and perhaps, in the end,
realize the true attainment of a government
and a nation created of, by, and for the people. Some
of the more insidious attacks on the Bill
of Rights and our personal freedoms worthy
of mention include the following: q The recent 2000 electoral debacle, wherein the popular vote majority was usurped by the Electoral College and the Supreme Court, resulting in the election being given to a man, who in total, received votes from less than 30% of the eligible electorate, represents a quintessential example of the most blatant attack on our democratic freedoms. q One of the few democratically progressive ideas to emerge from the Federal Communications Commission in the past two decades was the proposal to establish more than 1000 low power FM stations in communities around the U.S. However, with the combined lobbying weight of the National Association of Broadcasters, as well as the ever more conservative National Public Radio, this information empowering measure was greatly reduced in size and scope. This is merely another example of what has become the greatest theft in American history, that of stealing the airwaves from the public, and gifting them to the mediaopolies (through deregulation), along with the wholesale giveaway of the new communications technologies ($70 billion value), which has gone largely unreported, and is generally unknown to the public. q The implementation of nuclear energy as a power source has created an accompanying police state to maintain its security, and at the same time has resulted in toxic waste that will endure for 500 generations. q Genetically modified food and irradiated food have now entered the mainstream marketplace without people being afforded a choice. q The United States, along with Iraq and China, lead the world in capital punishment and the U.S. has become number one in the per capita incarceration of its citizens, including the jailing of children, who are being tried as adults now as low as the age of 12. Also, more than 70% of those in prison are there for victimless crimes. q More than 45 million U.S. citizens are without health care insurance, not to mention access to adequate health care. q Through imflation the average value of the take-home pay for the worker in America has actually gone down since 1970, further diminishing the middle class and widening the gap between rich and poor. q A relentless pursuit of profit has decimated old growth forests to the point where only 3% are left for future generations. The small farmer, viewed as the bedrock of American democratic ideals by no less than Thomas Jefferson, is disappearing in the face of megalithic agri-business. Perhaps even more tragic is the loss of ¡°slow knowledge,¡± that these farmers carry from generations of tilling the same soil. q Illiteracy rates are climbing and it costs $30,000 a year to attend a major university, making higher education available only to the few who can afford it instead of the many. Also, much of higher education is now emphasizing the professional career track at the expense of the humanities and social sciences, thereby transforming universities into Dilbert factories for corporate America. Again, access to universal education was an important part of America¡¯s founding vision. q The 1980¡¯s savings and loan bankruptcy scandal has cost taxpayers literally hundreds of billions of dollars, while largely sparing the corporate culprits who caused it in the first place. q Energy companies supplying California (one-sixth of the U.S. population) have manipulated their generating plant output in order to raise prices as much as 2000%, benefiting a few shareholders at the expense of millions of electrical ratepayers. q
A rampant cynicism and apathy
pervades the U.S. electorate to the point
where the 1996 turnout of voting Americans
had declined to 54%, the lowest ever for a
presidential election and the 18-24 age group
had fallen to 32%, the lowest of any age group. Since
its inception as a nation, America has served
as a beacon of freedom and democracy to oppressed
people throughout the world, inspiring a steady
stream of immigrants to its shores. Tibet
has also become a radiant symbol since its
occupation by China, shining out beyond the
horrors of genocidal tyranny, which threatens
to eradicate a thousand year culture rooted
in spirituality, thereby robbing us all of
an irreplaceable treasure.
In saving Tibet, we may also save the
world, and most especially ourselves. ¡°For what
does it profit a man if he gain the whole
world, and yet lose his own soul?¡± Tibetan
Buddhism, the religion of Tibet, has developed
a highly effective technology for the individual
mind and heart while the United States was
formed around the democratic intentions as
stated in the Declaration of Independence,
a technology for the collective mind
and heart.
We are still short of fulfilling the
realization of a true democratic republic
(we¡¯re only 225 years old as a nation), but
the dream is alive and well even in the face
of many challenges.
To realize this dream we need the wisdom
Tibet offers and therein lay the mutual connection
between our national destinies, which are
also intertwined with the planetary future. So,
in the last analysis, the present reality
turns us back on ourselves to what each of
us as individuals can do to make a difference
in our own life.
As I change, the world changes, because
we¡¯re interconnected. At the same
time as I work on myself, I must do everything
I can to effect a difference in the Tibetan
situation as well as the American reality.
Both are inter-related in a mysterious
way.
Whatever inner wisdom I may discover
needs to manifest through my external actions. The times
require an activist spirituality, which engages
the challenges we face in the world. Besides
the communication and broadcast work I already
do, here¡¯s how I am addressing both the increasingly
critical Tibetan situation and the deteriorating
American dream. u Maintain membership in the International Campaign for Tibet, which publicizes a newsletter and other periodic news releases, (www.savetibet.org), as well as participating with the International Tibet Support Network (www.tibet.org). u Stay politically active in my local community in a variety of different ways i.e. helped start the local community radio station in Mendocino County; served on the county-wide Self-Esteem and Personal Responsibility Commission; write letters to the editor of the local papers; support creative activities for young people, etc. u Stay abreast of legislative activities affecting my community, state and nation and write (where appropriate) to my local, state and federal legislators regularly (personal letters are demonstrably more effective than e-mail or faxes). u Speak out wherever and whenever appropriate without being a bore (hopefully) in both personal and public situations. u Scan and read various publications such as The Nation, In These Times, Z Magazine, The Progressive, The Washington Spectator, The Christian Science Monitor, Utne Reader, Yes!, and The Sun. u Financially contribute to various organizations working to positively affect Tibet, America and the planet. u Vote in every election. u Write letters to the editors of various publications on behalf of important issues. u Critique the blatantly negative stories, as well as praise the media when it reports a positive story u
Receive relevant daily internet news
briefs such as the NY Times headlines and
editorials (www.nytimes.org),
global stories from UNWire (www.unfoundation.org),
ecology related updates from Grist Magazine
(www.gristmagazine.com),
socially relevant communications related news
from the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org)
and Move On, a site that facilitates countering
the influence of monied interests and partisan
extremes (www.moveon.org). *Synthesis Dialogues II was convened and sponsored by The Association for Global New Thought (www.agnt.org) © 2001. Michael A. Toms. All Rights Reserved
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