This past week marked the passing of Rosa Parks, an individual who knew and embodied courage. I’ve been reflecting on what lessons Rosa left for us and how we’ve gotten off-course in our struggle for social and economic justice. I’ve also been considering the work of all who fight for our civil rights and the fact that I’ve given too much of this work to others. Left to the hands of just a few champions, working for true civil rights for all individuals is a fight and a burden. However, if each of us is dedicated to the spirit of equality and love, it ceases to be a struggle. Instead, it becomes a gift that we give to others and ourselves.
We’re nowhere close to approaching this ideal. And the small, but vocally cynical gremlin sitting on my shoulder shouts that it’s just naive, utopian thinking. That gremlin is very persuasive and I’ve believed him for a little too long. I’m realizing that he’s doing his best to keep me safe and comfortable and small like him. But this is all crap to keep me from the difficult and potentially hazardous work of initiating my own efforts to create a soulfully-connected world around me.
So, I’ve sought out spiritual mentors to serve as a counter-balance to my cynicism. Happily, I’ve found inspiration from Frances Moore Lappé. This week, she implores us to take up Rosa’s example and re-embrace our sense of humanity:
So in this historical epoch I believe we must take our cue from Rosa Parks: Our survival depends on not going along, not cooperating with assumptions that violate our deepest sensibilities. And not going along means generating conflict, or at least surfacing it.
The how-to’s of generating and surfacing conflict creatively, I realized, must become just as exalted a skill-set as is creatively resolving conflict. Rosa Parks didn’t on impulse decide one day to say “no.†She’d been training in this art for some time.
At a recent conference hosted by my association, I was blessed to meet Frances Moore Lappé who was the keynote speaker. Her first
gift to us was Diet for a Small Planet in 1971…her most recent gift
is Democracy’s Edge. To be honest, I had never heard of her up to a
couple of months ago and I had no idea of the work she has done in her
life. Yet, the experience of listening to her on stage and afterward in
a more informal setting was deeply stirring. She has such an authentic
and genuine soul; I hope that I am able to meet her again. Of the many things that Frances left with me, perhaps the most significant was the power that each of us has as a singular being to create change in the world. More on this in a later post…
Marianne, I would agree that some things have changed for the better. The fact that our children don't have to deal with segregation; perhaps even better is the fact that my oldest daughter recently said that disliking someone just because they are black makes no sense.
Yet, I look around and continue to see challenges to our sense of democracy. The fact that there is a real movement to end the separation of church and state in favor of a theocracy; the fact that gays and lesbians continue to suffer scorn rather than find tolerance; the fact that corporations have ignored their responsibilities to their community by continuing to poison the earth; the fact that the current government condones torture and violence.
I'll admit that I've been careless in my citizenship. I've allowed myself to be complacent with too much. Those who have power right now crave my cynicism...it's what allows them to trample justice and continue to generate the anti-Americanism that, unfortunately, seems to be rather well deserved at times.
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