A Celebration of Compassion--A Pep Rally for the Human Race
Richard Fairbanks
Woodacre, CA
richardfairbanks@mac.com

George, we will never forget that you stole the election.

Because you are no longer blocking the legitimate counting of votes in Florida (as opposed to demanding and getting a recount in New Mexico, for example), a thorough tally of the votes cast now shows that the only "election" you won was the 5-4 vote of a corrupt U.S. Supreme Court. The American people are a very generous and forgiving people. Therefore, it is possible you will not be sent to jail for your treasonous coup d'etat as long as you step down before you further any more of your destructive goals--only a few of which are to:

1) incite a recession to make it easier to quickly muscle through your $1.6+ trillion dollar gift to the wealthy and to corporations, a recession furthered also by your decision to

2) massively increase defense spending, which to justify you'll need to provoke a war or two (bombing Baghdad in your first month was a no-brainer) thus facilitating your plan to

3) destabilize the fragile world political balance along with, and then to rationalize, your pork-barrel missile defense shield (You're not really baiting Saddam to launch a few missiles are you?) so that in the name of "national defense" you can also ask the American people to allow you to

4) further endanger the already ailing ability of our planet to sustain us, with your unqualified support of corporations determined to compromise the quality of our lands, foods, air, and waters--solely for the sake of increasing their profits--through such highly questionable acts as drilling for more oil in Alaska, thus perpetuating our dependence upon a non-renewable resource--a dependence that we just might have to go to war once again to defend.

This negative spiral of fear, triggering a re-action, generating more fear, triggering an even-greater re-action, reflects a determined effort to continue to restrict human rights around the globe as a means of maintaining power, clearly represented by your first, extremely inflammatory act upon "taking office":

5) to condemn thousands of women to death for making what may well be the most difficult decision of their lives: to choose to not bring another child into a world in which a child dies approximately every five seconds from hunger (to mention just one cause of death), and to make that choice knowing that they now have to risk their lives in the process. So much compassion, George!

This is just one short list of your planned and perpetrated crimes against humanity. The only good that your brazen abuse of power will do is to mobilize the fair and patient people of this country and of the world.

We pray that your flagrant and cynical rape of American democracy will mark a final death rattle of a dying patriarchy. A relic whose sole interest is the amassing of wealth and power to assuage the fears that they (as individuals and as a group) did not have the emotional maturity to deal with peacefully. If, in fact, you do end up in jail for your crimes, our response to your cries will not be "get over it," but rather "Would you like some counseling, George?"

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It is time for the rest of us to finish the work we have already begun: the creation of a world where no one need live in fear. Indeed, the outrageous abuses of power listed above are a clear sign that our work is proceeding in dramatically successful ways as we witness the fear-based patriarchal systems around the world respond to any challenges to their authority as frightened animals respond when cornered. Remember, violence is simply the expression of the belief that one is absolutely helpless (however unconscious and/or masked with bravado and weapons of mass-destruction).

We do need compassion for these angry and frightened people, for in many ways, the relentless changes leading to a compassion-based world must certainly feel like impending death--the death of their dangerous yet familiar conflict-based beliefs. We must show them compassion: Throughout our brief history on this jewel of a planet, no emotionally mature being has ever displayed the desire to murder, torture, or even threaten another person--or even, in the case of our greatest teachers, any form of life of any kind.

Truly, there is no sliding scale to the value of life.

Yet to condone or ignore these now-understandable acts of cowardice is to only prolong this often-painful, long-promised transition. ("All that I have done, ye shall do--and more.") To challenge these acts and hold them to the light we must, but to do so with hatred will only continue to validate their planet-threatening belief systems. Saddam needs George right now as much as George needs Saddam.

We must speak out. Now. Always. In all ways. I have no doubt that we will achieve that which we have sought for so very long: Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All, that is. Unless we act swiftly and confidently, however, we will continue along the "high-scar-tissue route" that we were diverted onto as a result of this past election. The American people most definitely have the strength, determination, and resilience to choose a more conscious and intentional course of unfolding. The odds are small, however, that the work ahead will get easier the longer we procrastinate. WE NEED YOU TO SPEAK OUT NOW, and yes, the whole world IS watching--even if the evolution will not be televised.

As in the "hundredth-monkey syndrome," many of us working toward this inevitable goal know that it may only take "a single spark of light" to ignite this long-heralded transition. There are few with so little ego that they don't desire the honor of being the one to cast that "fateful spark." (On REALLY good days I pretend to count myself among those few.) But until that fateful moment we must all continue to cast our words and services to others. What a lottery!

Here's a thought: Is there any reason then not to take some time out now, with our fellow people(s), and begin to celebrate the inevitable: unconditional compassion both for ourselves and for each other? How about: "A Celebration of Compassion--A Pep Rally for the Human Race"? Remember,

You can't have a party until someone starts partying!

Is it not possible that, one by one, our fear-based brothers and sisters might grow weary of maintaining their death-grip of fear, desperately clinging to their outmoded, conflict-based beliefs, and secretly desire to join our celebration when they see that our words are not attacking them personally, but are directed against their misguided, planet-threatening actions? (Might it be useful here to recall that the great General Robert E. Lee taught his troops not to hate those they were fighting against?) Welcome them with open arms and tears in your eyes for it is their suffering too that has made this awesome moment possible.