1/ From neo Nazi communities to cars flowing into groups of peaceful protesters to mass shootings, our problem with violence is growing. And it will continue to grow until we face it for what it is: a character defect that’s been part of the American psyche from the beginning.
Jun 15, 2021 · 9:40 AM UTC
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2/ Groups have shadow sides just as individuals do, and when a character defect is on full display it’s an opportunity to face it, deal with it, heal it and evolve beyond it.
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3/ We can’t live our lives just wondering who will be next, what routine experiences might now be considered dangerous. We can see this as a moment for the emergence of a new peace movement in the US, built on commitment to the creation of a non-violent field of energy and action
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4/ We have to begin with brutal honesty, a willingness to face the various layers of passive as well as aggressive violence that permeate our society. Our economic policies are violent to the poor, our military policies are violent where they don’t have to be…
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5/ …our environmental policies are violent to the earth, our food & chemical policies are violent to the body, our criminal justice system is violent to POC, our incarceration system is violent to inmates, our police are often unnecessarily & even brutally violent to citizens.
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6/ All those things are true before we even get to the blood on the hands of the NRA, the insanity of all the gratuitous violence in video games and movies, and the toxic trash heap of emotional and psychological violence accumulated daily on social media.
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7/ So yes we have a problem. But any problem can be dealt with if it’s faced. And we have to face it in ourselves - not only in our country but in our hearts. To route out the violence there - the hatred and attacks on others that originate with us: that is where the work begins.
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8/ We have to heal America from the inside out, recognizing that everything we do is imprinted with the consciousness with which we do it. Our every word and every action will contribute to either the violence or the healing of the times in which live.
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9/ Who we are now is as important as what we do, our state of being as important as the state of our doing. There is no contest between personal and global transformation. The work is on both now; particularly in these dangerous and violent times, they are one and the same thing
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