My Dear Conscientious Friends - Letters to the Enmity

Letters to the Enmity

- The Touring Voice of the Citizen of the Humanity.

I have been an occaional follower of Amnesty International for most my societal-conscious life in heart, letter and, when able, monetarily .  Tried to make muyself aware of its efforts to achieve recognition of all human rights.  From my early childhood, wathcing the hippies and their fallout for the seventies, I finally heard and knew the name of AI in Junior High School. 

I wrote my first letter to a foreign government then.   I do recall teh struggle of Nelson Mandela.. mkhulu ... only years later to see him rise to greatness.... perhaps a minutae of my blessing aidied in his release... for at least the positive thought, juts in its act or being put forth... helped strengthen his resign... and enact change..  A truly magical act to empath upon. 

Years later I picked up the call again and got involved in the online efforts as well as sending the ‘you are not alone' wishes to prisoners of conscience- small cards with words of encouragement written in several languages... and a space for me to write my own snippet of hope and wisdom.  These cards are supposedly delivered to the cell or mail slot of a prisoner or oppressed person in a foreign land.

It is this concept that has me thinking.

This direct contact is such a pure form of communication.  I write my kind thought, my sincere prayer and my extension of friendship and MY words will be read in a prison cell somewhere and they will be taken to heart.  My one moment of reaching out makes it to the hands of someone who needs it; I find it enlightening, warming and immensely influrntial. 

In this capacity to reach out I would like to propose another venue for such direct and pure communication.

I will start my proposal with my position as an American citizen.  Not a popular prerspective these times.  But I cannot lie:  I am born American.  My parents, also born here from legalised citixzens.  Their parents were a mixture of immigrants and multigenerational europeanish folk.  If I so desired, I'm sure I could trace my family history to several corners of the world - like most Americans.  This being the case - of course I feel a connection to the human society first... my country being a fortunate circumstance of my birth, second. 

I am a wife and mother.  I do what I can to help care for my parents who are of poor health.  I work 40+ hours a week and pay my rent on time.  I pay my taxes and just try to get by day to day.  I vote regularly and show up for jury duty - I try to live up to my civic duties.  Where I can - I do my best to make a humanitarian difference by giving regularly and by acting on my values as best I can.

Forgive the last boring paragraphs that sound parallel to easily a couple hundred million other Americans (the other hundred who either lead dramatically more opulent or destitute existences - but I'm not one for statistics... so include an error rate of +/- 50%).  But what I wonder - don't we all parallel the lives, in some respect, of hundreds of millions, if not billions of people on earth?  Am I so different from any other citizen of the world?

I am an American.  In this arena of the 21^st Century, I cannot say that with the pride I once thought it merited.  If I were traveling abroad, would I be compelled to say it with shame, or even speak it at all?  I am ashamed to feel this dishonor. 

My forefathers fought for our freedom.  A freedom that has allowed minds like Martin Luther-King Jr., Stephen Hawking, Thomas Edison, Jonas Salk and Harriet Tubman to flourish and enrich all our lives, our souls, and our spirit. 

It has - granted - also allowed to flourish all the depravity that can go at the opposing end of that polarity.  In its purest form though, our well intentioned direction has allowed for the proliferation of free thought.  I'm pretty certain that is the freedom our forefathers intended to protect - the freedom to choose the right thing to do.

This is the freedom that is being twisted into play for the great military-industrial machine our America has become.  A machine despised by so much of the world.  (I kinda don't blame them, Yo.) 

We have indeed created a monster.  I feel as if The World is the Angry Villagers that wish to burn down the castle, the well-meaning Dr. Frankenstein and the hideous, violent monster.  We are the castle, and yes, we are the Doctor; the love and time we placed in this creature is now on the loose and more powerful than we could have ever imagined. And we simple Americans feel helpless to stop it

I don't think the citizens of the world understand how powerless we simple Americans have become. 

         I want to tell them all - PLEASE, Forgive me for what I have created.  I want to write a letter to the average citizen of Iraq, of Afghanistan, of North Korea, Iran, Lebanon, Israel, France, India, Argentina ...   I want to find my parallel sister in those foreign lands and show her - I am not evil, I am human and I am sorry!  I will do whatever I can to change the world I live in - but I am not the beast... I am only a part of its illustration.  I want to reach out and let someone know I am on the other side of the world thinking of them, and wishing them only peace, love and the promise of another day.

So this is my desire, my proposal:  To start a letter writing campaign to the every day citizen in foreign countries.  And its reciprocation would be to have embattled, afar or unknown citizens write mundane, human letters to our citizens as well.  We do not preach, we do not condemn... we share.  We share our simple beautiful lives that we cherish and embrace.  And we apologize.  We do carry the burden of the monster we created.  We do owe many people an apology for not being able to control it.  Perhaps if we own up to it, our forgiveness will be accepted - Even if it is only on the level of a general citizen.  But isn't that something?  Once we break down the illusions that the other side is evil - we can realize we all belong to the human society. 

This may not stop the machine.  But it may lessen the hate and open the avenues of discussion... and let the machine know - we don't see the world the way they do.  It is not a vat of resources and money... it is an ecology of humanity that does not deserve to be steamrolled into non-existence.