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"Dedicated to peace in our time" through healing individual and collective consciousness. Essay - America's Call September 11, 2001 Cause of Mid-East Conflict Root Cause of Conflict Part of the Solution or Problem? I love America. I love our brashness, our freedoms, our energy and our insistence that we can do anything we set our minds to. I love the feelings that well up inside me when I stand for our National Anthem.Because I know that there are countless heroes among us. Like the heroes on United Flight 93. Millions of compassionate hearts live in America, trying to make a difference in our every day lives, giving the best they have, picking themselves up off the ground and saying: I will not quit. Yet, it is May of 2004 and there are still, at last count, forty-eight active terrorist organizations in the world. And at least one of them is dedicated to destroying us. How is this possible? Are we not needed? Do we not have work that is uniquely ours, as a country, to do? America Is Needed
Yes. America is needed. You and I are needed. We have work that is uniquely ours to do. America is a place essential to the world as a place of ideas and exchange; of liberty and ideals. Even more than this, America is a place of problem solving. And the world has a lot of problems. Make no mistake: We will not be destroyed. Not by outside forces. Because we have work to do. And service to perform. As long as there is hunger, poverty, disease, despair and the mercilessness of war, we have not lived up to our potential as a people and as a nation. Nor have we adequately assisted the world to live up to its potential. If we are good as problem solvers, it is because we are here to serve as problem solvers. Our insistence; our belief in ourselves that we can do whatever we set our minds to is a quality that some have labeled arrogance. But, it is our strength. And our truth. Individually and as a nation, we are doing what we came here to do: Transcend concerns about survival and lift the world up, through example and love. And like everyone on earth—every person, every nation, for there are no exceptions—we have made mistakes while on this path. Yes, we have, collectively and historically, made terrible mistakes. To deny this is to lie to ourselves. And to extinguish the possibility of improvement. We stepped on minorities. There were times we were ignorant. Prejudiced. Ugly. Hateful. Vicious. We put loyal Japanese Americans in labor camps during WWII. We attempted to extinguish freedom of thought, speech and expression in the McCarthy era. We are the only nation on earth that dropped nuclear bombs on human beings—on civilians—in two cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yes, our nation enslaved. Lynched. Denied basic human rights. And it is looking, now, as though invading Iraq was a serious mistake, born not out of real danger, but out of arrogance and fear. Ignoring the U.N., scorning our friends and allies, is not what the world expects from us. And the abuses, now revealed, against prisoners in Iraq, and in our own prisons, at home, have the international community shaking its head in disappointment. They, and we, expect better from us. But let us not ignore the fact that America, as a whole, has developed a conscience and granted freedom. Let us not wallow in our mistakes.
Let us admit them, apologize for them, personally and collectively. Let us, openly, make whatever amends we can for them, and, then, go on. Continued guilt over the past is worse than useless. Psychologically, hanging on to it will cripple us. The fact is that, as a nation, we are still learning and changing. We want to do the right thing. So let us align ourselves, not with our egos or fears, but with love and let love guide us in doing the right thing, now. Let us focus on a goal that will lift us up, rather than knock us down. Since most of us believe in God, we believe it is possible to accomplish any goal; even the goal of creating a peaceful world. And, once we make up our minds to pursue a goal, we will never, never take no for an answer. We will never accept anything as impossible. We really do believe that, with the help of God, all things are possible. This is part of our strength. And look how blessed we have been. But I propose that our engagement in conflict is like an addiction. And, as with addictions, we need something like a twelve-step program to get ourselves, one step at a time, out of our problems. It is less than useless to point the finger and say "they started it."
Instead, we must take complete responsibility for the position in which we find ourselves. And we must go through a process of internal change that aligns us with our true purpose: to give God another vehicle for acts of love. We cannot force anyone else to take this step. But we can teach by example. Given the events of the last few years, it is crucial that we now turn our American determination, our American courage and our American heart toward a truly noble and helpful goal: Getting to the root of what causes us to be engaged in conflict. As with the twelve-step program, each of us must make an honest, courageous and unflinching assessment of our individual role in perpetuating conflict in the world. We must apologize and make amends. And we must commit to change and healing. If we care at all about our children, the fate of our nation and the fate of world—not to mention ourselves, our individual safety, happiness and future—we will, each of us, do this. On September 11th the tide seemed to turn against us, Yet we had one of our proudest moments as we pulled together. For many, the trivialities of life were stripped away. We remembered what is really important: family, loving, making the most of each moment, forgiveness. September 11th brought many of us closer to God. And God is still with us. Speaking within us—you know you hear that still small voice—God is saying: there are no impossibilities. There is a solution. And we need it. For as we have come under attack, America as a land of liberty is once again threatened not only by other nations but by our own fears. Our fears gave us a taste for blood. And, under emergency conditions—facing unknown threats—it prompted our government to enact
policies meant to protect the majority of us, but which could have the result of turning us into a land more like those we condemn for their lack of regard for individual rights. And, as the drama has continued, through a need for self-preservation, expressing ourselves in fear and anger, we were, a year ago, poised to take on the entire world. As I write this we are deeply mired in a war in Iraq that kills more of our own with each passing day. The international community continues to ask: Where was our justification? Where are the weapons of mass destruction? And how dare we invade a sovereign nation under the claim of alleviating prisoner abuses, given the fact of the torture that goes on in our own high security prisons and, recently, at our hands, in Iraqi prisons? Yet, we brought this upon ourselves when we abandoned the U.N., scorned those allies who urged prudence and became a vengeful god unto ourselves. Unfortunately, our leaders are still telling the world, a world filled with vast cultural differences: You are either with us or against us. And if you question us, you are against us. Collectively, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. We cannot kill all our enemies. Witness the vain attempts of Israel and Ireland to do so. Fighting tends to perpetuate itself, not end conflict. So what has happened? What has gone so wrong? Was not America created to be a gift to the world? And what is the real cause of this conflict between America and the Mid-East? The Cause of the Mid-East Conflict There are many theories in regard to why we were attacked and why we are embroiled in a conflict with the Mid-East. Some propose that it is because the Muslim religion is only fourteen hundred years old and is at the point, as was Christianity in its fourteenth hundred year, where adherents view everyone else as "infidels" who must either be converted or destroyed. This does not explain the hundreds of millions of peace loving Muslims who do not want to go to war against anyone. Nor does it explain the fact that there are many modern day Christians who have no tolerance for other religions. The most powerful proof of this is the Holocaust. During World War II Christians attempted to rid the world of Jews through extermination. So the claim that the religion and/or adherents of Christianity have matured and are more tolerant toward other religions than that of Muslim believers has no credibility. Others say all conflicts are over economic disparities; the "have-nots" hating the "haves." Certainly desperation breeds rash acts. But Osama Bin Laden, for example, was a billionaire. He, personally, lacked for nothing material. Yet he hated the U.S. with fierce passion and wished to destroy her. Others insist that the key to all the conflict between the U.S. and the Mid-East is the need for oil. Some believe the current war against Iraq is a power play over who shall control access to Iraqi oil reserves. Yet, the U.S. is dependent upon many nations for goods. We haven't started a war with Canada because we want her lumber. So, although all the these issues are significant and contribute to the over all conflict, they are not, themselves, the root cause. So what is the root cause of conflict? The root cause of conflict is the existence of fear and hate within the human subconscious. Unfortunately, few people know or realize that the subconscious is, primarily, calling the shots in terms of what we do. Since the subconscious is hidden, one must look for clues as to what is there. Like an iceberg, although you see very little evidence of it on the surface, it is there, with a huge presence. And if the subconscious contains enough beliefs that conflict with one's conscious desires, it will sabotage what we are, consciously, trying to accomplish. The subconscious is the key to all self-sabotage; to plans that go wrong because we were blind to unseen forces working counter to success. The reason we see so much discord is because the overall state of the world is a stew—a mix of, mostly, the results of everyone's subconscious fears and conflicting beliefs. And, to add another wrinkle, if a person's subconscious beliefs are not congruent with what he thinks are his conscious beliefs, there is even more discord within him that will express, in some way. Those inner conflicts will affect how he deals with the world and the energy he sends into it, every day. It will then contribute to every event that occurs in a family, in a neighborhood, in a state, in a country and in the world. The energy we, each, contribute to a these collectives may be small, depending on how far removed they are from us, as individuals, but what we send out; what we hold in our minds, can be the straw that broke the camel's back, in terms of making a bad situation worse. I cannot stress this too strongly: to the extent that your psyche wrestles with inner conflict, you contribute behaviors which promote conflict within these collectives. However, the reverse is also true, and this is where our hope lies: to the extent that your psyche is free from inner conflict, you contribute behaviors of peace to these collectives. And we can heal, every one of us.
We aren't taught how, in schools, but that may change. Know this: all you need do is have the intention and be willing to put in the time and effort, and God will show you the way. You will be lead so you are a force for peace, healing and joy. But, we must beware of thinking ourselves healed before we are. For example, the person who labels himself a peace advocate, yet acts in hate, condones violence "for peace" and wages a hateful war against those with whom he disagrees, is not healed. In fact, he sabotages his own cause. He accomplishes the opposite of what he claims he is trying to do. He is, quite possibly, a bigger problem than the person against whom he rails, because he is dishonest. He blames others for behaviors in which he also engages. People who support any "cause," to the point of hating, insulting or trying to injure those who do not agree with them, live in glass houses while they throw stones. Through the hate in their hearts, through their disregard for others, they contribute mightily to the situation that irks them. This is the catch–22 of being against people and ideas. The position of power that accomplishes real change is to be for what you want, not against what you don't want. The position of power that accomplishes miracles is to love so well as to be empty of hate. That can only happen if we heal ourselves of the inner discord that plagues us. Part of the Solution or the Problem? There was a saying in the nineteen sixties: if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. This is true. There are few people on earth who will not feel fear and hate under certain circumstances. And the person who cannot be touched in a positive way, by profound love, is rare. If a person never feels fear or hate it is because he is numb, in denial or has, with great intention, trained his mind to perceive the world in a way that does not require fear or hate to survive. The alarming increase in road rage, in occupational anger and in the overall feeling most people have that intolerance is growing, indicates that fear and anger are widely present in society, commanding greater and greater expression. The fact we are engaged in a war means we have fear and anger to express, in abundance. We can fear this increase in hate, violence and conflict and try to deny it. Or we can see that this emergence of our dark side, given our level of intellectual sophistication, is a call to face and heal ourselves. One thing must be made clear. We cannot waste time blaming ourselves for feeling and expressing fear and anger. The feeling of fear and anger; the ability to respond to fear and anger is imbedded in our nervous systems as a requirement for survival. It is know as "the fight or flight response" and is part of our nature. In primitive times, it served us well. It kept us alive. Therefore, our intention must not be to condemn or vilify our nature, or rid ourselves of it—for we cannot. Instead, we are to transcend it; to go the next step in our evolution as a species. If we want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem, each of us must transcend the conflicts within our own psyches. And this is the challenge each of us faces in this new century. We are called to align with the Force that powers us and learn how not to deny nor fight the duality of our human nature but make peace with it. As we make peace with the fact of our duality, the hate and fear within us will diminish. As our internal landscapes change, we will both experience and create a more peaceful world. Just as America was the land of the great experiment of Democracy and political freedom, so can we now stand up and be the land of another great experiment: Peace and freedom from conflict. We can heal the world by healing ourselves. Therefore, let us thirst for that goal with the same longing we have to keep our children safe. Let us thirst for that goal with the same thirst we have to know God.
I invite every American to step up to this challenge. For no one is too old or too young or out of shape to serve in this cause. We are all needed by God for this one. Decide today to become part of the solution to violence and conflict. The fate of the world awaits your decision. And, of the lives you save, one will be your own.
May you go with God. —Clyo Beck ©Copyright 2003, 2004, 2005 |