DO WE FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT WE FIGHT FOR AND AGAINST?

        I've seen a figure that cheers me. 76% of us want to defend democracy.
Well and good, sez I. But then a question follows hard on the heels: how many of us realize the scope of what we fight for and fight against? Absolutely, we need to act locally. We need to run for our local school boards and, once there, stand stalwartly for the teaching of truth. Historical truth and scientific truth. Both change from time to time as new discoveries are made and new perspectives take shape.
We need to have our young people go with the ascertainable facts and question everything else. We need to ground them in a history that is productive (as are nearly all histories) of both pride and shame. We need to give our young people the tools to make sure the shameful parts of our history are not repeated and are redeemed by giving the history of which we deserve to be proud new life.
But we also need to grasp the urgency of this moment and the planetary scope of this war--yes, war--in which we are currently engaged. We need to do all we can to ensure this November sees a Democratic tsunami on all--yes, all--electoral levels! If anything else happens, democracy's future in our country becomes questionable at best and at worst it'll be dead, maybe for the rest of the lives of many of us.
We fight for the emergence of something very new in human history: a multiracial, multiethnic, multi-faith democratic republic! This is something new in human history, folks!! But then, this is the U.S.A.! Haven't we always thought of ourselves as pioneers? Well, fellow-pioneers, here's a new frontier for us to cross! How about it?
There have been multiracial, etc., political units before. Mostly designated as empires, with either one absolute despot at the top or an oligarchy on whatever basis. The most recent examples were the empires of the European Great Powers ruled by European peoples. Racism was at least sort-of built into their working mechanisms as it was built into our own. We have made efforts to dismantle the racism since the 1950s. Our degree of success in this worthy endeavor is debatable, to say the least.
But no such political entity has ever been a democracy even to the extent we still are. We fight for democracy's further expansion; our enemies--yes, I wrote and I mean our enemies--are for scrapping democracy and returning to despotism. I personally believe many of them would like to crown and anoint Orange Julius Caesar (thank you, Joy my dear liege-lady!) as King-Emperor!
Our enemies are hateful people who want all the wealth and power available for themselves and fearful little dinky-johnnied ammosexuals who want themselves to be the only ones with any such power at all!
Need I also mention that the people they want holding all the power are white and male and only white and male?
Finally, while we fight this war locally, the scope of it is global. Many of us already know the extent to which India, Poland, Hungary and the Philippines have been de-democratized. What is less clear to us here is the extent to which even Mother England (and I mean only England, not Scotland) has turned traitor to our heritage of human rights and human dignity! This is something that makes me want to weep and rage as much as when I hear about open racism in Israel and how un-equitable by race our 'justice' system is here in the States!
Eight years ago, when Scotland last voted on whether to break up the UK, I was glad they voted no. As of now, when it comes up again, I will support a breakaway from England and a rejoining of Europe by Scotland. That's how bad it's gotten. O Mother England, can we hear some sane voices from you? Is anyone there seeking to rejuvenate our legacy of freedom and human dignity?
To expand that legacy means that we determine anew that no child shall go to bed hungry, no ill person will be faced with death or bankruptcy and that we will restore our 'banks of nature' so that our children, grandchildren and so forth will have living ecosystems which can support them and their descendants without undue stress. It means real equity in our justice systems and both pride in parts of our histories and a determination to redeem our shameful episodes!
We may have to put our bodies on the line, either with or without arms to fire back at our enemies. One way or another, let us prepare ourselves. Sooner of later, they may start shooting. Let's be ready to win!

THE CAINS ARE STILL POWERFUL, BUT WE MUST WIN

 A notion stays with me about the story of Cain and Abel.
I've mentioned before that Cain tilled the ground, like his father, but Abel was a herdsman. If you've had the good luck to see quotations from any medieval chronicle comparing tillers with pastoral people, you will know that tillers tend to look down on herders as 'lazy' and 'idle' compared with their hardworking, virtuous selves.
And from that I ask a question: was Cain's motivation always to show himself as somehow 'better' than his brother? Is that why he tilled the ground? Actually, Cain probably learned that from his father--and did he pick up what might have been the same attitude toward Abel? I wonder because, more and more, I feel that the desire to show oneself somehow 'better' than (fill in the blank) seems to be at the root of most of the troubles we bipeds make for ourselves and other creatures besides.
Don't mistake me here and, more importantly, don't confuse the desire just described with a passion for any particular discipline and a concomitant desire to do one's personal best in that particular occupation, job and/or field of study. The two are very different. And herding can be hard work too; it's a different kind of work which seems to require more attention to smaller details than does plowing and planting. It too can take hard labor, especially when helping a ewe, cow or goat deliver a newborn.
James Herriot has written that two things are foundational in shepherding: cleanliness and gentleness. Would this point to Abel being a gentler character than his brother? Maybe. Certainly he had to be more attentive to more mobile creatures. Anyone know how much mental activity herding requires as opposed to plowing and planting? My all-too-urbanized guess is, quite a bit more.
When we learn new things, when learning is still a joy and has not yet been entirely reduced to drudgery work to make others richer than oneself, we often want to share it with others close to us. However, those others very often take our desire to share as an attempt to set ourselves above them and, thus, results in our being slapped down: "Who CARES?!" "No one wants to hear all that useless nonsense!" "THAT doesn't put any money in the bank!" And so on, very literally, ad nauseam.
But with such an attitude as that toward knowledge which is at least new to somebody close to us, why are we surprised when we have cause to worry that so many of our fellow citizens don't really want to learn anything new? We want--indeed, we need to if we are to stay a democracy--educate our fellow citizens in such a way that learning is a lifelong joy to them and to us as well!
Does anyone reading these words know of anything that can kill, or at least stymie, that desire like 1) the impression that the learner is just trying to show what a know-all s/he is and 2) the impression that new learning is worthless unless it can bring in cash right now?
Anyhow, Cain probably made his offerings to God with more than a little of that 'superior' attitude while Abel made his sacrifice with some real joy and gratitude. And of course Cain didn't listen to God when God told him he needed to look within and try again with a better spirit but blamed his brother and murdered him. Rather like those today who feel more 'virtuous' and are angry that the larger society doesn't defer to them and who want to kill everyone who isn't a carbon copy of themselves!
However, today's Cains are also the ones with the most firepower and (mostly, but not exclusively) the most wealth. They don't enrich others from this, but only themselves. In much the same way that they weep only for themselves when they are deservedly caught in evil. And all of this stems from their desire to show themselves as 'better', 'more virtuous', than the rest of us. And as they don't comprehend tears for anyone but themselves, they don't comprehend and/or recognize innocent delight in learning and differences but only see in others what they know to be true (and will never acknowledge) about themselves. They are the Cains of our time. And the rest of us had better be ready for some seriously bloody angry reaction from these evilly envious bipeds.