WHERE I STAND: A REAPPRAISAL

Surrounded by the turmoil, fear and confusion of this present moment in time, I feel the need to restore my own inner sense of stability amid the chaos. There are moments--more than moments, to be honest--when I feel as though I am about to be caught up in the swirl of social and political unrest, lose my footing, and be swept away. So it's a good moment to find my ground again and take measure of where I stand.

As I have recalled perhaps too often in the past in these virtual pages of The Buddha Diaries, I was born three years before the start of World War II in the working-class, coal-mining city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The community was still gripped in the wake of the Great Depression. Unemployment, poverty and hunger were rife in what were dreadfully known, in those days,  as"the slums." My father, then a young clergyman, was the vicar of St. Cuthbert's church, a man whose social conscience and compassion for his parishioners informed his lifelong dedication to the church and his allegiance to the Labour Party and its socialist agenda. 

He remained a Christian and a conscientious socialist throughout his life, and was the source of the values I inherited. Though I long ago abandoned his particular religious faith, I have never wavered in my aspiration for social justice and my belief in the essential equal value of all human beings. In crossing the Atlantic in 1962 and coming to the United States for the first time in 1964, I aimed to leave behind me the scourge of class-consciousness and privilege--even, no, especially, with the knowledge that I myself had benefited from both. Throughout those early years in America, the 1960s, I saw reason to hope that this was true. There were, you will recall, the flower children--Peace & Love!--and the widespread student demonstrations of conscience against the travesty of the Viet Nam war. There was the vibrant civil rights movement. There were, until hatred ended both their lives, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy... 

My belief in America's ideals faltered, for the first time substantially I think, with the election of Richard Nixon in 1968. I was taken aback to see that what I judged to be that man's manipulative cunning and his extreme conservatism were rewarded by the American electorate. Then came Proposition 13 in California, soon followed by Ronald Reagan. I saw the start of that great spirit of individualism that inspired the founding documents of this country being perverted into the fetish of petty me-firstism that has gripped most conservative philosophy and politics ever since. Proposition 13--I have benefited from that, too!--was the outcome of the tax revolt that started the diversion of public funds from schools and vital social services of all kinds into the pockets of the privileged. The purposeful, intentional and relentless strangling of government and the decline in public services has continued ever since.

There have been temporary hitches from this massive slide into what passes for conservatism along the way since then--perhaps most notable was Obama's Affordable Care Act--but the degeneration into full-blown Tr*mpism should have come as no surprise. It seems, indeed, the logical conclusion of what Howard Jarvis, the John Birch Society and other basically libertarian factions initiated all those years ago. Disgraceful as I judge it to be, the Republican Party's servile capitulation to the purely solipsistic rule of one man and the fanatical "base" he has hoodwinked into following him merely protracts a direct line that has persisted in this country for now half a century.

Where do I stand, then? I stand, first, against the toleration of poverty, hunger, preventable illness and other social ills as concomitant and unavoidable evils. I stand against the use of state or individual power to perpetuate oppression. I stand against the enrichment of the few if it's the cause of impoverishment for the many. I stand against the empowerment of the few if it's the cause of disempowerment for the many. I stand against all forms of violence and the use of oppressive military force. I stand against cruelty. I stand against bullying, the abuse of power. I stand against the kind of discrimination or prejudice that deprives others of their human value. I stand against verbal abuse, lies, misrepresentation, insults, denigration. I stand against arrogance and misappropriation of property or power. I stand against the pain and damage caused by the abuse of intoxicants or drugs. 

And what do I stand for? I still stand for the values for which my father stood. I stand for social justice, for the equal treatment under the law for all human beings. I stand for the care and protection of those who for whatever reason are unable to take care of themselves, through no fault of their own. I stand for the right of every person to receive needed health care, shelter, nourishment, and the blessings of education to the highest of their ability. I stand for the responsibility of government to address, assure, and underwrite those rights. 

I stand for peace between people as between nations, and for the mutual tolerance, understanding, and forgiveness that allows it.

I also stand for the individual freedom of all human beings, when exercised in the context of an understanding and acceptance of responsibility to our fellow human beings. I stand, then, for personal integrity, which I believe to be the unimpeded exercise of that freedom, and within that context. I stand for consciousness, and conscientiousness, and conscience. I stand for the clarity of both mind and heart, for goodwill, kindness, love, and for the mindful practice of those qualities. I stand for everything that can help alleviate suffering, whether physical or emotional, whether for myself or others. 

If I strive to maintain integrity with these principles I embrace, it is with the admission that I am not always able to live up to them; but at least when I fail, I aspire to the wisdom to recognize my failure and dedicate myself once again to their practice. And to remind myself, especially in times of turmoil and confusion, that this is the sacred ground on which I stand.