I am reading Gary Zukav’s book, The Seat of the Soul. He talks about our culture’s admiration for the “hard-nosed” businessman and how we lose our compassion and empathy when we deny our emotions.
I feel that this is one of the turning points approaching our Western culture. The advantages of lobbyists and insider stock market tips have swayed the benefits of living in our country beyond recognition. Perpetual warfare and the practice of rewarding corporations through the “business of war” at the expense of all the world’s people including our own are unacceptable. Secret policies and abusive practices outside of the international rule of law are likewise have no part in how American people want to embrace our place in the world.
Because we all grew up with the ideals of equality and the rule of law, we are stunned as we see our American ideals perverted and eroded.
Now that we are becoming conscious once again of our feelings toward the lives of every American citizen, and the rights and privileges of being able to vote, I think we are looking even beyond those rights of law to the rights within each heart.
Because we are seeing the extreme of corruption through greed, we are becoming empowered through our awareness.
As we feel empathy and compassion toward everyone on the planet and in our country, we will be empowered to take the appropriate steps to ensure the rights to living in harmony and prosperity while removing the access to excessive advantage for a selfish misguided few.
We feel deeply in our hearts what is right and good, and we naturally want it for everyone.
We have even seen the example of South Africa, with its population of fifty-three million, as it worked through its program of “forgiveness and reconciliation” to dismantle apartheid, one of the most repressive racial practices in the world.
With our population of three hundred thirty million, we can surely emphasize the good examples around us of unselfishness, goodness, caring and sharing. We can find the leadership which is willing to honor the actions which we take when our hearts are directing us. We will surely find another way to support all of our citizens and to restore and extend the rights of all to create a truly free and unselfish life for citizens.
Then, our improved practices at home will naturally be expressed to those peoples who live in all the other countries of our common world.
© 2014 Kathryn Hardage
