I HAVE SAID MANY TIMES THAT MY CARING FOR BARACK OBAMA AND HIS FAMILY IS UNCONDITIONAL. WITHIN THAT CARING, HELD JUST AS UNSHAKABLY, IS MY DISAGREEMENT WITH SOME OF HIS CHOICES. WAR CANNOT BE STOPPED BY KILLING MORE PEOPLE. THERE HAS TO BE ANOTHER WAY.
I have said many times that my caring for Barack Obama and his family is unconditional; this is the only kind of caring that makes sense to me. Within that caring, held just as unshakably, is my disagreement with some of his choices. War cannot be stopped by killing more people; there has to be another way. What is it? Nuclear power is treacherous. Is there no faith that Americans can consume less of everything, especially the rapaciously pursued "energy"?
And so on.
Talking some of this over with a friend, I asked her to make a list of all the good things Barack Obama has done in his first year. Within minutes, she had a list of about a hundred things. This was a great relief because sometimes the rhetoric against his leadership is so condemning it is as if he's done nothing at all. What is the blindness and anger that causes this unfairness? How can it become more balanced? Not for Obama's sake, he seems to be weathering his storms as well as one could, but for the sake of those of us who like to think of ourselves as people of ethics, fairness, balance. Some of us call ourselves "spiritual progressives."
At the end of some of the more virulent blasts against Obama, there is the threat of punishment: Wait until the next election! Can we learn to disagree with someone without instantly attempting to punish them? What is this but a stirring up of one's inner war? War without a military, but violence just the same. And whom do we have in mind as a replacement? With our luck, we will find ourselves stuck with another Bush--or worse--though our dream might be Dennis Kucinich, whose belief that the United States should have a Department of Peace is one with which most of us resonate. Anger makes us lose our ability to think clearly, to strategize, to plan. It is useless at this point in humanity's distress. We are headed over a cliff of our own making; blaming anyone without at the same time blaming ourselves is a waste of the time we could at least spend dancing.
Can we learn to care about our leaders in ways that support their ability to move forward as we would wish them to? Is our only mode of behavior instant rage and blame if someone cannot deconstruct in one year what has taken 500 years to build? Can we sit with ourselves and the truth of our crisis as humans long enough to see where we ourselves must lead and change?
Before traveling to Cairo, I spent a few days in Dharamsala calling on the spiritual and political leaders of Tibet in Exile. These are people who obviously know a thing or two about life, about conflict, about inner discipline and care of the personal and the planetary soul. At a dinner with the political head of Tibet in Exile, Professor Samdong Rinpoche, along with six cabinet ministers, we found ourselves talking about what it feels like to be up against opponents who might be a billion times larger than you. Which is pretty much the case of China vs. Tibet. Talking together, we soon realized that everyone in the room was working hard for the same things: feeding and clothing and teaching and healing our people and our communities. Finally, in the face of all attempts to stop us from doing what we feel we must, someone raised a glass to toast "our friends the enemy."
In Buddhist thought, one's enemy is likely to teach what we otherwise would not learn: Our enemies are so helpful in strengthening us in ways we might never have imagined, and are so likely to be a primary reason for our growth, that it is wise to recognize him or her as a friend. This is a teaching I have found profoundly useful in my own life; so much so I rarely am capable of seeing anyone as an enemy, but rather as someone who is heartbreakingly confused. I first heard "my friends the enemy" used by the Dalai Lama when he was speaking about the Chinese government. He shares this concept with Burmese spiritual warrior Aung San Suu Kyi who speaks of the possibility of becoming friends, literally, with the dictators who have held her imprisoned for years.
Inwardly bowing to Aung Sang Suu Kyi and His Holiness, I raised my glass in response to the toast. "Thank you," I said: "They ('our friends the enemy') have their job and we have ours."
That is also how I feel about every U.S. administration I have ever read about or known, all of them "our friends the enemy" to our parents and grandparents and very often to us: None of them as morally intelligent and responsive to regular Americans as the one we have now, for all its limitations. They have their job, whatever it might be. But I have mine. Mine is to work for the world that I want, in the belief that it can only be just, fair, balanced and dedicated to peace, if I am.
Alice Walker is author of the children's book Why War Is Never a Good Idea.
Posted By: Richard Kigel
Monday, March 29th 2010 at 4:00PM
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