Today is the birthday of the great writer and visionary James Baldwin. I want to invite us to celebrate this man (if you arent already!), his vision, his courage, his passion and fire, his critique and his ability- after, before and within - to make space for love. I think of how the presence in his words and works have taught me. How it forced me to realize that we do not have a country so much as we are in the process of forging one, and that our great challenge is to grow up - to face the myths we tell ourselves, and to turn and squarely face the past that is living now in our present. His testimony taught me that what we (as a nation and individually) so often fear of others is but a projection that originates within our own being, an invention that, ironically and tragically, can come to dominate us. And that while we invent, there are others that suffer the very real consequences of our inventions, and their fear is not a projection. The invention becomes fact, becomes policy, becomes institution, becomes racial profiling, becomes stand your ground, becomes militarization in the middle east... Of his many messages, most were sublimely simple; like that we cannot grow and mature, neither individually nor as a nation, if we lie to ourselves. If we could but have the courage to stop and face the other, the other would have much to tell us about ourselves. That we are, ultimately, brothers and sisters... Though Baldwin didnt write much on the realities that faced native peoples, his words are equally relevant in regards to the comparison of myth to actual history. Only in 2009 was there a first fledgling attempt by the US government to face its past, to reconcile its professed principles with the facts of its course. But who knows of it? It was back page news. Happy Birthday James, may we all grow up a little more this year! firstpeoples.org/wp/tag/the-apology-to-the-native-peoples-of-the-united-states/
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 22:29:20 +0000
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