View crisis as time for change
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Editor,
A paragraph from Campaign for America’s Future blog titled, “Where the Hell is the Outrage?” posted July 9 by Richard Eskow reads: “Middle-class wages are stagnant. Unemployment is stalled at record levels. College education is leading to debt servitude and job insecurity. Millions of unemployed Americans have essentially been abandoned by their government. Poverty is soaring. Bankers break the law with impunity, are bailed out, and go on breaking the law richer than they were before.”
There are probably quite few other outrageous things happening within our nation that many of us could add to this list. So where are we right now in our “evolution of humanity,” in our dealing with the power of huge money interests, and with the fear and greed driving so much in America today?
It takes a 98-year-old visionary and author, in the person of Grace Lee Boggs, to give us words we should pay close attention to which can help us begin to change our thinking from fear and hopelessness, often leading to ineffective fixes, to elements of what she terms “a new dream.”
Boggs, a six-decade resident of Detroit, was recently interviewed on PBS by Tavis Smiley. Here, in just a few sentences, is the essence and tone of what she said. It is worth reading and taking into our minds and hearts.
“Detroit, for example, can provide a model for change. This is not the end of anything. We are creating a whole new post-industrial society in America. This is our great opportunity for change. We are at an important turning point in the evolution of humanity.
“We are shaking the world with a new dream.” She sees this turning point “as crucial and culturally important as the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture and from agriculture to industry.”
As with all great visionaries like Grace Lee Boggs, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Jesus, to name a few, their visions always include calls for compassion, equality, love, peace, generosity, and using our brains wisely.
I believe these “calls” are essential in America’s collective minds as we function in this “new dream” Grace Lee Boggs is talking about. Food for thought.
Bob McClellan
Polson
