Where do we begin?

Where do we begin when we come to realize the severity of the atrocities being put upon the people of our world by the leaders of the United States of America, who themselves are subject to the whims and desires of the even more powerful transnational corporations? There are so many points of light! Look to the proverbial night sky; it appears as if daylight graced this midnight hour. These wars of empire must end. The current trend to cutting of aid to social programs at home and abroad must reverse itself. The slow removal of our country from the democratizing institution we know as the United Nations must stop. These acts, among others perpetuated in our name, do noting to spread democracy or show the positive potentialities of free-market capitalism to the world. It has been said these two ideas are our two greatest exports. Yet the way we advertise these products shows them to be precisely what they are: flawed ideas at best.
The way the US government has behaved, during the last five years in particular, has been contrary to the very ideas- the very foundation this country was built on. We removed ourselves from the British Empire because there were those in this land who realized that systems of men failed to provide for the masses. They understood systems of laws based on the loftiest goals of our collective humanity just might provide for those masses. There were those who faithfully believed human beings were capable of transcending the barbaric behavior that defined our past. I still believe in such a utopia. But why?
So much information available to us today tells us to be hesitant ascribing to such ideas. We are told that the age of utopias is dead. We are told that the last great battle to be waged over ideas was that between Communism and Capitalism. Capitalism won. We are often led to believe “we” won because we were right, because the ideas we build our economy upon were sound. Few times have I heard posed the question: right for whom? Rarely do I hear a critical voice ask if we were really right; few propose the idea we were simply more vicious in our beliefs and willing to sacrifice everything to win.
There are those who dare to posit such tomfoolery. They are called “radical,” “communists,” or “terrorists.” But what do these words mean? It has come time in our society to look at the very words that are used do divide and conquer us. We must seek to understand the meanings behind them. A great philosopher and educator from Brazil once said, (believe it or not, few great and original thinkers and intellectuals came from Greece) that we can define our world through words and that our world defines the meaning of our words.
I understand such ideas are not new. Jesus, Gandhi, Buddha, Confucius… they were not great writers- they were eloquent speakers and unrivaled listeners. They were also people who dared to speak of the atrocities committed in our collective name. They dared speak truth to power. They dared to stand up for their right to say “This is wrong.” And they fought for our right to do the same. These great spirits, and others like them believe in humanity’s ability to love, believe, and desire to better ourselves through non-violence and mutually beneficial cooperation. Great spirits understand that our vocation- our job as human beings, is to become more fully human. We are asked by them and one another to resist the animalistic urge to take advantage of other beings so that we may inhumanely acquire more than we need. Great spirits seek to help us become more human. This is where Godliness resides: in seeking to liberate our humanity from its violent past and become ourselves liberated in the process.