Honor....

 

Honor… to view with respect and high esteem… to value, appreciate, treasure…

One of the values I hold dear is to honor Life… including other people, myself, the environment, plants and animals… All…

Honor and respect go hand in hand... Companion attitudes that acknowledge everything is part of the interconnected web of life… the Oneness and Wonder of it all…

Do I agree with the views and actions of others all the time? Of course not. Yet I can still respect and honor the person and being that is, even when it seems his or her actions are destructive toward others and the environment. I do not know all that has gone into their worldview or actions in the world… I may try to understand but may never have enough experience or information to get me there… In the meantime, I can respectfully disagree without judgment about the intrinsic worth of the actor…

When we see brutality going on in the form of acting out against others, unless we are totally desensitized to it, we know in our heart it is wrong… whether it is at a personal and individual level or in the scenario of group battles, killing, and defined all-out war.

I tend to be more of a mediator and peace-maker… and would hope to find more non-aggressive ways where communication about common interests can transcend differences. And I am not naïve enough to think that this will always have the outcomes we would like to see. An individual might be subdued and placed under control from outside forces when they cannot control their actions… from the temper tantrum of a child to the aggression of a "criminal"… and even to the level of senseless actions of those with extreme ideologies trying to eliminate their neighbors.

With a child having a temper tantrum, it may be necessary to restrain the child if he or she is out of control, for their own safety and the safety of others. Providing an external sense of control along with communication may help to break the trance of the tantrum and help the child to learn self-control in time… this can be done with a firm and loving hug… along with talking it out eventually if the child is old enough to understand. As important as it is for children to have the freedom to express their feelings, they will also learn, in one way or another, that there are appropriate ways to express our feelings that do not harm ourselves or others.

When it comes to adults acting out in harmful ways toward others, we can have the same approach… often the actions result in our law enforcement members being dispatched to handle the situation… It would be nice if we could first try non-lethal methods of subduing the grown up child who has lost control… sometimes this happens… sometimes it does not… Sometimes the quick solution the police use is to fire their weapons to stop a person… There is a part of us that seems to want justice and so we can say, “He or she got what they deserved.” While I understand that we cannot let people who are hurting others continue to do so, are there not alternatives to shooting with bullets to stop the person who is lost and “out of their mind?”

The same question remains in war and group conflicts. Somehow, war arises because some nations are considered to be the law enforcement being sent in to stop the “bad guys.” We are swayed by fear and the atrocities that are reported… usually including the rape of women and the murder of innocent children. We justify killing more people through these public relations tactics and sometime even through false flag operations that sway the emotions of many to go to war.

I do not have the illusion we will change our way of acting in the world anytime soon. As a veteran who served in the Vietnam era, I know what it is like to be trained by fear and taught to shoot and kill others, although fortunately I never had to shoot my weapon in combat. I honor all our service men and women who have served and do serve, along with those who serve as police, fire fighters, and other first responders in times of need.

It seems there can be more done to try alternatives, and often these things are done. Yet this also has to be a part of our way of thinking and included in the training of responders. Proactive actions such as using intelligence to identify trends and formations of aggressive potentials, not only for defense but also to try to communicate about the issues that they may have. There can be some actions taken to stop supplies of weapons and ammunition, money, and aid of different kinds... firm embargos and sanctions agreed upon by others to make it effective. 

One of the reasons many fighters turned against the US forces was due to the intrusion in their part of the world by US decisions and policies… we have learned to refer to this as “blowback.” And some of us can understand this reaction.

Ideology is the belief that we hold…our worldview and mental constructs. Fundamentalist thinking is usually “black and white” thinking… “wrong or right”… with no gray areas… we see it in some of the ways of thinking in any population and we see it in the extremes in any political party or persuasion. The issue that faces us in these times is how to deal with an extreme ideology that has no place for pluralism… no tolerance differing ideas and beliefs… The extremist in religious conflict “know” that they will only have peace when all people think exactly alike and agree. They need the security of having everyone believe the same way… therefore the demand and choice is either to convert to their belief system or be killed. What we see in genocide is the playing out of trying to eliminate difference… this is almost always accompanied by the notion that there is great honor in killing and dying for the cause… which is usually rooted in beliefs about some other world… and higher dimension…

I am not trying to argue for or against any set of beliefs, yet some are not very conducive to getting along in the social order of our planet.

I can honor the souls of all, yet I will not hesitate to distance my own views from those who seem to lack respect or honor for the inclusiveness of Life.

Part of our cultural naiveté may be that we do not fully understand cultures who operate out of extreme fundamentalist beliefs in addition to a history of constant sectarian strife as a way of dealing with differences… and mix into that complexity the mercenaries who will fight for the side who pays them the most… which was part of the success of the “surge” the US implemented during a previous war in Iraq… The military strategy of flooding money in to pay Iraqi fighters to fight for the coalition side rather against it was one of the turning points…

And so we come back to honoring all… which includes “what is” at any moment in time… for we must see as clearly as possible what the situation is in order to provide our best response as individuals and as a collective…

We honor the children and pray for them and guide them for will see the future emerge into the present…

We honor those who have gone before… they have dealt with their moments in time and did their best to bring us to today…

We honor and pray for all of us who are here as leaders and citizens of our world doing the best we can do live out our deepest values…

We encourage all to find our identity in the deepest values and human spirit that intrinsically bonds us together in the oneness that is Life…

 

John Hutchinson, September 29, 2014