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
