Being the Change I Wish to See

Imagine (by John Lennon)

The Staten Island PS 22 Chorus did a fabulous performance, and I am again reminded of the vital importance of the educational value of music and other non-core activities in school. The arts fill in the humanity of the core curriculum kids must learn. Without arts and humanities, they have no context or meaning for all the facts they are taught.

Imagine has always been one of my favorite songs, and I believe the ideas expressed are achievable. I hope it comes to pass sooner rather than later.

I believe the people taking to the streets around the world today to peacefully protest dictatorial governments to the large and growing economic inequality gap between the richest 1% of the population and everyone else has finally started the right conversation.

In the U.S., protesters turned the question of why are the poor so poor into why are the rich so rich? How did that happen? The vast majority of us work very hard at our jobs and we don’t get rich. Why not? Those are better questions.

After the last 30 years of trickle-down economics (the economics of greed), the only thing that trickled down is growing economic stress on the middle class, and the middle class shrinking into poverty with stagnant income as wealth trickles up.

It’s become a crime to be poor in this world. What did the poor ever do to anyone to attract such hatred and wrath? Perhaps remind the non-philanthropic mega-rich just how rich they are and how unfair and unjust that is? Do they see how unsustainable the current condition of our planet and its inhabitants has become?

Could greed be educated out of, or at least tempered significantly, in greed-prone people with strong, mandatory programs in the arts and humanities? (By mandatory, I mean students have to pick at least one thing they like, and they can change their minds if their first choice doesn’t work for them).

Could teaching 4th graders to explore their musical and artistic talents give them something far deeper and more meaningful than any amount of money? Could teaching literature and a love of reading make kids more aware and empathetic of the human condition? Could kids who are talented in writing, painting, drawing, singing, dancing, etc., use their gifts to better the world? Yes.

Perhaps the greedy are greedy because they have nothing to fill some void within them. No amount of money can produce the feeling of sheer ecstasy at playing a piece of music beautifully, or nailing a performance on stage. Nothing beats the deep sense of accomplishment of writing or painting a masterpiece, or performing a character in a play with perfection. All these examples are about deep love, and it is intangible. Money can’t buy the love the arts directly feed our souls.

We still need the laws back that prevent the greedy from chewing up the world and spitting it into oblivion, but putting the arts back in schools might help, too.

Technorati Tags: arts and humanities, Education, Education reform ideas, greed, peace, Poverty, Social Change, the 99%, top 1%

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I am truly shocked and extremely angry that President-elect Barack Obama would extend an invitation to as divisive a pastor as Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California to give the invocation at his inauguration.

The civil rights leader and minister, Rev. Joseph E. Lowery (age 87), who will give the benediction, has been completely overshadowed because of the Rick Warren miscalculation. Rev. Lowery is a progressive minister who prefers to err on the side of inclusion when ministering to God’s children. He welcomes all people into his ministry and beliefs, including gays and lesbians. He preaches God’s love over specific Bible quotes others use to exclude people from their ministries. Being African American and from the civil rights era, he knows just how Bible verses can be used to exclude and denigrate people. Rev. Lowery is the kind of minister who should be giving the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration. The first voice of faith we should hear is the voice of love, compassion and inclusion. We should not hear the voice of intolerance, exclusion and hate from Mr. Warren.

The following video sums up the issue well:

Mr. Warren equates gays and lesbians with pedophiles and incest, has announced on Dateline NBC in an interview with Ann Curry that he has some rather depraved sexual appetites of his own, runs a “cure for being gay” ministry program, and does not allow gays or lesbians to become members of his church. Rev. Warren is more than against gay marriage rights. He is clearly against gays and lesbians period and his church demonstrates he is completely intolerant.

On an unrelated, but much more disturbing, note, Mr. Warren has called for the assassination of the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In an era when our country greatly desires and needs better relations with Iran, Mr. Warren has been so bold as to pass judgment (a death sentence) on President Ahmadinejad. How are we to improve relations with Iran and the rest of the world if America continues to put people of intolerance and hubris at the forefront of important public events?

Mr. Warren equates the legal procedure of abortion and a woman’s right to choose to the Nazi Holocaust. The Holocaust murders were directed at Jews, gays, the mentally ill, the elderly, non-Aryans, and anyone who didn’t meet with Hitler’s world view. The Nazis did not allow abortions for ethnic Germans of Aryan descent. A single Aryan mother of an Aryan child was supported by the state. All women of Aryan descent were encouraged to have Aryan children, married or not. If a woman became pregnant by a non-Aryan, she was granted an abortion and if the father could be found, he was placed in a concentration camp. If a child was born to Aryan parents with some defect, the child was murdered and the parents sterilized or worse, sent to a concentration camp while their Aryan heritage was investigated. It was believed if you were of truly Aryan roots, you could not have defective children, and if you did, you must not be Aryan after all.

I wonder if Mr. Warren believes himself and his followers to be superior to the rest of us in the eyes of God? Perhaps if a couple in his following has a gay or lesbian child, they must not be true Christians in his definition of the word? Perhaps he will go further in his intolerance and remove parents of gays and lesbians from his congregation?

Mr. Warren believes only 2% of the population is gay (science measures it at 10%) and he believes being gay is a disease. Believing being gay is a disease that can be cured is nothing less than quackery. The American Psychiatric Association, American Medical Association, American Psychological Association and the American Pediatric Association have clearly shown and have rewritten their diagnostic guidelines stating that being homosexual is a normal part of being human and is not a deviant behavior or a disease of any kind. It may not be the average human experience, but it is normal and natural that some people are gay and that it isn’t a choice. Mr. Warren also does not believe in evolution. What happened to science being a guiding principal in the Obama administration?

President-elect Obama says he is a staunch supporter of gay and lesbian equal rights, though he has said he is against gay marriage rights. Which is it, Mr. President-elect? Are you for or against equal rights for gays and lesbians?

Replace “gay and lesbian” with “black” or “interracial” and see how you feel. I do not believe the President-elect would invite a neo-Nazi or racist to pray at his inauguration. Why is he inviting a bigot who hates gays and lesbians?

I suggest President-elect Obama and his transition team check their math. I believe they have grossly underestimated the feelings of LGBT Americans, their supporters, and liberals and progressives who worked so hard to get Mr. Obama elected. We are not in the mood to be marginalized in the name of “inclusiveness” when that means someone who hates gays and lesbians, and believes we are equivalent to child molesters and a disease that needs to be eradicated is what is meant by “inclusive”.

This whole thing smacks of the Jeremiah Wright debacle from which Mr. Obama had to distance himself. How many times will Rick Warren rear his ugly head and how much negative press does that man have to bring in the coming month before Mr. Obama will dismiss him? Only time will tell.

I also suggest President-elect Obama give the honor of the invocation at his inauguration to Rev. Lowery, and if he must keep Mr. Warren in the inauguration day line-up, have him give a short benediction and be ready to cut him off if he strays into intolerant territory. I, and many others, would prefer that Mr. Warren be dropped from the program and the honor of both the invocation and benediction be given to Rev. Lowery.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, being the change i wish to see, bigot, Civil Rights and Justice, gay and lesbian, gay marriage, Inauguration Invocation, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Rick Warren, Social Change

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