Engaged As Humans...

Watching the US government and their policies triggers a good deal of things in me. There is a mixture of anger of their apparent ignorance, and of deep sadness of the suffering which is likely to be the results of their decisions.

For instance, there is immense suffering and urgent and desperate need for help among the hundreds of thousands of earthquake victims in Pakistan. The UN is urging countries to donate more, as they do not have the funding needed to meet the needs. And what does Bush focus on? Taking action against Syria for unproven involvement in the killing of one person. Of course, that needs to be addressed as well, but where is the perspective here?

There are so many examples, and new ones every day.

500,000 children die of AIDS every year, one child every minute... 16,000 children die of hunger every day...

It seems like such an incredible stupidity when americans and the US government spends tremendous amounts of money, time and energy on what is far less significant.

Only 3,000 died on 911, and although it is a tragedy for those relatively few personally impacted by it, and this too is a situation that needs to be addressed, the amount of time and money spent on this issue seems utterly absurd.

There are so many other issues in the world which impacts far more people, and desperately needs our attention.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is tremendously costly in terms of money and human life and suffering, and the voiced reasons for them have been bizarre from the beginning. The money could have alleviated so much suffering in the world, and now it is spent to fuel suffering and hatred. And so many americans, including the US government, still supports it...

And there are so many smaller instances as well, such as the bickering among government agencies following Hurricane Katrina, and the incredible stupidity and bigotry shown by the government officials who told the police to "shoot to kill" the "looters" who only were getting food for those who were desperate for food and clean water.

This is such a blindness. And such an example of what happens when people are obsessed by the belief in a thought.

Of course, there is a judgment behind this as well, but that is not a reason to not speak up for those who suffer in the world - to point out the differences in scale here.

And when we clear up our own hangups around this, we can speak up and engage even more effectively. Without making anyone into an "other"...

When we open our heart, and clear up our own hangups, we can be more fully engaged - on behalf of others and especially those without a voice themselves - the poor, the children, the non-human species, ecosystems, future generations...

Even if we are not quite "there" yet, that is no reason to not be fully engaged as we are... It is only being human.

And even if we see clearly that this too is just the play of God, and that suffering comes from belief in a thought, that too is no reason to not be fully engaged. If we use this as an excuse to sit back, then we deny our humanness...