Freedom #02: the Right to Forgive … (07/14/13)
RIGHT #02: the Right to FORGIVE
“The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.” ~ Karl Marx
I remember when I was a young teenager in Middle School (in Alabama, no less) how we used to make fun of other kids by calling them “communists” or “commies”. The Cold War was in full swing back then, and about the only thing folks thought they new about Karl Marx was that he was the father of the “evil empire”. Essentially, Karl Marx was a joke …
Not so much anymore.
In fact, the more we open our eyes to the increasingly Machiavellian ways our governments are meddling in our lives, the more the wisdom of Marx becomes more poignant.
AND YET, no matter what “they” do to you & yours — no matter what freedoms “they” trample or what dreams “they” shatter, “they” can never take away your 2nd Inalienable Right: the Right to Forgive.
*The government can subsidize Monsanto’s poisoning of your food supply, and yet nothing can stop you from forgiving the that evil and getting on with finding healthy alternatives to feeding your family.
The government can forever tarnish what Goodness was left in America’s international reputation with its senseless war-mongering and its evil drone-assassinations, and yet nothing can stop you from forgiving those primitive cruelties and going forth to be a Force for Peace in your community.
The government can take the side of the rich over the poor, and the powerful over the weak; ignoring or disrupting all avenues of protest, and yet nothing can stop you from forgiving them that injustice, and then coming together with your neighbors to do for each other what the government should have long since been doing.
The government can even one day soon begin to blackball or torture or even assassinate the brave men & women who are standing up for Justice & Freedom around the world, and yet nothing can stop you from forgiving that wickedness, and then continuing to rise up to Be the Change you want to see.
There is little doubt that revolution is on its way to American shores. Only the most cursory of glances at human history will show that this is true. Unless our politicians suddenly wake up to the fact they are the servants of the people and start acting accordingly, then the people will have no choice but to rise up against them and replace them.
This is not “radical talk”, my Friends — this is realism.
And as America rapidly approaches that day, I would gently remind you all that aggressive means always breed aggressive ends; that violent revolutions always install replacement governments that are ultimately violent; that anger directed at any evil — however justified it may be — only encourages that evil to defend self; never to awaken to Peace or Justice.
No, if there is to be a revolutionary success in your future, it must be a revolution that is calm and a revolution that is Peace-full. It must be a revolution of your mind more than it is one of your might. It must be a revolution grounded first & foremost in a compassionate forgiveness for the ignorance of your oppressors …
And it must be a revolution built not in your country’s capitols, but rather in its backwaters and townships; in its neighborhoods and within its city-blocks.
In America, if not also in other lands all over the world, a new nation is waiting to be re-made; a nation of Acceptance, a nation of Oneness, and a nation of true Strength … the Strength of Kindness.
And this new nation will rise sooner than you think …
… and you will be the ones who literally make it so.
Amen.
“Forgiveness in no way requires that you trust the one you forgive … Forgiveness does not excuse anything … You may have to declare your forgiveness a hundred times the first day and the second day, but the third day will be less and each day after, until one day you will realize that you have forgiven completely. And then one day you will pray for the wholeness of the other … and then that wholeness will come.” ~ inspired by William Paul Young
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