An open letter to all, organizations or individuals, who fight for positive, progressive thinking in this country and the world.

December 20, 2010

          Today, on the eve of Old Year’s Day (winter solstice), a discussion with a friend of mine turned up an interesting observation. Recently – over the past few years, but even more so over the past several months – the noisy Radical Right has become noisier, more hate-full, more desperate in their Big Lies. This is not the response of a rational, well-planned, skillfully executed group of political persuaders who hope to garner votes and support through strong and stable rhetoric. These desperate, hysterical cries are those of a wounded, cornered, dying creature.

          To use a cinematic analogy, have a look at the film The Mist, based on Stephen King’s story. The most terrifying aspect of the film is not the creatures that were “brought over from another dimension,” or whatever other explanation you might believe. The thing that scares the willies out of just about anyone is the character of Mrs. Carmody, the self-appointed prophet of God’s Retribution, and the terrified, unthinking people who follow her. Scared enough, lied-to enough, easily-led people will let someone else take over; they will sacrifice any goat/lamb/human to whatever deity will keep them safe for one more night.

          The Tea Party is the exemplar of a way of life and a pattern of thinking that is in its death throes. Nothing that these people propose or act upon will make the country safer, more prosperous, happier, or future-focused and progressively agile enough to keep up – to catch up – with the rest of the world. Everything they seek is a step backward, a refusal of accepting the reality of a new world. As a breed, as a power, as a leadership, they are dying. And they know it.

           Nothing is more dangerous than a wounded, cornered animal. They will quite literally do anything that they can. The Fourth Estate has been corrupted at every level, led by Fox “News” and other Murdoch bastions of inaccuracy and insanity. So many people have been terrorized, not by bombs or the threat of bombs, but by economic insecurity, job insecurity, and each new threat that our all-but-inescapable media has to tell us: Black people will steal from you, illegal immigrants will destroy your jobs, gay people will molest your children, terrorists are everywhere, it’s dangerous to travel, to fly, to leave your home. Stay locked up, avoid the Internet, don’t reach out to or touch anyone for fear of germs, of assault, of seeing the millions of homeless or jobless, they aren’t real anyway, or if they are, they’re probably terrorists.

          This will pass, my friends. We need you – all of you – to keep watch, to fight the lies, to bring us together to ensure that the dying creature doesn’t destroy anything else as it fights against the light. We need to make others aware, both to avoid this dangerous creature, but also to embrace the progress that dawns for all.

          In my Native American traditions, a bonfire is built in a high, clear space at dusk on Old Year’s Day – the winter solstice – and our people dance, sing, tell stories, share with each other, and greet the sun when it comes over the horizon on New Year’s Day. It’s called helping to turn the Great Medicine Wheel, to bring back the sun, to begin the new year, the new journey. The bonfire unites us, showing that there is no night so long that we cannot see it through together; we bring our own light into the new year.

         The world only spins forward. We go forward, into a new year, into the light.

          Thank you – for everything you do.