Sometimes other people disappoint us.  Sometimes people we don’t even personally know let us down and cause us pain.  At those times we have a choice to make:  reach out to the offending party in peace to keep open the lines of communication or declare all-out war and severe any hope of connection.

Perhaps we can take a lesson from the creative response of one injured individual.  He used Craigs List to reach out, offering connection, vulnerably sharing his pain while holding firm to his principles.  Here is exemplary letter, courtesy of Best of Craigs List.

This may look long, but the subtlety is mostly in the details.  I assure you every word contributes to the whole.

Dear Vice President Cheney,

  Now that your term of power is nearing its “official” end (he he), which accomplishment makes you prouder:  the nearly complete dismantling of constitutional democracy or bringing torture back into mainstream acceptance?

                                                            Complete Idiot

Dear Complete Idiot,

   One hand rubs the other, he he.  And gleefully, too.  On one hand, torture terrifies people and makes them eager to give up their power.  On the other hand, committing torture with impunity requires weaseling out of hundreds of years of western jurisprudence.  I’m going to say it’s a toss-up, although on a personal level, of course, torture is a lot more fun.

Dear Vice President Cheney,

   At what point in your presidency did it become obvious to you that were going to get away with doing anything you wanted without regard to the constitution, your “opponents” in Congress, or basic human decency?

                                                            Clueless in Seattle

Dear Clueless,

    Naturally, I know a lot more than you.  Let’s just say it was clear you were fucked when they let Nixon walk. I turned to Rumsfield one day and said, “Next time, we’ll just ignore them.”  We still laugh about that.

                                                       

Some think the US government should avoid violating international laws, the Geneva Convention, our own Code of Military Conduct and jus cogens by not torturing.

Others think some torture of certain people is okay.

The Center:  Allow torture of certain people under limited circumstances.

Some think the constitution is “sacred obligatory on all citizens,” the foundation of our nation, the bulwark of our very liberty, a document which unites all Americans around principles of self-governance, and whose defense is the basis of all oaths of office and the essence of patriotism.

Others think it is “just a piece of paper” to be violated at whim.

The Center:  Follow the constitution some of the time and subvert it at other times.

Some think all government officials, private citizens, and corporations are obligated to follow the law of the land or pay the penalty.

Others think violations of the law should be ignored if high officials say it is okay.

The Center:  Require obedience to the law in most circumstances but sometimes allow lawlessness.

Some say human-caused global warming is the most serious threat to the future of humanity and could well lead to our extermination unless drastic action is immediately undertaken.

Others say global warming is the biggest hoax ever visited on the American people.

The Center:  Everybody recycle and try to turn off unneeded lights.

Some think the US should only go to war on the basis of reliable intelligence which reveals a plausible threat to our national security.

Others think its okay to go to war on the basis of trumped up intelligence in order to further the financial and power interests of an elite minority.

The Center:  Try to go to war only when intelligence proves it’s necessary, but continue to prosecute wars started under other circumstances.

The dualistic mind is enjoying the on-going debate between “purity trolls” and “sell-outs.”  And most people on both sides of the issue appear to be quite certain of their stance.  Feeling somewhat queasy from the shaky ground under me, I’ve been looking in vain for the solid ground others seem to have found.  All I see is a Sophie’s Choice:  which one do you choose to kill–the Constitution of the United States or any chance of participation in the process?  I don’t know.  But I’m here to urge people to accept that we have a tough decision which cries out for meaningful, respectful debate.  And during this debate, may we keep in mind the most important political question we face–what action gives us the best chance of rescuing the constitution from imminent demise.

A Simple and Humbling Ideal:  I try to be respectful to the person in front of me.  It’s not exciting like freeing the slaves, it’s not beautifully whole like non-violent resistance, it’s not intoxicating like deep spiritual realization, nor is it grand like changing the world.  And since it is not a great cause with a long grand march to an imagined glorious outcome, the results are in almost immediately.  It’s not uncommon for me to be reminded that I’ll never be perfect it.  (At those moments, I like to think dreamily about the day all humans will live in freedom.  Ah, sweet distraction.)

There’s this guy who really gets under my skin.  I love to say ironically funny or insightfully critical things about him behind his back.  Yeah, I’m that kind of passive aggressive guy–afraid of confrontation but arrogant nonetheless.  Surely you know the type.  I wish I weren’t petty like that.  But there are a lot of different ways to disrespect people.  At least my way is occasionally funny.  OTOH, with explosive anger sometimes you get to see frighteningly spectacular displays of household goods being creatively employed contrary to their intended use.

There are all kinds of violence, aren’t there.  I lived for a couple of years at the Center for Non-Violent Action.  My wife and I were young while the other couple were experienced hands in the peace business.  One day my wife (ex) said to me, “They talk about and work for peace a lot, but if you think about it, they are pretty violent to each other.”  The plain truth of her claim was inarguable.

The title quote comes from the movie The Shift, not yet released.  My niece is involved with it and sent me the following preview.  It was just the kick in the ass I needed to shift my doom and gloom, so I offer it here.  I considered placing it as a comment in dharmasyd’s terrific essay, but decided this is a bit too off the point of the important substance there.

I’m trying to get my feet back under me.  I’m not going to have my hope buried by the dense, unconscionable acts of the fatally fearful and greedy.  I’m going to join with the spirit dharmasyd’s essay offers.

Maybe this movie is too easy, maybe it’s as shallow as recycling, but it renewed my sense of hope.  Maybe most of our hope comes from NGO’s non-profits, informal groups, brave individuals acting alone.  Here’s what Derrick Ashong says:

Making the world a better place is not only your responsibility.  It’s your choice, it is your blessing, it’s a gift, it’s your opportunity to make your life mean something.  So take it.

Thanks to the goddamn motherfucking Congress of the United States of America, I feel like one of the safest fucking people in the world right now.  And thanks to that motherfucker George W. Bush as well.  I’m going to go take a safe fucking walk around my neighborhood in celebration of just how goddamn safe from terrorists I feel after today’s vote.  I don’t need not stinking laws, I have those Congressional shitheads and that asswipe W to look after me.

I usually avoid swearing on line, but words are failing me in attempting to express just how fucking angry grateful I feel.

Chinese story of now we support you, now we don’t.

Stress of living in a country where reality is bought and sold.

Distant realities, the realities of others, mutual realities.

Myths of woman private and NFL player.

Myth of democracy.

Television reality–everything’s chipper all the time.

The river crossing.

George Washington said our hope of maintaining our precious freedom lies with making common cause around the constitution.  When Obama focuses on unity, he’s not just using a pretty word for effect.  He’s talking about what Washington called the Palladium of your political safety and prosperity.

Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true Liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish Government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government.

Washington says one way can lose our freedom is to allow a faction to direct, control, counteract, or awe the constitutional deliberations of our government.  If we allow this, it can be fatal.  It replaces the voice of we the people with the self-interested will of one party, or group, or cabal, or sect.  If we allow a faction to take the reins of power from we the people, the situation is created so that in time, cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will take away the power of the people and hold the reins of government.  In the end, they will destroy the institutions, laws, and traditions of our constitutional government.

17 All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.

18 However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

If we care to preserve the “engines” of our government, we will impeach George W. Bush.