When
I was a young man, toward the end of my enlistment, my anti-war fervor melded
with my generation’s sentiments. Afterwards, as the Vietnam War wound down, my
political and social perspective was hewed by that experience with the culture
of corruption prevailing at that time. College followed and my beliefs weren’t
all that different than other students at that time. In my late forties,
disenchantment with my beliefs gradually shifted. I say this to point out that
the fervor I expressed on both sides of my political opinions had to be evaluated when I finally got sober.
It wasn’t so much that one side was right and the other was wrong, but I
realized that my beliefs were fueled, not so much by reason, as much as they
were driven by resentment against authority of any kind.
I’m not implying that my friends
on either side ought to drop their political and social beliefs. After all, an
adage I still embrace insists, “To stand for nothing is to fall for
anything”. My point is that I had to look deeply at where my anger and
frustration with “things as they are” comes from. Where did resentment with
“authority” get me in the end? I still question authority but I do so with the
understanding that any authority is implemented by people and not monsters. I
pray now for the oppressor today as well as the oppressed. I pray for the
prisoners of conscience as well as I do for the prison guards. An important
shift in consciousness arises as I do so.
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