the price of silence
It is one thing to be spiritual and remain at peace within oneself, it is quite another to withdraw into anonymity with the hopes that whatever is happening to others “out there” won’t happen to ourselves. Spiritual teachings the world over have spoken of the Oneness of existence, and that whatever befalls our neighbors befalls us as well. For we are each a part of Creation, and the same measure of the loving and the suffering in life reverberates throughout all of us. This has never been so real since the 24/7 news cycle began. The news journalist’s job is to light our hair on fire and mine is smokin’. The internet has drawn us in even closer still, and there seems to be no respite from the constant barrage of human carnage and pain. A direct result from the woes of humanity intensifying is how the Earth and her creatures are suffering from the ensuing ripple effects. The tornadoes whipping across the Midwest right now are but one example of the results of climate change that humanity created. And from my perspective, it was created out of paid for or enforced silence and sheer greed. Greed, one of the seven deadly sins in Christianity and to which 30 pieces of silver will attest, is a juicy topic to explore along with its role in the price of silence and betrayal in all levels of human society. Personally, I would add Power Misused as the eighth deadly sin, since a powerful Pope Gregory I neglected to include it on the list.
Greed and Power together have driven human beings to ravage one another for as long as we walked upon this earth. Our basic survival instincts have caused us to war over land and resources over and for every square inch of this planet. Now, the driving need for power and the enormous greed of a minority of wealthy, powerful people – historically mostly men – caused, and still cause suffering for the rest of humanity, including for you and for me. And, dear reader, it is happening right now, and they hope we will stay silent and allow them to grasp at land, resources, to commit human sex trafficking, enslave us to drugs, and to destroy our planet right out from under us. They are counting on using chaos and confusion in all our media to act as a smoke screen behind which they are buying our countries and companies like hot cakes. It just happened when the DOW was artificially manipulated by threats of tariffs against Canada and Mexico in the USA, and it dropped 900 points in one day – bargain basement prices for some local or foreign billionaire to buy up companies by the handful. It also weakens all of our precious, hard-won alliances and changes the power structures for the worse worldwide. This creates a frightening void, allowing autocracies to crawl out of the sewers they grew in to take a firmer grip on the wheels of power all around our world.
So, what is the price of our silence? Everything. Our freedom, security, the quality of the lives of our children and their children, the lives of every living thing on this planet, and all of the earth’s resources and its climate are at risk. Sadly, I have to say that this is no exaggeration. If we remain silent, deliberately ignorant, and confused about how to take actions to stop it, the consequences which are already happening will dramatically worsen. Some of us thought that if we voted a certain way, we’d be safe because the person we voted for would never do that to us. They’d go after those other ones, the “bad” ones, not us. The ugly truth is that greed and the lust for power have no boundaries, folks. Fueled by these sins, the wealthy and powerful minority steamroll over everything and everyone in their path for More. Veterans, elderly, sick kids – they don’t care about them because it means More for them. They hope to plunder Medicare and Social Security which we paid into for our hard-earned retirement fund, for trillions. But only if we stay silent and let them. They also hope to install spineless cowards in any and all government positions who will betray us in order to have a job in which they will betray us and our freedoms even further.
The good news is if we do not relinquish our power and we vote in democracy-minded politicians who work FOR US not the rich, if we speak out in protest, if we create like-minded, activist communities that lobby our politicians consistently, we can prevent this downward trajectory. And, lest you forget it, we have the greater numbers that it takes to stop those few in their tracks and keep control of our democracies worldwide. We are so terribly close to a fall now; Autocracy is breathing its fetid breath down all of our necks. Here in the USA, we have to call Congress and the Senate, barrage them with paper post cards and emails, and let them know that we will vote them out if they continue down this perilous path. We have to join communities and march in protests to have our voices heard and we have to do it in numbers that cannot be misled or denied by the media. It’s time to be heard, people, and white people in particular have to show up in droves because our sisters and brothers of color are under attack even more than we are. We have the power to do it for all of us, regardless of race, religion or who we love. We can prevent this. And we must act now because we are the ones who are here to save us. There is no one else, folks, there’s only you and me. So, let’s get a move on!
The price of silence is just too, damn high.
Namaste,
Jean 🌱
