2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumGetting to the bottom line and why I'm voting for Bernie
Last week when #notmeus was trending and Bernie's Together ad was making its rounds, I was inspired. It's not just about policy, it's also about values.
Ode to Americans
Because you believe your prosperity depends on my poverty,
Your hope depends on my hopelessness.
Because you behave as if your wellness depends on my illness,
Your joy depends on my despair.
Because your life of privilege depends on my life of inequality,
Your sense of security depends on my lack of it.
Because you were taught that your life matters more,
My life is perceived to matter less.
Because your power depends on my powerlessness,
Empathy cannot find its way in.
But I know.
I remember a well-known secret,
That zero-sum is a mirage.
Because I am you,
You are me.
My life is tied up in yours.
If only you could bother to seek,
To seek through eyes of love rather than eyes that fear.
With curiosity instead of contempt,
With clarity instead of confusion.
With courage instead of indifference.
Your success need not depend on my failure.
Your pleasure need not depend on my pain.
A plus for one need not depend on loss for another,
Because a loss for one is a loss for all.
You say the fittest survive - alone,
But I know better.
I know the cooperative thrive - together
daleanime
(17,796 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)Because I am you,
You are me.
My life is tied up in yours.
That echoes President Obama, who says we are all in this together. It echoes the faith of Senator Sanders, who said his personal concept of God is that which connects all living beings. (I am paraphrasing, and probably not getting it exactly right.)
It also echoes something that affected my life profoundly.
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
These famous words by John Donne were not originally written as a poem - the passage is taken from the 1624 Meditation 17, from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and is prose.
I wish the geographical portions of it focused on the world, rather than only Europe, but it's otherwise beyond beautiful.
Thank you for your OP.
Rebkeh
(2,450 posts)And I love that poem. Thank you ffor that.
merrily
(45,251 posts)NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)Enjoyed reading.