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Edited on Mon Dec-01-08 12:09 AM by NanceGreggs
For a while there, it seemed that it had disappeared – that knowledge that somewhere out there, there were people who actually cared, who gave a damn; people who were willing to walk the walk, as often as not in someone else’s shoes.
We’ve only caught glimpses of it over the past eight years, while we have instead been inundated with tales – replete with lavish praise – about the worst in people, and the worst among us: the warmongers, the war profiteers, the torturers, and those willing to loudly declare anyone who disagreed with them as being unpatriotic.
Cloaked in tattered flags of their own rending, they were trotted out and publicly paraded by a complicit media as being somehow worthy of respect – even adoration: the greedy corporate heads whose pursuit of money was held up as the highest American standard, the corrupt politicians whose lack of morals was dismissed as brief and forgivable lapses in judgment, the pseudo-Christians whose distinctly unChristian behaviour and demeanour were passed off as the true embodiment of Christ’s teachings – all evidence, and common sense, to the contrary.
The glimpses I speak of were dismissed and diminished by those in power who had another agenda, and a far more toxic product to sell in furtherance thereof.
But we caught those glimpses nonetheless – and we reveled in their capacity to inspire, despite the fact that we were daily encouraged to view them as aberrations of the human spirit, rather than the norm.
We heard about the true heroes of 9-11, those who sacrificed their own lives so that others might live. We heard about soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who forged friendships with those they were admonished to conquer and control.
We stood in awe as “ordinary citizens” risked their lives to save Katrina victims; as “ordinary citizens” poured out their hearts and their dollars in efforts to not only salvage buildings and monuments, but to acknowledge the importance of saving a culture, a style of music and food and laughter – a way of life that enriched us as a people, as a nation.
We watched as anti-war protestors took to the streets, determined to be seen and heard. We watched as those who refused to be ignored took up the causes of the homeless, the poverty-stricken, the tortured, the maimed. We listened as those who refused to be silenced spoke up for their fellow citizens, and stood in solidarity with their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.
This Nobility of Spirit has been pushed into the darkness for too long, relegated to the far corners of our society by those who despise its ability to bring us together, who fear its magnitude and what can be achieved by the recognition of its very existence.
It begs to be brought out into the light; its banner proudly waved by those who have always lived by its inherent creed, by those who never gave up hope that it would find its way back into the limelight of our political discourse, and our attitude as a citizenry.
Lately I am hopeful that this Nobility that has always existed – despite its lack of publicity, or being out of fashion during the past eight years – is again in vogue, and something to be talked about, focused upon, admired, and looked to as an example to be followed.
The Nobility of Spirit – you have it within you, you have the ability to propagate it, you understand the depths of its meaning and its impact on the community in which you live, and the world at large.
Go out and share it – and revel in its capacity to heal wounds, to right wrongs, to spread its good tidings, and capture the temporarily misguided or misbegotten in its warm embrace.
This is our time - do not let it pass unproductively, or without reaching its full potential to change the world.
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