A Prayer to Awaken

[Donnachaidh]

http://progressive.org/williams0810.html

How much suffering around the world will have to take place, how many wars must we start, before we begin to see this chain of addictive behavior for what it is—madness?

How many people killed, how many communities destroyed, how many ecosystems ravaged, how many species lost, before we will begin to see this dark open wound gushing from the depths of the sea as our own?

How well do we remember past petroleum accidents from the Persian Gulf to the Exxon Valdez, from Shell’s fouling the Nigerian Delta (which led to the hanging of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa) to the Ecuadoran spill in 2009 that decimated forty-seven indigenous communities?

At this moment, can we find an action worthy of the suffering felt by the communities along the Gulf Coast, both human and wild?. . .

I keep coming back to the simple act of bearing witness.

To bear witness is not a passive act but an act of conscience and consequence.

We can face this economic and ecological crisis straight ahead and not avert our gaze.

We can begin to face this crisis of our collective addiction to oil by agreeing to look the suffering we are creating in the eye.

We can become a witnessing community of purposeful expression and agree to be present, to listen, to engage first-hand. In these moments of direct experience, our consciousness shifts. We can choose to live differently.


More at the link ---

[snagglepuss]

1. bkmrkd to read later.