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--></style><title>Re: [spiraldynamics] Re: It Must be Early
Halloween</title></head><body>
<div>Here's my reaction to the censorship of the Boondocks comic strip
by the New York Daily News and others.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>So...here's a quote from a recent lecture by Bill Moyer:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman" size="+2" color="#000000">If the
mercenaries in Washington try to exploit the emergency and
America's good faith to grab what they wouldn't get through open
debate in peace time, the disloyalty will not be in our
dissent but in our subservience. The greatest sedition would be
our silence.</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I think this is the problem with censorship. It is agreeing
to be silent for pragmatic reasons. Someone sent me an email
asking if it would have been within the immediate decorum of society
to criticize slavery in the south before emancipation. I think
the author of Boondocks is being thoughtful and perceptive. He
is not throwing mud. The 911 activities shocked people. So
would this cartoon. This is a nation that needs shocking.
Most of what it gets is pablum, protecting it from the realities that
we face on this planet. The truth is that our government is a
terrorist government and so is our vice president Dick Cheney (as
Boondocks implies). It just doesn't look like that because the
actions of the victors and the privileged never do, because they
define the parameters of the game. The treaty of Versailles was
a factor in driving both the Germans and the Japanese into the
dynamics that fed the Nazi era and the second world war. If we
can't bear the shock of looking at the truth we are creating on this
planet, then where is the hope? Why shouldn't Americans suffer
and struggle a little in our grief. We have been the agents of
this kind of suffering and pain for millions of people around the
world. Perhaps it would give us some empathy, some capacity to
identify with something that it is nearly impossible for us to
identify with in our isolation and privilege. Boondocks is a
story of black Americans trying to make meaning of life in a white,
middle class suburb. It is the story of actual suffering, a
glimpse of (fictional, but realistic) people trying to make meaning of
a reality they know and understand in a culture that is oblivious to
that reality. Is the pain of having to actually face the
particularly difficult truth something we should be protected from?
Is it patriotic to remain silent? Or perhaps it is really
patriotic to tell the truth. This does not have to happen
without compassion. We can acknowledge the pain in having to
look at the truth. We can be with those who suffer when they see
this truth, even in their pain. This may be a deeper compassion,
a deeper love, than acting in a way that protects this country from
the pain of looking at the truth. It is a sad and
tragic thing that we live in a nation that causes the kind of grief
every day that New Yorkers have now had to experience. This in
no way diminished the grief that the WTC tragedy brought, nor does
that tragedy diminish the grief that others suffer, nor the grief that
comes from looking at the fact that our government is responsible for
this much grief in the lives of others. We are a nation and a
world that is having to look at our grief. To see the hate and
animosity and pain and suffering that is the result of real actions by
real people, ourselves included. In such a situation, it is no
succor to retreat into oblivion and fantasy. It is no favor for
us to protect ourselves from the immediacy of truth. What would
be the crime would be for us to fail in offering compassion,
compassion for ourselves, for the victims, direct and indirect of the
WTC tragedy, the terrorists themselves, the people of Afghanistan, the
bitter youth in Indonesia, the Israelis and the Palestinian. We
are all full of grief. We are all living in a world that has
failed us. And we are each others hope. We are each others
relief from pain, but not a relief that shields us from our grief, but
rather a relief that can be with us in our grief. We need to
face and hold the truth. We need to be willing to suffer, to
hold our grief, to be willing to take actions that heal, not actions
that deny and perpetuate the very conditions that support suffering.
This is my truth.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Kenoli</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>From: beddy@sprint.ca<br>
<br>
One other question came to mind regarding this cartoon thing - in<br>
particular for those who are upset by it being censored. Is
is<br>
possible to have freedom without responsibility and wisdom ?
Would<br>
freedom work ?<br>
<br>
Brian;<br>
<br>
I dont think that this applies in the area of cartoons or satire.
Every day<br>
the TV media exposes children to irresponsible viewing - that's MO and
may<br>
not be yours - which is far more harmful than this cartoon. I noted
that the<br>
newspaper is read by mostly blacks and I think that this fact makes
the<br>
censoring all the more objectionable.<br>
<br>
Also whose brand of wisdom or responsibility should we use?<br>
Loving thoughts,<br>
Peg D<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]<br>
<br>
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<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>Kenoli Oleari, Horizons of Change,
http://www.horizonsofchange.com<br>
1801 Fairview Street, Berkeley, CA 94703 Voice
Phone: 510-601-8217,<br>
Fax: 510-595-8369, Email: kenoli@igc.org (or click on:
mailto://kenoli@igc.org)</div>
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