Yes, We Can![If you have not seen them, check out these music videos!]
Yes, We Can! Vs. No, You Can’t!
No, You Can't!
Today, let's consider the fact that we all seem to be part of...
America’s story: Is it a tale of tragedy? Or are we on the verge of something amazing?
As we stay tuned to the tube, seeing the economic downturn caused by oligarchy I wonder how much more we can take before American’s wake up, hit the streets, and take America back from the thieves who are robbing us.
My literacy teacher has mentioned that true story tellers boil all stories down to just a few main stories. [Is this the story of “Robinhood” ?]
What are these common themes and what story is America acting out in this current drama?
Are we really out of control and allowing others to write the ending to our current story?
Or do we have a voice, a say in how this plot ends up?
I am struck today by one of the main messages I have taken away from my education so far:
“We write our own story.”
Dave Polland writes:
At age 54, I am nearing my college graduation in June of 2009 with two more quarters of class work and my student teaching ahead of me before I am finally certified to teach my passion as an elementary and special education teacher.
After years of allowing life to get in the way of my career choices; I am coming to the end of one chapter of my life – graduating college. I made a choice to write a different ending to this chapter of my life.
Another thing my literacy teacher has taught me:
As I enter my student teaching I have chosen the school to match my own philosophy of education as closely as possible. You can check out the vision these educators created here if you like: Gatewood’s Vision. We can encourage children to rewrite their own stories through education.
We can use this mantra to change our own self-talk, our own actions, and alter the end of our own outcome. My grandmother’s mantra that I carry with me to give me just a small bit of her strength was always:
Clearly we all experience tough times, bumps in the road, adversity and challenges – it is what we do with them that makes the difference in how each chapter ends.
Here – you can find another blog that helps us look at how the story we have been indoctrinated with makes all the difference in the world…writing our new story…
So, America – I challenge you –
· Write and call your public servants…incessantly.
· Never give up.
· Take charge of our American story.
· Don’t let others write your chapters.
· Write your own story.
· Get out in the streets.
· America’s story can change…if they see us all together…
By the way...here is some change that has come from the efforts of political activism, sent to me by my friend Lesley:
ALL workers deserve a living wage.
People deserve equal pay for equal work.
People deserve health care, sick leave, wellness leave, and retirement benefits.
People deserve a stable home.
People deserve a quality education.
People deserve the truth and a government that is not corrupt.
People [in this case, Americans] deserve its government’s promise of “liberty and justice for all”.
America deserves an opportunity to rebuild our self-esteem after 8 years of pummeling by the crimes committed by the Bush Administration!
America deserves a representative democracy, not a tyrannical dictatorship run by a military industrial complex, a corporate state, an oligarchy that has robbed us of our constitutional rights!
America deserves HOPE!
We can write our own story!
Yes, We Can!
... even John McCain today says..."you know me...you know my faults...you know my story..." Is McSame the story we want to end this latest Bush chapter?
Perhaps we can start a new story - check this out: Simplicity ~ Belonging to the Earth
a few lines to get our new story started:
In his thought-provoking book Ishmael , Daniel Quinn says that every society and every individual life is a story about the questions What is the world for? What am I for?
The basic story of consumer culture says that the Earth was created for the use and pleasure of human beings and that the purpose of human life is to conquer and subdue the Earth for human purposes, including the delusion that we can live without connection to the sacred powers. The result of living out this story is what we see around us: a damaged environment, social inequity and violence, psychological and emotional pain, and spiritual emptiness. If we find this story unfulfilling, two things are required: first, that we stop acting out the old story, and second, that we start acting out a new story. In general, people don't give up their old story until they have a new one. Voluntary simplicity is a blank book in which we can write a new story. Daniel Quinn also suggests an exciting opening strategy: Instead of telling a story about how the Earth belongs to us, we could tell a story about how we belong to the Earth.
We are conscious, spiritual, reflective beings capable of living with simplicity and elegance in caring for the Earth we belong to. It would be a cause of regret if we just consumed the planet and left in its place the refuse of a very brief and selfish party. It would also be a cause of regret if we passed our days living in the fear of death, the denial of our interdependence with other species, and the futile delusion that we can somehow control and dominate the living communities that sustain us.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Thank you for being a beacon of HOPE, Obama!
Yes, We Can…write a new story for America!
