In today’s world, we’re living though times of treating others as objects and not as people with needs and feelings. We’re living through times where cruelty abounds in many forms, and compassion is often nonexistent. We’re living through times when alternative truths replace truth itself.
In 2024, we had a candidate who seemed to really run to be a dictator, not the President of the United States. He appeared to want to do away with our Constitutional form of government with three separate and equal branches: a government created of the people, by the people and for the people; a government in which each person has a right to their views about what is and what’s not, and through which every person has the right to vote in an election and have their vote counted.
A checkered history
Over the course of our history, the United States has gone from being an invader of a new land and a destroyer of Native American customs to a place where people from other parts of the world were sold into slavery with no rights of their own. These slaves were forced to work in the fields of those who had land and power. In this environment, children could be torn away from their parents and wives torn away from their husbands.
The slaves were nothing more than property to those who owned them. We had white males who were given the power to make decisions about all aspects of life, and women who were cast in the roles of bearing children and keeping the home fires warm. During these times, women had no voice in the decision-making of the community.
Throughout these times, there were also those who were opposed to treating others as disregarded objects with no rights and no voice to determine their place in the way of life they were living. Slavery was fought against, women’s rights to equality with men were supported, and many baby steps were taken to improve a budding, evolving culture in which all were treated equally under the law.
Steps forward and backward
It has taken years for the life that was lived in 1776 to morph into the life we’re living in the present day. Often, the progress was profoundly slow, and many suffered during the changes that took place throughout the coming together of people to form a “more perfect Union.”
For some, there have been backward steps that have taken away essential rights of certain groups of people. On June 24, 2022, the unequivocal right to have an abortion was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Immigrants became known as those who were poisoning the blood of our citizens and have begun to be deported by the current administration. Christian nationalism became a movement in which white males professed a fundamentalist form of Christianity and gained position and prominence.
In essence, now we’re reverting to a time when men were able to be dominant over women, and a sense of racism is also re-emerging. A government of the people, by the people and for the people is changing back into a government that’s making voting more difficult for non-whites, and instead of being a supportive force to meet the needs of its citizens, is aiming to destroy a range of support services that people depend upon to survive.
A wide variety of federal jobs and retirement benefits, along with Medicare, Social Security, and Veterans Affairs benefits, have been targeted for extinction by the administration. These same veteran defenders of our homeland were allegedly termed to be nothing more than “suckers” and “losers” by their newly elected Commander in Chief, though he denies that this statement was made.
Across the board, the rights and needs of citizens are being threatened by a man who seems to be trying to set himself up as the first and only dictator.
Cruelty destroys and compassion heals
What became clear over the course of American history is that cruelty destroys and compassion heals. Inherent in the progress of these United States was a wisdom that was etched in the history of Eastern thought; it emerged in the growth of a new community of people who believed that treating someone else as we’d want to be treated transforms disrespect and resentment into an appreciation of our differences and our specialness as people.
The Dalai Lama is a compassionate individual whose teachings have long spoken to my inner essence. He has shared that:
Whether one is rich or poor, educated, or illiterate, religious or nonbeliever, man, or woman, black, white, or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally, and mentally we are all equal. … We all aspire to happiness, and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears, and dreams. Each of us want the best for our family and loved ones. We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek. On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture and language make no difference.
And, again, the Dalai Lama has written, “Interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. … Our own survival is so dependent on the help of others that a need for love lies at the very core of our existence. This is why we need to cultivate a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.”
He has also said, “Compassion and love are not a luxury; they are essential to our existence. Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community [emphasis added]. If we are to survive, human beings must develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. We must learn to work not just for our own self, family or nation, but for the benefit of all humankind.”
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image: Yamu_Jay
