Since I am a teacher and a constant student of Philosophy, I feel it is necessary to share with you my personal observations and thoughts about our current project involving feeding the homeless and the impoverished in St. Augustine, Florida...
My observation is simple enough to see for anyone. Many of the men and women who come to the Plaza de la Constitution are people who come to receive food, clothing, simple medical needs and hygiene products. However, time and time again I find that the main reason many of these individuals come to Sanctuary's Wednesday and Saturday 'feedings' is to talk to many of the servers. The real core essence of what makes Sanctuary different from many (if not all) other groups feeding in the Plaza, is the concept that "Sharing a loving moment, talking, joking, laughing or hugging is truly Feeding the spirits of those considered impoverished."
Spending five minutes with anyone down at the 'feedings' is truly a lifetime experience and has the capability of changing both our personal interpretation of life and the focus of how we all choose to live our lives. Yet it is not the gift of food and products that are part of the true 'feedings' at the Plaza. It is our ability to treat everyone there as 'Family' that becomes the real food that all men and women are starved of.
Eva Peron, the first lady of Argentina once said, "Almsgiving tends to only perpetuate poverty; aid does away with it once and for all."
The subtle truth behind her quote is true in our modern society. We are faced with an amazing choice: Should we give alms and charity or should we realistically give hope and opportunity?
Our ability as individuals to really distinguish between what really is aid and what is just 'bandaging' the problem is given light through our general understanding of what matters to us as individuals. We should question our intentions to find a better sense of integrity and morality behind them. We should do for anyone and everyone simply because they need it and deserve it as people. We should not do for others because Religious scripture tells us that we need to become holy or 'saved'. We should not do for others because it gives us better publicity or face value in the publics eye. We should not do for others to prove the oppressors wrong. We should not do for others because we pity others. And we should not do for others because it makes us feel good about ourselves.
WE SHOULD DO FOR OTHERS BECAUSE "HUMAN" IS REALLY A PLURAL TERM.
Showing posts with label activism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label activism. Show all posts
Monday, October 11, 2010
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
A "Free Society"
A free society is one that lives with the decree, "No one is greater than those who are happy and work to make others happy around them". This kind of a free society would also see that selfishness and apathy are the true elements of an uncivilized autocrat. The idea of a "governing" body of people would be assembled from all those who put others before ones self. The participants in this kind free society are not victims of prejudices, anger, jealousy, or guilt. Nor is anything seen greater than the preservation of all life and the allowance of any life to be lived to the greatest potentials that are humanly possible. These ideals, would be the character of a society free from tyranny and oppression. The opposition to these ideas, would be exactly what led the Nazi's to systematically destroy thousands of innocent Jewish people.
The freedom we seek as a civilization can be summed up with an analogy about the nature of procreation. Within the act of conception, we are ensuring a future where the opportunity to continue a free society can and will exist. At birth, we are liberated, into a world where we have an opportunity to partake in our own lives. Yet throughout our lives, it is our own personal responsibility to educate ourselves, to contribute to experience, and to help others with the life that we have been benefited with. All of these things are given to us, freely, by the Universe, and the fulfillment of them is ensured by our personal right to live without the constraints of oppression or any tyrannical system.
While we can honestly understand that within life their are responsibilities grafted upon us by the Divine, we must also understand that all fall short of divinity when measured against even our own selves. Thus, no man shall be fit to lead others, that cannot understand the bond between what is considered the natural laws and mankind; and what is known as perversion against these universal laws. Anyone who dares to judge using their interpretation of these laws (instead of teaching a fuller understanding of these laws) is in direct conflict with the whole of natural law:
"Judge not and you will not be judged", or as natures says "Kill and be killed".
No single person can hold dominance and rule over another, just as a tree cannot hold authority and power over the animals and birds that live upon it. A symbiotic system is truly, a free system. So, if nature is to be understood as a harmonious balance between all flora, fauna, beast, insect, and creature, than mankind is to its own self; also a member of this balance. It is rhetorical to note, that this balance of harmony should be a contingent between each man, woman, and child. Because the balance that humanity holds to itself, affects the very essence of order throughout all systems in the natural world. If we tarnish the perspective on our society, then the environment around us also falls into discourse. And, if we maintain a course of destruction upon ourselves, then our environment will seek to re-balance itself from it's disease it knows as, Man.
Our perspective on today's society is an important one. The inheritance of mankind's future hangs on the threads of our conscious actions. What we choose to do today ultimately defines what is in store for us tomorrow. For if we allow ourselves to become enslaved by our animosity and our egocentric attitudes then we have truly forfeited our natural rights to live freely and happily as a civilization. Each person may have his/her own fate, but why should we burden the entirety of mankind with our own self-produced holocaust?
This is the meditation for today's generation:
....To stand together and erase our indecencies, before natural consequences erase all of us and our opportunity of any future.....
-by Aramal Malik
The freedom we seek as a civilization can be summed up with an analogy about the nature of procreation. Within the act of conception, we are ensuring a future where the opportunity to continue a free society can and will exist. At birth, we are liberated, into a world where we have an opportunity to partake in our own lives. Yet throughout our lives, it is our own personal responsibility to educate ourselves, to contribute to experience, and to help others with the life that we have been benefited with. All of these things are given to us, freely, by the Universe, and the fulfillment of them is ensured by our personal right to live without the constraints of oppression or any tyrannical system.
While we can honestly understand that within life their are responsibilities grafted upon us by the Divine, we must also understand that all fall short of divinity when measured against even our own selves. Thus, no man shall be fit to lead others, that cannot understand the bond between what is considered the natural laws and mankind; and what is known as perversion against these universal laws. Anyone who dares to judge using their interpretation of these laws (instead of teaching a fuller understanding of these laws) is in direct conflict with the whole of natural law:
"Judge not and you will not be judged", or as natures says "Kill and be killed".
No single person can hold dominance and rule over another, just as a tree cannot hold authority and power over the animals and birds that live upon it. A symbiotic system is truly, a free system. So, if nature is to be understood as a harmonious balance between all flora, fauna, beast, insect, and creature, than mankind is to its own self; also a member of this balance. It is rhetorical to note, that this balance of harmony should be a contingent between each man, woman, and child. Because the balance that humanity holds to itself, affects the very essence of order throughout all systems in the natural world. If we tarnish the perspective on our society, then the environment around us also falls into discourse. And, if we maintain a course of destruction upon ourselves, then our environment will seek to re-balance itself from it's disease it knows as, Man.
Our perspective on today's society is an important one. The inheritance of mankind's future hangs on the threads of our conscious actions. What we choose to do today ultimately defines what is in store for us tomorrow. For if we allow ourselves to become enslaved by our animosity and our egocentric attitudes then we have truly forfeited our natural rights to live freely and happily as a civilization. Each person may have his/her own fate, but why should we burden the entirety of mankind with our own self-produced holocaust?
This is the meditation for today's generation:
....To stand together and erase our indecencies, before natural consequences erase all of us and our opportunity of any future.....
-by Aramal Malik
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