religious bigotry

[chelidon]

mine, that is.

I'm sitting in Dulles airport, waiting for my next flight, kind of tucked behind one of the gate booths because it's a relatively sheltered quiet place, and that's where the outlet is for my laptop. And a woman wearing a head scarf somewhat furtively ducks behind here, puts down her prayer rug and does her prayers, then gets up, looks around nervously to see who saw her, and scurries over to another gate area.

I have two responses, one I am okay with, and the other not. The second reaction I had was to feel bad and embarassed that she obviously had such a fearful response to doing her chosen spiritual practice in this horribly fear-permeated climate in which we now live -- she had to wonder who might see her, who might be angry or report her, or try to get her thrown off her flight. She probably felt fear, and perhaps shame, and that's not right.

But my first reaction, before I could even think about it, was to wonder, "I sure hope she's not on my flight -- what if she's a terrorist?"

God(all of them)-dammit. I will not live in constant fucking fear of people who think or act or believe differently than I do, even if a small percentage of them believe that the ends justify the means, and are willing to use wretched violence to promote their hateful intolerant beliefs. And by that I mean both terrorists, and our current government. I will not succumb to the poisonous atmosphere of fear and distrust and xenophobic bigotry. I've been literally surrounded by it since I drove into the airport -- constant subtle and not-so-subtle reminders of freedoms curtailed, the need to be vigilant and careful and watch my bags and don't pack the wrong thing or park in the wrong place for too long or hesitate to show my papers and smile and hope not to get singled out for special attention. That atmosphere is absorbed, willing or no, unconsciously, and the next thing that happens is that I look at a woman doing her spiritual devotions and think, not "what a wonder faith is, and how precious mankind's ability to belive in something larger than their own individual ego and needs," but instead, "I wonder if she's a terrorist?"

Yes, my day to day life is blissfully of metal detectors and identification papers and security checks and pole-mounted cameras and radiation detectors and facial recognition software, so perhaps my guard is down, here in this place, to the subtle poisons, built into the environment built all around, "for my own protection."

But there really is no excuse, because I can choose. I can notice, and I can hold intent, and I can choose. And I choose respect. And I choose wonder. And I choose love, not hate, not fear, not paranoia, not the insanity of closing myself off from the world around me.

I choose love. Here and now, behind an anonymous gate in a huge impersonal airport, with its Starbucks and its security warnings and its subtle poisons of paranoia on every hand, I remember who I am, and I choose love.

Love to you.

Comments

Re: Love

[cerr.livejournal.com]

Nope, not referring to the Feri community specifically but our Pagan Community as a whole - and IMHO this has very little to do with affection, truth be told. It's more a matter of mutual respect and a genuine desire to be a part of a Community if that makes sense. It's not only one "named" group (ie: Feri, BTW, Alexandrian, Hellenistic, Celtic, Welsh, Norse, etc ad nauseum) I'm talking about the simple Truth that there are folks of pretty much every/any Trad (even NO Trad) who consider themselves holier/witchier-than-thou for whatever reason, right or wrong. They choose to judge others of other Trads (or No Trad) simply because they haven't been through the same teachings. I've been the owner of an online Pagan (multiple Trads) discussion group for about 5 1/2 years now and have moderated others for years before that - and my post above is simply an observation based on my experience of people-watching/Pagan-watching and being a PART of discussion groups for all of these years - to me the in-fighting, lack of respect, ego, etc. are very much needing to be addressed. I'm not saying by any means that it should be shiny-happy-people ALL the time (not possible and ugh.....no....just...no...) - just that it's possible to have respect for people within your community (or should I say it's possible to respect the diversity within your Community?) and yourself and possible atop all of that (which is quite a lot) to have respect for others and THEIR beliefs - and I DO think that love is a large part of the answer - that said, I also think that respect for yourself and for others and walking your talk rather than simply talking it up without any follow-through is an important step towards mutual understanding. If you're not going to walk your talk, why talk it in the first place?
"Walking the talk did not seem to gain respect."
** Really? How is that? Not trying to poke a sleeping bear here, but am truly curious. I've found by my own experience that it's those who DO walk their talk who have earned the respect - perhaps it's just my own perspective here, but it's the reason I think Chelidon really has hit on something here. Love is very much a part of respect - but it works like pond-ripples. Touch something and that expands and touches still more and still more - every touch goes deeper than can be seen and *energy* works much the same - so to choose love rather than snark and negativity is, I would hope, a step in the right direction. For individuals who touch others in their lives or in discussion groups or in their Community or in OTHER belief-systems. The ripple-effect can be a phenomenal thing - but the choice to accept that or no is up to the individual. I personally choose to accept that and work harder on my own personal choices - Love rather than snark anyday!

Re: Love

[redwill.livejournal.com]

Walking their own talk is exactly what one faction doesn't want the other to do; they feel that the particular walk is bad for their own image, and they seem unconcerned that repressing that walk would keep those walkers from being themselves, from expressing who they are.

So that this makes clearer sense, I'll tell you that I'm talking about a 'community' of gay people. Some of them want to fit into hetero society as quietly unnoticed as possible, and want to repress the behaviour of the more visible, and perhaps more negatively perceived by society at large, members. I'm concerned that some people seem willing to sacrifice others' freedom to be themselves in order to make their own lives easier.

This is all from my own viewpoint, of course; I'm sure you might get quite a different opinion from someone else.

Re: Love

[cerr.livejournal.com]

I do understand what you're talking about here - but I'm not talking about repression in any way but those who judge the spiritual choices of others - not to make one person's life easier or no....simply to judge and be "one up" if you will...I see no point to that. That's of course, my own opinion!
'Factions' are there simply to divide....what do we need to do to bring people *together* and heal? Maybe just exactly what this blog has suggested: start within and acknowledge the horrible truths within (ie: that some of the propaganda DID seep in after all) and try to make a choice for something that doesn't divide...look at the difference the voice of ONE person can make....just as an example: "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" was published after her death; yet her words continue to inspire and heal the hearts of so many who continue to be affected by having been repressed. She died alongside others of her faith, "gypsies", homosexuals and basically anyone who didn't agree with the status quo at the time. The ripple effect of her words alone continue to this day! They are words of hope, of love, of a wish for peace. That's maybe a bit naive and optimistic to some; but to so many others it's a step in the right direction as well. The choice is up to the individual, yet I will continue to be blown away by those who choose to judge others for their spiritual or lifestyle choices. Of course those in power are unconcerned about those they are repressing...they hope to stay in power forever. Doesn't work that way, though - never has. No-one ever expected the Spanish Inquisition (heh....apologies to Monty Python and all....) - and yet even THEY were done in after a while! Even Rome fell! So maybe the whole point then is that with the right focus, those who would repress and have their way aren't allowed to continue as long as there is ONE person who will stand up and say "NO!". We certainly don't have to meekly allow ourselves to BE repressed or LET the propaganda sink in - we CAN stand up and say "No!" and to do that with LOVE at the core is, I think, a beautiful, healing thought, indeed.
Blessings