ON THE PROJECTION OF AMERICA'S SINS

It occured to me that whenever I post anything here, I want to say things that encourage, inspire or reassure you that you are not alone in your quest to make sense out of the world, or rather, George Bush's world, and wonder why aren't more people catching on to the lies, the hypocracy, the double standard, the divisions, the polarizations of our country as a nation.

You are not crazy. You are not drunk on the Kool-Aid Brew. You never have been. You have had the sins of America being projected onto you by it's government leadership. Allow me to explain as best I can.

It seems like our voices are to be continually silenced - drowned out by silly reporting on subject matter like a racist white woman running away from her wedding, what kind of day Michael Jackson had in court, watching Nancy Grace and wondering when her head will explode on live television because she gets so apoplexic about justice; all in an effort to distract attention from the events that feature such dire consequences for all of us, no one dares to call attention to them. Yet, somehow, there is the beginning of a slow awakening - like the animals who are coming awake after a long winter's hibernative sleep. I am hopeful. Every day when I wake to see the dawn of a new day not promised to me - I am hopeful.

Every morning when I rise, my ritual is to sit on the side of my bed for a few minutes (after hitting the snooze for the last 20, LOL) and allow myself to really "wake-up" and think about what I'm going to do today - will I blog, or just read everyone else's blogs and commentaries? Do I have anything viable to say to the masses? Does anyone care? What am I going to do today that will make someone's life just a tad bit better - to encourage them that things will get better?
Afterwards, I reach for my Bible to engage in morning mediation and prayer before I start my day. Today, in my meditative reading, I studied Psalms 14, which basically admonishes us to call sin what it is: SIN. Why don't we do this? For example:

Condoleezza Rice lied during her confirmation hearings. The only Senator that came close to actually calling her a liar was my Senator, Barbara Boxer. Why didn't she just call girlfriend a "liar" and be done with it? Better yet, call her a liar and ask her to prove that she wasn't lying.

How about the 73 Democrats (including a few members of the Congressional Black and Latino Caucuses) that voted for that Bankruptcy Bill and whined when, first, journalist David Sirota exposed them, then Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took them to the woodshed and called them on their dereliction of duty. Why were they whining about the fact that they sold out their constituents with their vote? Were the votes something they could boast about to their districts? Were they hoping their constituents wouldn't notice how they were sold out by their representatives? Did the votes cause them shame, recriminations and threats of being tossed out of their Congressional seats?

Bush has lied to the American Public since December 13, 2000, with help from the Supreme Court. At last count, there were 34 scandals involving this administration, but to look at the MSM, one would be forgiven for thinking that Bush's Administration is the most squeaky clean Administration since Harry Truman? So why won't the MSM call him on his lies? I know about the abject fact that Rupert Murdoch and gang own most of the Media, but even in some independent media outlets, they won't call Bush a liar? Why is that?

Psychologists tell us that we tend to project what we hate the most about ourselves onto others. In other words, why won't the Religious Right share with us why they hate homosexuals, minorities, women and anyone who does not fit their image of a "true" American? Because they have homosexuals, minorities and women among them? That would be hating themselves, wouldn't it? So why won't they demonstrate where in the Bible that Jesus gives tacit consent to hate, bigotry, fear, loathing, greed, avarice and lack of compassion for ones' fellow man?

The 14th Psalm is very clear - we just need to "SAY THE WORD". We need to call what we see, what it really is: SIN.

The definition of sin is really "missing the mark". But we're so used to saying we've "missed the mark" that we tend to cover up the ramifications of "missing the mark" for everyone and minimizing what are really devastating effects. In Jim Wallis' book "God's Politics: How the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It" Wallis provides the most convincing arguement you will ever see in admonishing those in leadership how it is a sin to ignore:

those in poverty, in order to pay for war;
use of fear to facilitate compliance on the part of the masses, instead of allowing engagement in debate of issues;
the wealthy getting more wealthy at the expense of and on the backs of the poor and downtrodden;
raping the environment;
neglecting education of our children;
using the "my way or the highway" methodology to get what you want and damn everyone else
blaming the poor and downtrodden for being poor and downtrodden, while not providing any solutions to their plight.

I could go on and on. But before I go further in calling sin what it is, I have to tackle the problem of why foreign countries hate America, if they haven't begun to at least , get irrititated with America first. Trust me, if Tony Blair loses his re-election bid on Thursday, as a result of all the latest revelations regarding how he teamed up with Bush to lie about the reasons to attack Iraq, that will be an example of America's eroding relationships with foreign countries that cannot be covered up, and it doesn't matter that Rupert Murdoch owns 75% of media outlets in this country.

It pains me as an American to say this, but it needs to be said - our country has a multitude of sins that we need to apologize and make amends for. If we maintain our arrogance and hubris, if there ever is another "Pearl Harbor-like/9-11 event" our country will find itself isolated as never before in our history of existance. We have ceased to be doers of GOOD WILL and have become masters at spreading ILL-WILL! We turn off other countries with the arrogant swagger from our government leaders, John Wayne-like attitudes and an unwillingness to at least listen to debate. If we don't reverse our course, we cannot expect a healing of our nation, a healing of divisions and polarization, a fostering of unity that transcends race, class, gender, sexual orientation and religious boundaries.

Yet, then again, I suspect that there are those who are perfectly fine with that "us against them" mentality. There are those who are so insecure within themselves, they have to hurt, harm and mash down anyone who might challenge them on just how "superior" they really are, when the fact is, God created us equally, and being "No respectors of persons" (translation - non-discriminatory), we're expected to foster harmony and diversity, tolerance and acceptance as long as we shuffle around on this mortal coil.

Why is the MSM eviscerating actress Maggie Gyllenhaal these days, like they did the Dixie Chicks? Because they told the truth? That America has a multitude of sins that can be laid at its' doorstep? I submit that this is the case - and here's another psychological explanation for this tendency to beat up the messenger, especially when the messenger holds up a mirror and we don't like what we see.

In my years of working as a drug/alcohol counselor, I learned that the hardest thing for an addict to do is face up to their own failings, and how the refusal to deal with their failings continue the cycle of addiction. Face it, many of us don't want to actually get honest with ourselves. We like the image we have of ourselves; that perfect, can-do-no-wrong, image; and we get angry when someone or something drops in our paths and threatens to tar that image. Our nation is the same way; like an addict that doesn't want to admit he's addicted and needs help.

We want our image as being a liberator of other oppressed nations. It is easy to rail at the genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia, or the killing fields of Cambodia, but we don't want to admit to culpability in those atrocities, such as funding the enemies of these nations, or providing them weaponry to facilitate the genocide. We don't want to admit lack of action in areas like the Sudan or Haiti (and we facilitated the overthrow of a democratically elected President in Haiti).There is a conflict with the image of America to admit these truths, so it's covered up in the hopes that no one will notice, just like we sweep dirt under a rug and hopes no one notices until the dirt starts piling up.

We want to liberate Iraq, yet our government leaders hope that many Americans would just forget about how chummy Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld was with Saddam Hussein back in the 1980s; that we funded his attack on Iran and provided those WMDs that we can't find now. We want that covered up, too. But Saddam's continued existance virtually guarantees we notice that dirt pile that's growing on a daily basis.

We wail about the crack epidemic - yet our government leaders hope that no one remembers that your tax dollars and mine, went to fund Manuel Noriega, until he became a liability to the Government and had to be thrown in jail; not to mention Poppy Bush and Reagan's role in Iran-Contra. Cover up that dirt, Ollie North!

America has funded dictatorships, imperialist nations; facilitated the overthrowing of regimes and political administrations globally, as long as it was beneficial to our Government. It continues to be chummy with foreign leaders whose citizens were proven responsible for September 11th. Once these nations held no more value to our government, America discards them like a $5 dollar 'ho and wonders why we're hated by Iraq and Afghanistan - why they "hate our freedoms". Espicially when such gross negligence, incompetence and maltreatment of decades-old foreign policy results in rewards for the perpetrators, such as medals of Freedom, promotions within the Administration and more war mongering profits to line their pockets.

Might I suggest, that it's not our freedoms these nations hate, but rather, our government's tendency to use and discard foreign governments while trying to perpetuate an image of a nation that fosters liberty and justice for all, not to mention the pursuit of happiness? The cruelest action anyone can take, is to reward people for wrongdoing. It breeds contempt for principles, values, beliefs, honor and dignity of people that are deserving of it. This is what it means to SIN.

Bill Clinton challenged us to start thinking about what is "IS". To me, that's somewhat disingenious and considering the context under which he uttered that; inappropriate for the serious issues that warrant challenges and debate - more so that one's DNA being found on a blue dress.

SAY THE WORDS. CALL IT WHAT IT IS. America continues to engage in sinning and projecting her sins onto those who don't deserve them. Can we please call our leaders on it?
Because until we do, we continue to die as a nation and we cannot be healed.