posted by Kamala on Jul 4

Duty of America

Cover for Earth Ethics

The following is an excerpt from Dr. P.K. Willey’s book Earth Ethics of M. K. Gandhi, with teachings from Holy Mother Amma: an Introduction. You can preview more of the book, and contact Wise Earth Publishers for Ordering Information at their website.

The United States of America has given the planet priceless and practical jewels of ethical awareness and understanding that I see in no other country. My brother, Jefferson Mohandas (so named by my late father, Charles F. Willey, a great admirer of Gandhi) and I grew up in a small rural community in northeastern Connecticut. The archetypal ideals of America deposited at our feet ethics of inestimable spiritual worth, which we unconsciously imbibed like the air around us and they became part of our being.

Ethics like:

• All people are inherently equal…
• All people have the capacity to become more than what they presently are…
• There is always hope for a better tomorrow…
• Self-reliance and independence are virtues…
• If you can do it yourself, do it yourself…
• No work is higher or lower, and everybody has to clean up…
• Hard work and sweat are nothing to be afraid of…
• Girls and boys have equal rights to the same opportunities…
• Nothing is impossible…
• Don’t treat anyone like your servant—even if they work as one…
• Try and try again…
• Let’s work together and get the job done…
• It is our duty to help the less fortunate…
• If someone needs a hand, give them one…
• What happened in the past is over—carry on…
• What you make of yourself today is what counts…
• What you dream, you can become…

These are some of the great gifts that my country offers the world community.

A melting pot of peoples from all around the planet, America today is made up of millions of genetic combinations of people, of which I am also one. (My maternal grandparents were in the second shipment of indentured laborers from India to Trinidad, West Indies, making roads and doing plantation work. My paternal grandparents were from England and Canada.) The noble ethics of that land bind the people together and make them `American’. Yet while growing up, I was aware that my country’s government was traveling, with more and more momentum, down a road counter to these basic principles of human brotherhood. A road that went counter to the ethics I felt were the essential American fabric. A road the politics of some elections have shown as counter to the will of the American people. It seemed as though another force—big business, international resource-grabbing and hand-in-glove relationships to the production of the implements of war—was taking over, and it didn’t care about little people, or the Earth, or anyone save a very few. Back in the 1950’s, “A military-industrial complex,” as President Eisenhower had warned, “employed its considerable economic and political influence to encourage American military involvements around the globe.” And the results are there for us to see, to live with, to recover from, to help heal and overcome—now, for we cannot hurt others without traumatizing our own selves.

Public urban and suburban education in the late 60’s and 70’s began changing from open environments, to schools built to withstand riots, with less recess time, and more emphasis on following the letter and form than the spirit of things. Fear of `safety’ has become such an issue that children can no longer climb trees in peace—most have been conditioned out of the natural desire to do so. The relations between big business and education thickened. The situation has reached a point now that many high school graduates cannot calculate simple multiplication and division problems. Many are graduating unable to read well or locate their own position on a geographical map. Fear of horrific violence—shoot-outs and bombs—and the use of drugs is a reality today in many schools across the country.

Sexual openness has eroded the family structure and life, causing deep wounds in the psyches of many people. The role of sexuality in our lives has become based upon a media induced imbalance, rather than coming from a place of ethical balance. Sex does have an ethical place in our life and human relations, one which is lost to us at present. The means and methods used in the struggle for gender equality have brought about mass confusion on what it means to be male or female, without bringing gender respect.

As a young child, from what I could see and understand, everything Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was doing made sense. Great commonsense. While he lived, there was for me a feeling of joy and jubilation, that he was walking with us all, a true son of America, a man of God. He called us to think things through, until they rung clear. He said intelligent things, like:

“Through our scientific genius, we have made the world a neighborhood: Now through our moral and spiritual genius we must make it a brotherhood. We are all involved in the single process, what affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are all links in the great chain of humanity.” (I have a Dream:19)

I sometimes wonder: had King been born in India, would he have been hailed as another `Vivekananda’ or an Avatar of Dharma, a Mahatma, or a Bodhisattva? He certainly was, although unrecognized, for America. In his quest for civil rights, Dr. King included all human rights. Back in the 1950’s, he could see that the USA government was not representing the people when he said:

“I knew I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today—my own government.” (I have a Dream:138–139)

Children often interpret events in ways unexpected. The deaths of J.F. Kennedy, Dr. King and then Robert Kennedy, in quick succession in the 1960’s, made me, as a child, feel that there was an inhuman ruthlessness at the core of this turn down the dark road, that would choke and kill the spirit of what it meant to be an American; kill those ethical ideals in order to dumb us down into consenting consumers and guinea pigs. A force that really did not care about our constitution, about democracy, about the American people or, for that matter, about any people.

I believe King saw the results for the American people over 45 years ago when he prophetically said:

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” (I have a Dream:148)

And about the Soul of America: “It can never be saved so long as it destroys the hopes of men the world over.” (I have a Dream:139)

America does indeed have a soul, it is a great soul, it can be found in the noblest aspirations and ideals of her peoples. In the community of nations, my country has always represented hope, justice, and a new opportunity, a new chance at life and freedom from social patterns of human limitation. In 1958, there was an international demand for world peace and disarmament. The world looked to America to lead the way, being the wealthiest and most powerful militarily and economically. America at that time, represented the hope and dream of a genuine world brotherhood arising in the hearts of human beings. It was paradoxical, considering the issues of civil rights in the USA then.

I grew up in revolutionary times, and when I look at American youth today, I see that same spirit—wiser and more informed in many ways than I was—but at the same time suffering the damaging legacy of what has become a de-civilising society with global influence. The desperation of youth in America is so intense, I am confident that a massive, united and new dawn is fast approaching the horizon, soon to rise. Dr. King said:

“Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism and militarism.” (I have a Dream:150)

We can now add to that list: eternal hostility to the rape and destruction of our Earth, sky and waters, to the squanderous sucking up of resources that sustain life for the whole of Creation; eternal hostility to greed. As Dr. King said:

“The question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be.” (“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” April 16,
1963.)

America, like India, has the universal within her. It has been nurtured through genuine tolerance and freedom from caste- and status-stuck eyes, by her mixed population of peoples. It is there in the deep spirituality of those she has crushingly oppressed within her. In 1954, Dr. King stated:

“Discrimination is a hell-hound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.” (Speech given to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Aug. 16, 1967.)

It is always those who have endured and still love that gain wisdom. The United States of America will rise, with humility and grace to shine the light of joyous human brotherhood upon this Earth. Earth ethics are part of her awakening to her own self and her duty in the sphere of nations.

The misunderstood phrase from the USA’s Declaration of Independence “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” has become a byword for uncaring, unresponsive individualism, economics that are entirely immoral, selfish, destructive and exploitative to human society and the Earth as a whole, to overall ethical unaccountability. It was Abe Lincoln who saw that the greatness of the United States lay not in the material pursuit of individual happiness, but in the people’s participation in a working democracy, as they pursued knowledge of Truth, their ethical instincts, the only real happiness possible. The trend of the last 100-odd years is a departure from the spirit of those ideals first put forth by our founding fathers.

Despite obvious failings, American optimism, enthusiasm and willingness to change is still strong. I am proud of the ethics that can be found in America, her generous, caring and open-hearted people. I am intensely grateful for being born in her atmosphere, for having the opportunity to imbibe the great spiritual qualities that she offers as freely as the air. I know that my country, the United States of America, contains a message of Love, energy and hope for this Earth. The terrible and tragic mismanagement of almost seven decades; the rise of the brutal military and industrial complex, the materialism, racism, and global selfishness of individuals and companies receiving legal sanction there—none of these will be able to crush the spirit of her people, despite education that has dumbed them down, despite media indoctrination that teaches them not to think. As they awaken and rise to their own heart’s way, to the inherent ideals of America, the great people of the United States will assist in the ushering of a new dawn for mankind. I have the faith that this is a Truth. It is for sure, a duty.

The election of the 44th USA President, Barak Obama, has brought tremendous hope to billions of people on the planet. Words like duty and social responsibility have come out of the dusty closet. It is for us, the people, to lead our leaders and make good the promises of our age, otherwise as Dr. King said:

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.” (“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963.)