Universal Responsibility and the Environment

Universal Responsibility and the Environment

As a boy I was taught in the native Cherokee ways of life and mother earth, I was taught the importance of a caring attitude toward the environment. Our practice of nonviolence applies not just to human beings but to all sentient beings - any living thing that has a mind. Where there is a mind, there are feelings such as pain, pleasure, and joy. No sentient being wanted pain: all wants happiness instead. I believe that all sentient beings share those feelings at some basic level.

InCherokee life it is practiced that we get so used to this idea of non-violence and the ending of all suffering that we become accustomed to not harming or destroying anything indiscriminately. Although we do not believe that trees or flowers have minds, we treat them also with respect. Thus we share a sense of universal responsibility for both mankind and nature.
Our belief in reincarnation is one example of our concern for the future. If you think that you will be reborn, you are likely to say to yourself, I have to preserve such and such because my future reincarnation will be able to continue with these things. Even though there is a chance you may be reborn as a creature, perhaps even on a different planet, the idea of reincarnation gives you the reason to have the direct concern about this planet and future generations.
In the America when we speak of "humanity," we usually mean only our existing generation of human beings. Past humanity is already gone. The future, like death, has yet to come. Western ideas usually deal with the practical side of things for only this present generation of human beings.

Cherokee feelings about the environment are based entirely on faith. They are derived from the whole Cherokee way of life, not just from faith itself. For example, consider Buddhism in Japan or Thailand, in environments different from ours. Their culture and their attitude are not the same as ours. Our unique environment has strongly influenced us. We don't live on a small, heavily populated island. Historically, we have had a little anxiety with our vast area, low population, and distant neighbors. We haven't felt as oppressed as people in many other human communities.

It is very possible to practice the essence of a faith or culture without practicing a religion. My Cherokee culture, although culture, although highly influenced by its faith, did not gain all its philosophy from its native roots. I once suggested to an organization dealing with Cuban refugees that it would be interesting to do some research on how much our people have been affected by their approach to life itself in America. What are the factors that make Americans generally happy al1d calm? People are always looking for an answer in our unique religion, forgetting that our environment is just as unusual.

Concern for the environment is not necessarily holy, nor does it always require compassion. We natives express compassion for all sentient beings, but this compassion is not necessarily extended to every rock or tree or house. Most of us are somewhat concerned about our own house, but not really compassionate about it. We keep it in order so that we can live and be happy. We know that to have happy feelings in our house we must take care of it. So our feelings may be of concern rather than compassion.

Similarly, our planet is our house, and we must keep it in order and take care of it if we are genuinely concerned about happiness for ourselves, our children, our friends, and other sentient beings who share this great house with us. If we think of the planet as our house or' as "our mother - Mother Earth - we automatically feel concern for our environment. Today we understand that the future of humanity very much depends on our planet and that the future of the planet very much depends on humanity. But this has not always been so clear to us. Until now, you see, Mother Earth has somehow tolerated sloppy house habits. But now human use, population, and technology have reached that certain stage 'where Mother Earth no longer accepts our presence with silence. In many ways, she is now telling us, "My children are behaving badly," she is warning us that there are limits to our actions.
The Cherokee attitude is one of contentment, and there may be some connection here with our attitude toward the environment. We don't indiscriminately consume. We put a limit on our consumption. We admire simply living and individual responsibility. We have always considered ourselves as part of our environment, but not just any part. Our ancient scriptures speak of the container and the contained. The world is the container  - our house and we are the contained- the contents of the container.

From these simple facts we deduce a special relationship because, without the container, the contents cannot be contained. Without the contents, the container contains nothing, it's meaningless.

In my Five-Point Peace Plan, I have proposed that all ofAmerica become a sanctuary, a zone of peace. America was that once, but with no official designation. Peace means harmony: harmony between people, between people and animals, between sentient beings and the environment. Visitors from all over the world could come to Tibet to experience peace and harmony. Instead of building big hotels with many stories and many rooms, we would make small building, more like private homes, that would be in better harmony with nature.

It is not at all wrong for humans to use nature to make useful things, but we must not exploit nature to make useful things, but we must not exploit nature unnecessarily. It is good to live in a house, to have medicines, and to be able to drive somewhere in a car. In the right hands, a machine is not a luxury, but something very useful. A camera, for example, can be used to make pictures that promote understanding.

But everything has its limit. Too much consumption or effort to make money is no good. Neither is too much contentment. In principle, contentment is a goal, but pure contentment becomes almost like suicide, doesn't it? I think the Tibetans had, in certain fields too much contentment. And we lost our country. These days we cannot afford too much contentment about the environment.

Peace and survival of life on earth as we know it are threatened by human activities that lack a commitment to humanitarian values. Destruction of nature and natural resources results from ignorance, greed, and lack of respect for the earth's living things. This lack of respect extends even to the earth's human descendants, the future generations who will inherit a vastly degraded planet if world peace doesn't become a reality and if destruction of the natural environment continues at the present rate.

Our ancestors viewed the earth as rich and bountiful, which it is. Many people in the past also saw nature as inexhaustibly sustainable, which we now know is the case only if we care for it. It is not difficult to forgive destruction in the past that resulted from ignorance. Today, however, we have access to more information. It is essential that we re-examine ethically what we have inherited, what we are responsible for, and what we will pass on to coming generations.

Clearly, this is a pivotal generation. A global communications generation It's possible, yet confrontations take place more often than meaningful dialogues for peace. Our marvels of science and technology are matched if not outweighed, by many current tragedies, including human starvation in some parts of the world and that has come home to America and extinction of other life forms. Exploration of outer space takes place at the same time the earth's own oceans, seas, and freshwater areas grow increasingly polluted, and their life forms are still largely unknown or misunderstood. Many of the earth's habitats, animals, plants, insects and even microorganisms that we know as rare may not be known at all by future generations. We have the capability and the responsibility. We must act before it is too late.

Governments and Corporations They've poisoned the air we breathe, contaminated the water we drink, and copyrighted the food we eat. We fight in their wars, die for their causes, and sacrifice our freedoms to protect them. They've liquidated our savings, destroyed our middle class, and used our tax dollars to bailout their unending greed. We are slaves to their corporations, zombies to their airwaves, servants to their decadence. They've stolen our elections, assassinated our leaders, and abolished our basic rights as human beings. They own our property, shipped away our jobs, and shredded our unions. They've profited off of disaster, destabilized our currencies, and raised our cost of living. They've monopolized our freedom, stripped away our education, and have almost extinguished our flame.

This can be found in all government's worldwide Every politician in office today, Democrat and Republican alike accepts corporate bribes and is, therefore, corrupt. Their election is perverse evidence that they groveled before corporate lords and do not serve the will of the people. We know this because, on January 21, 2010, the US Supreme Court told us who runs the nation by granting corporations the freedom to donate unlimited amounts of money to political candidates. As it is already an established statistical fact that the candidate who spends the most money wins in 9 out of 10 races, it is undeniable that we live in an era where anyone genuinely opposed to the corporate takeover of America, and unwilling to compromise, will never be elected. That makes the government a dangerous enterprise that is a hazard to individual freedom.

The police have shown they will always collude against the people with the powerful and will smash the people for the benefit of those who sign their police paychecks. All police need is to be given $60,000 per year salary and a preferred status in a higher caste system and they will lie, torture, and murder for the state. Since when hasn't a government existed that didn't nurture and reward these qualities in its minions or lacked for dupes displaying authoritarian traits? The police are the essence of the state and as such are enemies of the people. The people have the ability to protect themselves from petty criminals. But, the police seek to keep people dependant on them and act as if the surrender of all the peoples' rights and liberties is a needed and worthy exchange for security or the illusion thereof. The people are increasingly conditioned to believe that the loss of justice and basic human rights to the onslaught of state power is a good bargain never realizing that governments are responsible for killing 260 million people in wars and another 300 million in non-combat democide.

Everywhere we look there are signs of moral decay, political corruption, and fascistic tendencies. However, activists have not been passive. For decades, since the end of democracy in America first became undeniable, we have tried every tactic to avert catastrophe. We have voted, written letters, donated money, held signs, protested in marches, clicked links, signed petitions, tweeted websites, written books, taught classes, knitted sweaters, learned how to farm, turned off the television, programmed apps, engaged in direct action, committed petty vandalism ... All this has been for naught. Popular revolution remains the only reasonably viable tactic remaining.

In the 18th century, America's founding fathers were in the same situation as we are today. They also sought justification to start a rebellion against a despotic empire that claimed to be their rightful government. They knew that what they intended to do was illegal from the king's perspective, but they found solace in a higher law, a universal law that takes priority over temporal authority. The thirteen colonies made the case for insurrection in the Declaration of Independence of the United States and thereby permanently enshrined as inalienable "the Right of the People to alter or abolish" the government. The precedent of our own history grants us the right to revolt. Further, the seriousness of corporate America's threat to the world puts us under obligation to act. Now we will sweep the parasites out of power and reinstate the rule of the people.


Pro Deo et Constitutione –
Libertas aut Mors Semper Vigilans Fortis
Paratus et Fidelis
Joseph F Barber

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD 

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