Thankful for Equality

Nicely put, Will. I am finding myself looking forward to these blog entries more and more. In response to your thoughts: I have a deep sense of faith in the belief that the values and virtues you are talking about still lie deep down at the core of most modern-day Americans. Only that the weight of The Grid has temporarily (optimistic choice of words) suppressed their sense of being “in-tune” with these fundamental guiding principals. You are doing some heavy lifting with this project. You’re lifting the weight of the Grid. Let us, as supporters, know when you could use a spot.

However, I have to disagree with your previous post, “Our Leaders are Lost”

I am only 25 years old. Despite the overwhelming weight of The Grid, you have managed to throw some elbows and break thru the madness, demanding my full attention. Ahead of prime time television, Brittany, and the corporate jungle, all while redefining my definition of the term, “leader”.

-OUR LEADERS ARE FOUND

True equality is a difficult concept for an individual to grasp, let alone an ideal worth implementing into law. How can there be equality between humans without intrinsic value or a Spiritual-less world? There can’t. The very essence of equality means there is something that binds us together, something that gives us all an even playing field. It’s the reason we are here. To understand the value of yourself and what you mean to the world, and appreciate other’s in the same sense. You are what you think you are.

Let me see if I can tie Will’s previous entry “Our Leaders Are Lost” to “Thankful for Equality”.

“Perhaps no form of government,” said Lord Bryce, “needs great leaders as much as democracy.” For democracy is not self-executing. It takes leadership to bring democracy to life. Great democratic leaders are visionaries. They have an instinct for their nation’s future, a course to steer, a port to seek. Through their capacity for persuasion, they win the consent of their people and call forth democracy’s inner resources.

How does one become a leader? It must be a combination of many values. Idealism, hunger, passion, drive and a little charisma can’t hurt to help lift a person into a position of leadership.

In truth, there isn’t a person alive that doesn’t have the capacity for these traits. True, Tom Cruise is rather charismatic, and he must have hunger passion and drive. We can assume his idealism via public comments made regarding his faith, but does this make him a leader? I’d sooner fallow Barry Bonds into the fray.

So what makes Tom or Barry different then say, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Will Marre, or my wife? Nothing. That’s right, NOTHING. Human capacity is a mysterious and unexplored world. We’ve been North, South, East, and West. We’ve been to space and the depths of the ocean. There isn’t much left that we haven’t examined via a microscope or satelite. The one true frontier remaining is our inner selves. A place where true equality lies. A place where intelligence, ability, talent, strength, and beauty are not factors. I believe it has been our inability to explore and understand this part of ourselves that has keep us from finding our truest leaders, ourselves, and taking the next leap as mankind.

The title for this blog should have been “Thankful for the ideal of Equality” or “Thankful for the Equality Ideal.” It would have been more accurate… Will, you’ve made the obvious historical and behavioral observations, as well as the obvious expressions of hope, identifying the conflict between the nature, the condition and the aspiration of human individuals and communities. What is an ideal? A psychological motivator for individual and social achievement. After the ideal, there are the sociocultural negotiations between individuals and groups in society as they struggle to ignore and/or make reality this ideal. This process is informed by our understanding of the ease or difficulty with which we lead our lives, the social networks we have chosen for ourselves, our national narratives (which often serve as cultural inertia), the technology that facilitates our lifestyle, what science has been able to measure from outer space to inner space, and whatever restlessness we may or may not feel deep inside… In other words, the future of the ideal rests in the same place the Buddha, Socrates and Jesus found it to be: with the individual. The rest is history…and mystery.

Dear Will… thank you for your comments on the ideal of equality. I was touched by the story of your granddaughter. To me that’s where the rubber meets the road and our beliefs are truly tested. I am 45 and my wife and I are planning to have a child. If I look at the state of the world, our country, and even my life, this is complete insanity. And yet… we feel called to be parents. Can we ignore this call? For me All that is real is unseen. Working with children has taught me this over and over again, and I know that your granddaughter will continue to be a teacher for you and us if we have the spirit to listen. We Are Equal in spirit, and that has to be our guiding light as a world, as a country, and as individuals.