Denial is the Enemy of Civilization and Humanity

Truthout

"We live in interesting times," a phrase used many, many times to give a sense of significant changes happening in the world. I imagine that it was used when Alexander spread the reach of the Greek Culture across Southwest and South Asia before his 30th birthday. Again, when the Romans spread the combined Greco Roman culture across Asia, Africa, Europa and the British Isles, it was interesting times. In the Seventh century, A.D., the Islamic faith and culture spread across Asia, Africa and middle Europe culminating in the 12th century's Golden Age of Islam. The treasures of western civilization, the ancient Greek and Roman writings that are the foundation of western culture, were not protected in this time of darkness in the west, but by those who are seen as the enemy of the west, the Islamic Renaissance Scholars who recognized that the writings, teachings and other components of Greek and Roman culture had to be preserved for those in the future.

What if it would havee been the other way? Would have the West preserved Islamic culture because it was important and should be kept for those in the future? To get your answer, you need only to look at the misplaced umbrage and furor over the Islamic Center proposed in Manhattan, three blocks from Ground Zero. The European Renaisance, the age of Enlightenment, the Age of Exploration and discovery and the Industrial Revolution were all interesting times as they moved our civilization forward.

Now, again we live in extremely interesting times, for it seems like the noble experiment of a concerned humanity is coming apart at the seams in this beginning of the new Millenium. Anywhere you look the evidence is there, for anyone to see. This summer, the evidence that we have some issues concerning climate change has manifested itself as record temperatures for heat are set everyday. In Eurasia, the Russian countryside is in flames, as the normal temperate summer temperatures have gave way to record 100+ degrees killing hundreds in Moscow each day. The wild fires have another downside, for the areas that are in flames are those were the weapons of mass destruction were made and are the most contaminated on the face of the earth. The Russian fires are releasing these dormant radioactive poisons to the winds and the four horsemen of Apocalapyse to spread the death from above across the globe. In the press of the west or more to the point, the US, there is not a word of this potential global calamity

We have just passed two anniversaries of interesting times in our history, the Katrina Disaster in the New Orleans region and the 1963 March on Washington demanding human and civil rights for Black Americans. The anniversary of Katrina, shows that tens of thousands of families who were the victims of that storm and flood surge, are still out of the loop as far as getting some help to rebuild their lives and their neighborhoods. This is the result of a deliberate effort to exile those who are poor and disenfranchised in that region and the fruit of it will be with us for decades. Because it created a new approach to disaster relief, "do nothing." We have become a country that does not deal well with humanitarian needs inside our own country because it takes away those monies needed to conduct war without end outside our country to futher the interests of the American  Empire.

The 47th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin King's speech that has achieved iconic status in the history of our nation and the world, this year was observed by the white majority on the Mall, moderated by that wellspring of love and humanity, Glenn Beck. Beck who framed the event as the taking back of the civil rights struggle by the White majority. My question is, How can you take back something that was not yours in the first place? This struggle came from the inequities of a society ran and controlled by Whites for the benefits of Whites. Some of us (white folks) complain, saying it was not us or the folks in the present who did that terrible stuff. What they are missing is the fact, how do you rectify 250 years of slavery and another 110 years of prejudice, discrimination and hate used to control millions of folks in their daily lives? You cannot bury it in a hole in the ground and act like it never happened. It did happen and it is still happening today. It has to become a part of the national discussion in this country. Because now it has evolved to targeting those who are Muslim and Latino.

On the surface, Dr. Martin King being imitated by the likes of Glenn Beck is almost laughable, if it was not a part of the agenda of the right to rewrite history and to glorify those past horrific injustices as a beautiful moment in America. Yes, we live in interesting times..............