Ungrandaughter
“Most fanatics are not driven by sadism but by lofty ideals, a longing for redemption and a desire to mend the world, which necessitate “getting rid of the bad ones.”
Normally, I avoid political commentary. But at the moment, here in the US the dots are so clearly connected they can't be ignored. Thanks to the Bidens, we stand at the confluence of privilege and violence in ways that have rarely been so starkly visible. The explosion of hypocrisy radiates in every direction.
Leaders who refuse to walk their talk are as common as they are dangerous. As I often find myself saying, there isn't a single leader anywhere in the world with a vision of a viable future for all Life. And because the US continues (inexplicably) to have a role in global leadership, Biden is our poster child for this failure. Speaking of poster child...
If the Bidens truly understood loss, they would be incapable of banishing their inconvenient granddaughter. They would lead the way in embracing love in all its messy, awkward glory. This includes the older grandchildren who have also chosen to remain silent. If the Biden's understood addiction, they'd know that sobriety means holding ourselves and those we love accountable. It means admitting mistakes and making amends, and accepting the consequences of our actions. The politics of expediency must be replaced by a politics of congruence between actions and ideals. We've long since run out of time to pretend that anything short of integrity is acceptable.
Let's remember that Biden has a long and troubling record of hypocrisy. He's the reason we have Clarence Thomas. He voted for the war in Iraq. As a senator he voted against busing for desegregation; he voted against gay marriage; he protected banks and credit card companies. Then there's the approval of the Willow Project earlier this year, and the frenzy of weapons sales in response to the proxy war with Putin playing out in Ukraine, including the recent decision to sell cluster bombs. Emphasis on sell. As of January, 2023, US arms sales to Ukraine topped $20 Billion. No diplomacy in sight.
Biden has confirmed what we already knew but hoped might change under his leadership as president: the rich and powerful can erase the existence of the vulnerable simply by turning away - not to be confused with turning the other cheek. Just ask the drowned migrants, asylum-seekers and victims of violence we continue to ignore. American policies abetted by Biden continue to feed deadly desperation. Commerce American style outsources slavery and suffering.
Lately, there's a lot of talk about planetary tipping points, especially in relation to climate collapse. These days, the term refers to the moment when things are so precarious that change becomes unstoppable. But in the 1950's, a tipping point referred to the moment when a certain number of Black families had moved into a predominantly white neighborhood and white families fled because they feared that property values would drop if the neighborhood became too racially or ethnically mixed.
Now, the meaning has expanded to tipping points that are both more pervasive and less visible. When too many trees have been cut, forests cannot grow back. When too many humans pave the wild, animals vanish. When too many rivers are dammed, global ecology becomes destabilized. And also: when too many books and conversations are banned, and too many ways of being are outlawed, this distorted 'purity' makes us not only wrong but vulnerable: Life requires lavish, exuberant diversity. Just as agricultural monocrops destroy soil, what Vendana Shiva calls monocrops of the mind destroy Earth and human wellbeing.
At the root of these nested dilemmas is a desperate need for visionary congruence. Nothing short of a new culture will save us. This requires a willingness to take the risks and endure the turbulence of evolutionary change. It also requires a willingness to sacrifice a political career now for a future not yet assured, including a future for a little girl in Arkansas whose existence the Bidens refuse to acknowledge. If we don't recognize the future that is already here, how will we find our way to the one in which all children and therefore all Life will thrive?
Show us how it's done, Joe. That's what real men and women, real families, real Catholics, real Americans, and real leaders do.
