Kwtia

The Progressive has an article by the professor, historian and social activist Howard Zinn. Here's a little of what he has to say...which I just thought I would put down here because it seems to deal with the same issues that are confronting people here these days...As we ask ourselves why the militants are the way they are and how we can change their kind of thinking..and as we deal with the bigger question of how to change a society like ours and a world that have mixed up the labels of freedom and justice and right and real with everything that isn't any of those things...

"What does it take to bring a turnaround in social consciousness[....] We desperately want an answer, because we know that the future of the human race depends on a radical change in social consciousness.
It seems to me that we need not engage in some fancy psychological experiment to learn the answer, but rather to look at ourselves and to talk to our friends. We then see, though it is unsettling, that we were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts appeared before us, startled us, and then caused us to question beliefs that were strongly fixed in our consciousness--embedded there by years of family prejudices, orthodox schooling, imbibing of newspapers, radio, and television.
This would seem to lead to a simple conclusion: that we all have an enormous responsibility to bring to the attention of others information they do not have, which has the potential of causing them to rethink long-held ideas. It is so simple a thought that it is easily overlooked as we search, desperate in the face of war and apparently immovable power in ruthless hands, for some magical formula, some secret strategy to bring peace and justice to the land and to the world." Changing Minds, One at a Time

Each type of person has a moment like this i suppose...there was a moment when someone who wants to grow a mile long beard, wear a mini length dishdasha and accessorize with a kalashnikov decided that would be what he was about...but anyway..the point of this quote is that those whose consciousness turned them towards peace, fairness, social justice and compassion, should probably search for that inspiration that transformed them and start spreading it in the beautiful ways that they can...and with the same tirelessness exhibited by those who want to close people's minds, who want fear and fighting and stupidity to be what the world is all about ...