Plutocracy

US citizens are allowing themselves to be ruled by a plutocracy. The current whining of the Democrats in Congress that 'the votes aren't there' for universal health care for American citizens, when there are a majority of Democrats in the Congress, is the open admission that we no longer have a two-party democracy in the US. We have a plutocracy: Government by the wealthy for the interests of the wealthy.

The recent 'solutions' to the US 'financial crisis' should have been evidence enough for those with eyes and a brain. The solutions entailed propping up the wealthy who had raped the financial system by defrauding the middle class with bogus loans. The middle class is broke. The wealthy bankers are still flush. The government of the US continues to hold the hands of the rich, while the middle class and the poor struggle on their own.

The health care debate is the biggest tip-off of all. First, there is no debate. Universal health care was never really on the table. Now they are force=feeding the public with universal coverage. They are equating the two concepts in an attempt to fool the public into thinking that a compromise has been reached. This is a patent lie. There was never a legitimate debate.

Universal health care would mean that any US citizen or legal resident would have the ability to access health care (medical assistance or treatment) anywhere in the US at any time it was required without worry about being bankrupted by that need. In other words, medical care as a human and civil right.

Universal health coverage keeps up the illusion that medical care is a commodity, not a human and civil right. This is the position of the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry, the wealthy interests who obviously own our Congress lock, stock and barrel. So, the Congress will keep funneling customers to the insurance companies. More than ever, since every US citizen will be forced to buy private insurance in order to get medical treatment.

Perhaps it is time to stop mooning over well-meaning President Obama. He has surrendered to these interests by giving Congress the go-ahead to sell the American citizenry down the river to the lobbies who have made this country the mess it is right now. Perhaps it is time to get involved, to write your Congressional delegation. Demand your human right to health and well being. Do not surrender your rights as a human being to the insatiable greed of the wealthy.

Practice is fighting greed and stupidity for your own humanity's sake. Compassion is doing the same for all humanity's sake.

Who?

Who is the greater racist? The person who admits seeing race and to reacting to it, despite his best efforts and wishes to change the impact of racism in his own life, OR the person of any race who so prides himself on his race that he insists upon being treated exceptionally because of his race?

Who cannot see race, if he/she has functioning vision? Who is more trustworthy? Is it the person who openly acknowledges the unfortunate and undesirable effects of race on his/her perceptions and reactions? Or is it the person who says he/she is 'race blind' and runs away from discussions about race?

Who truly cares about race once a sincere human connection is made between two human beings? What keeps people from being sincere with each other? Is the problem racism? Is the problem anger? Is the problem fear? Is the problem pride? Or is the problem simply one of bad personal habits that get in the way?

Practice is all about challenging and changing personal habits one relationship at a time. A society comprised of people who believe in their responsibility to practice personal growth and compassion cannot be racist, sexist, homophobic or violent. Practice is living through positive change by taking chances and practicing peace.

Visibility

This blog has recently been listed on Boston.com's Blog List under Politics and Media . While I have no understanding of how that has occurred, I am appreciative that someone took my words to heart enough to honor them with a visible place on Boston. com. I thank whomever that may be.

I have striven generally to make my personal practice invisible to the casual observing eye. This in itself is an element of practice. Unlike the practitioner of the ritualistically religious, I wear no vestments or monk's robes. Like the current character on Showtime, Nurse Jackie, I have worn a uniform, which has announced an element of my practice, helping the sick with the most skill and compassion I can muster. And, frankly, I have more in common with Nurse Jackie than with Pope Benedict.

Practice is best beheld and evaluated in the eye of its practitioner, I feel. To truly practice compassion and personal development through enlightened and liberated consciousness as a public activity takes excruciating discipline and consciousness at all times. Few are able to fulfill that demand. Gandhi, perhaps, the documented Christ, and the living Buddhas of various traditions. I do not aspire to the major league of practice. I'll be happy to stay with the farm team.

This practice of opening a crack in the door to my own practice has been a formative and demanding effort for me. To carefully consider my own truth, to challenge my own assumptions, to reveal my own process are all important to me and require meditation, self-criticism and a hard look at my own life/actions. I am seldom satisfied with anything I see in that process, but I have resolved to share those aspects of my practice as well, when I think they may be helpful to a reader.

So, when I suddenly became aware of the light of greater visibility of this blog, I greeted the news with mixed feelings. First, I am truly pleased at the possibility that a person may find these words, read them and gain nourishment for their own practice from them. Yet, I am also aware that this visibility may bring even greater challenges to me in my practice. Will I be equal to those challenges? Will I answer comments thoughtfully and fairly, even if they challenge the very foundations of my beliefs and my practice itself? Will I continue to devote the time this blog may demand with more readers?

Those questions will be there waiting. They will be part of this practice of writing this blog from now on. Another example of how every new thing in life adds to one's practice, enriches and challenges it. Practice is life. Life is change.

Identity

I believe that all I am and may become in this life will end with my death. There is no evidence to support any other understanding of death, as far as I can tell. Therefore, it is useless to even ponder the question or behave in any way based on an imaginary afterlife. We are like other material objects. At death, our atoms will simply be redistributed into the Universe from which they came.

This perspective is very liberating. By accepting the immutable and inevitable, I am freed to concentrate my energies on being the best version of me I can be in any moment. Unlike religious people who base their behavior on codes, based on the elaborate dictates of an imaginary super being, I am free to look around me and base my behavior on the real world, subject to civil, natural and physical laws. It is my responsibility to make the best ethical decisions I can.

This consciousness stimulated those behaviors in my life which have been most humanitarian and socially responsible. I believe, if all people realized that all we have in this Universe is our common humanity, we would be less divided by religion, race and ethnicity.

Challenges

Life is challenge and change. It is easy to ignore life's challenges in an industrialized society with its conveniences. I can turn my back on a challenge and just watch TV or get in my car and drive to a store for distraction. Challenges are circumstances which demand a behavioral or internal personal change.

Practice requires facing challenges with purpose and consistency. If I am living in mindfulness with compassion, the path to facing and resolving any challenge becomes clear readily. If I am living on the tides of my emotions and selfish needs, I perceive challenges as threats which can often immobilize me or distract me from my path to wellness and harmony in my life.

The key to walking an even path through life is mastery of emotions and needs in favor of mindfulness and compassion. Patience and an acceptance of the inevitability of change come with this form of practice. Challenges become the exercises which tone and strengthen the heart and mind.