MIRACLES

Last night I was watching a movie that depicted racial discrimination against people of African descent in the U.S. back in the 60's and 70's. It's called Pride, and is based on a true story of an African-American man who started an all black swim team in Philadelphia in the 70's and how they were treated, which was HORRIFICALLY. The opening scene is him attending a swim meet 10 years before he began coaching, where the all white crowd literally boos him as he walks in and the other swimmers refuse to get in the water with him. It BLOWS MY MIND that this same country 40 years later has a PRESIDENT of African descent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is MIRACULOUS! How is it even possible that the MAJORITY could change that much in that amount of time? The scenes they show of the discrimination back then were so PAINFUL. I know it still exists today, but it is no longer ACCEPTABLE by the majority. How could something like that EVER be acceptable to the majority????? It was.

It got me thinking. That is the kind of miracle we need for this planet to survive. If it is possible for the MAJORITY to go from completely acceptable public hatred to electing a President in 40 years, then what will it take to go from completely acceptable public desecration of the Earth to placing her in the highest position possible in our society???? THAT is a miracle we need desperately. And we don't have 40 years to come around to that as a majority. We don't even have 10. I imagine if you lived in an all white neighborhood the horrors of how others were treated based on the color of their skin would not be a part of your life. Here in N. America it's like living in an "all white" neighborhood. We don't see how we are destroying people and creatures and oceans and forests so it's not part of our lives to want to stop it. We might read about it or hear about it from someone else, but it's not HORRIFYING enough to do anything about. It's not "in our neighborhood". How can this change? How can we get out of our "all white" neighborhood and realize the effect we are having on the entire world? We don't just poison it in our own little corner. That poison covers the globe. And STILL there are people saying it's not really happening, or it's not that important. That's hard for me to comprehend with all I see. I know that there are some who realize how imperative this is, but they are not yet the majority.

Here in Hawaii I'm sad to say environmentalism is a racial issue. Truly alarming to witness. If I as a person of Swedish descent go up to a person of Hawaiian descent and ask them to please make a different choice with whatever they are doing that is damaging the Earth, they have a VERY different reaction than if a person of their same skin color asks them. When hiring a person to do outreach to the fishing community here, the powers that be actually had to consider the color of skin in order for that person to be effective. Wow. This is 2009. It's hard for me to even write this. When I attended the meeting about the forest at Larsens being cut down, the rancher who wants to destroy it all actually commented on the color of skin of the people present as if that mattered! Even though I've witnessed it so many times since I moved here, it is still shocking to me every single time. How can this be? We need to come together to deal with this issue. We are ALL contributing and we ALL will be affected. Skin makes NO difference to the poisons going into the world. But skin IS stopping us from working together to end this destruction.

There is a global environmental conference happening right now in Copenhagen. The Nations of the world are coming together to take a look at what is happening to the planet, and come to agreements on what needs to be done to turn the tide of devastation around. It is SO important that the issues of color disappear completely between the Nations so that we FINALLY see that there is only ONE human species on this earth, and this is the only home for EVERYONE. We need that miracle to happen. I believe in miracles. I have seen them happen. It's time for one now.
Thanks for listening.