I think we’ve got it now, that clear picture of what policing has become and how racism defines the gaseous mix that has made Swiss cheese of our justice system. People are gathering and marching around the nation, their i’s dotted and their t’s crossed by the lack of accountability in the death of Eric Garner, who was choked to death by one of several cops that landed on top of the big unarmed man, although he did not resist. Now “I can’t breathe” — Garners last words, repeated nine times — joins “Hands up, don’t shoot” as the protest meme of the twenty-teens.

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

As the choke hold has long been outlawed in New York, and because the entire distressing affair was filmed by a canny bystander, it was assumed that the grand jury would present a different finding from the one in Ferguson. Didn’t happen. Jon Stewart gave us the appropriate WTF response, and when Stewart gets serious, you know we’ve come to an impasse in credibility. The result of this ruling makes Obama’s call for body cams on America’s police force moot.

It’s difficult not to notice that the nation has one foot in (ghettoized) reality and one in (elitist) delusion. How else to explain that the white murderer of Michael Brown has been allowed to move on from culpability while Brown’s black stepfather is being held responsible for hostile comments made in his moment of grief and rage? How else to rationalize the fact that the grand jury has granted Garner’s white killers their freedom while the man (of color) who came forward with the recording has been scrutinized and indicted on old charges.

This boomerang effect — bouncing off white authority to land back on black victims — has become so obvious that an NAACP official, aiding the family of a black man in Phoenix who was killed when an officer mistook a pill bottle in his pocket for a weapon, warned against too emotional an outburst. Angry black citizens, as has become painfully apparent, are damned if they do — and if they don’t.

Perhaps that is quite literal. As Jon Stewart reminded us, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “The point is, these shootings are clearly not a manifestation of systemic inequality and mistrust between the African-American community and the somehow always-justified Police-American community, but […] merely an unending bizarrely-similar series of unrelated incidents.”  And, just for a moment let me don my tinfoil hat to post this interesting link, putting in question the identity of those who decided Ferguson must burn. As I commented that day, I had the feeling that announcing the verdict late at night gave a perfect dark backdrop for the requisite fire that makes White America clutch her pearls. File under “Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm.”

There have been a number of excellent articles written, the totality of which sums up the problem itself, if not the solution. I was impressed with Chris Rock’s take on this, some of which came from his Rolling Stone interview. When asked about his comment that “even Nostradamus couldn’t see the end of American racism,” Rock responded:

“We’re never going to see the end of racism per se. But Obama is like the polio vaccine of racism – people still get polio and die, but there is a vaccine. They don’t have to get it. And my kids, you know, it’s been 12 years now and there hasn’t been one racial incident in my mostly white neighborhood – not even a tiny one.”

Rock — who admits his income gives him special status — continued his commentary on race issues in a fascinating conversation with Frank Rich, nailing the delusional quality of the elitist thought-process within the white community:

“Here’s the thing,” Rock said. “When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it’s all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they’re not as crazy. To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before.”

[…]

“To say Obama is progress is saying that he’s the first black person that is qualified to be president,” Rock said. “That’s not black progress — that’s white progress. There’s been black people qualified to be president for hundreds of years.”

Despite fear of becoming a one-trick pony, writing only about these racial inequities and victimizations, I want to make sure we’re thinking big enough now to get a clearer glimpse of this problem. Easy enough to tear up — as I did reading Eric Garner’s final words — but that won’t change anything. Easier still to rage against what’s wrong without thinking outside the box, looking for a way to sway the whole of us back toward an ethical, humanistic future. Shaving this problem down to mere racism is leaving behind the larger “ism” I think we’re looking at today: classism.

Chris Rock is the only other person I’ve heard wonder about our leaving monarchies behind in this New World and then establishing a pecking order that mimics them. (You’ll find those comments early in the Rich interview.) This is the second time in our brief history that we’ve created a vastly rich upper class while dooming the lower class to slave-like working conditions, furthering class war. We can’t seem to help ourselves.

And it’s easiest to do that with communities of color, isn’t it! We’ve talked a bit about white privilege here at Planet Waves, but not enough in the nation at large, where people simply seem incapable of putting themselves in another’s place. We’re too busy voting against our own interests and hoping to win the lottery.

I remember reading/posting a dynamite article a few years back, written by a southern man, raised conservative, who had a life-changing experience when faced with shepherding a group of young black children through his church obligations. Taking them out to eat, he was shocked to discover that they’d never been in a sit-down restaurant, never ordered off a menu. He began to see life through their eyes and discovered that what he’d been taught was wrong, and their flippant and/or defiant behavior was simply ignorance of basic middle-class culture. He got to wondering what else he’d mistaken, and shortly after changed his political party. It was, he said, an ethical decision.

Yes, between these latest tragic poster children for black victimization and the egregious records of brutality in our for-profit prisons, it’s almost impossible to be anything but defensive if you still have faith in the justice system. (And I guess we can call our current conflagration progress, of a sort, since in decades gone by the majority felt absolutely NO need to defend brutal behavior toward those of a race or religion “less” than their own [sic.] We inch forward slowly — until we leap.)

The problem with being defensive, of course, is that’s exactly the way that rationale comes across, pouty and offended. That’s how it came across when nobody’s favorite congressman, Rep. Peter King of New York, blamed Eric Garner for his own demise, telling the world that Garner would probably not be dead “… if he had not had asthma and a heart condition and was so obese.” He forgot to add black.

I’m wondering how such a statement plays with the one-in-twelve asthma sufferers, the 24.7 million living with heart disease and the one-third of the U.S. population that is obese. Not all of those with these problems are people of color, hold different religious views, or are immigrants. A good many of them are white, living in areas of poverty that offer them no opportunity, voting against their own good and defending their “freedom” to the bitter end.

Obviously those of us out here in the “reality community” need to acknowledge that rational thinking, factual information and logic will not win the day. We are up against something quite different than the lefties, as a group, can grok in fullness — or at least haven’t been able to, up to this point. We need to begin to tell our story differently. We need to build a better mousetrap!

Take that sentence above: one-in-twelve with asthma, 24.7 million with heart disease, one-third of the US population obese. There’s a story there about cultural and environmental norms in this nation. There’s a finger pointing at the corporations that make money off these people not just by folding them into an opportunistic health care system, but by adding to the cause of their maladies on almost every level.

You may recognize the name George Lakoff. He is a renowned cognitive linguist and Berkeley professor who introduced a baffled nation to the conservatives’ convincing use of language — and the Democrats misunderstanding of it — in his book, Don’t Think of an Elephant.

Lakoff wrote the following in a recent interview, not about my sentence but about the corporate dominance that led to it:

Oil companies – our wealthiest corporations – are destroying the planet for their short-term profit. Corporations govern your life by putting hidden carcinogens and other poisons in your food, cosmetics, furniture, etc. for their profit, not your health. For details, go to ewg.org. These are facts. In isolation, one-by-one, they are just a laundry list. Isolated facts don’t help. Together they tell a truth: Corporations govern your life for their profit not yours, in all those ways. Name it. Repeat it. We need reform at the deepest level.

The political world is spinning itself into knots based on basic ethical considerations, and — although the progressive wing of the Democratic party has lately begun to reinvent itself — politics to the left of the spectrum has lost its moral authority. Lakoff urges the left to reclaim its dedication to the public good, to speak from the heart, communicating values instead of pointing out evidence of the hypocrisy on the other side of the political spectrum. The result of years of that has had as much effect as spitting into the wind. If we are to foster change, we have to make an effort to engage these people in a genuine dialogue.

Looking at brain science, Lakoff suggests that democracy means vastly different things on each side of the aisle. Conservatives frighten more easily, are more aggressive in self-protection. They do not stray from what Lakoff calls “strict father morality,” which is what we see at work in almost all of the punitive laws we’ve established in the last few decades, enjoying a renaissance now in this hateful business of blaming the poor for their poverty, the uneducated and unassisted for their inability to break through the barriers that hold them. Says Lakoff:

“In a strict father family, the father is in charge and is assumed to know right from wrong, to have moral as well as physical authority. He is supposed to protect the family, support the family, set the rules, enforce the rules, maintain respect, govern sexuality and reproduction, and teach his kids right from wrong, that is, to grow up with the same moral system. His word defines what is right and is law; no backtalk. Disobedience is punished, painfully, so that children learn not to disobey. Via physical discipline, they learn internal discipline, which is how they become moral beings. With discipline they can become prosperous.

If you are not prosperous, you are not disciplined enough, not taking enough personal responsibility and deserve your poverty. At the center is the principle of personal responsibility and moral hierarchy: those who are more moral (in this sense of morality) should rule: God over man, man over nature, parents over children, the rich over the poor, Western culture over non-Western culture, America over other countries, men over women, straights over gays, Christians over non-Christians, etc.”

Conservatives are absolutely assured by their faith that they hold the moral high ground, which gives them liberty to keep women in their place and treat children as property, while infantilizing the patriotism that fuels the NRA on the homefront as devotedly as it does the machinery of war around the globe. Like the Federalism that keeps states rights in place, conservatism is a close-knit, private affair.

This unquestioning belief in the patriarchy as defined by their godhead, which favors the stern father prototype out of the Old Testament, wounds us all. Notions of god-space have no ability to evolve when defined not as love, but conditional love. Clearly, the progressive empathy and nurture that drive moral convictions on governance serving the totality of the public good fly in the face of the limited conservative “tough love” mentality.

I have a hard time understanding how compassion can be argued against, personally, but we have to find the right tone to begin that conversation. Paul Krugman, for instance, tells us, “Today’s immigrant children are tomorrow’s workers, taxpayers and neighbors. Condemning them to life in the shadows means that they will have less stable home lives than they should, be denied the opportunity to acquire skills and education, contribute less to the economy, and play a less positive role in society. Failure to act is just self-destructive. But more importantly, it’s (Obama’s immigration proposal) the humane thing to do.”

That’s a progressive argument. It isn’t just an idea, it’s actual human children who need something from the society in which they find themselves. If we can begin a conversation about what to do with the undocumented who are already here — many of whom work for the people who would vote them out of the country — insisting that there must be some ethical solution we can develop between the two political camps, then we can begin to close the class-gap between both the immigrants and the population, as well as those on each side of the aisle.

Yelling at one another over the divide will not work; trying to sooth ancient and ignorant fears won’t, either. But engaging a conversation in what we should MUTUALLY do to solve problems, side-stepping the obvious traps of partisanship while inviting real solutions to the ethical challenges we face, just might. It would take real discipline, but it’s do-able. Getting to the table is the first step, one that will require not just willingness but dedication to civility.

Read Lakoff. Get a sense of how to use progressive language without reinforcing conservative jargon. Find some moderate talking points in which to begin a conversation with those who refuse to hear you, anticipate how to respond to hostility in a way to defuse it. If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain, my dears, the mountain must come to Mohammed. Once upon a time we could say that this was the work of government. Now? It’s ours to do, person to person: aware, awake, purposeful.

There is no stopping a good idea once it has legs. We need to build that better mousetrap of an argument, one that engages the emotions of those who hear it, that appeals to the higher angels of anyone in shouting distance, the one that fosters a change of mind as an ethical decision. We need to create a story that points to peace, that soothes the anxiety of those who fear the progress that must come — inevitably — and when we do that, the world will find the heart-space to hear it.

When the Gemini Full Moon opposes the Sagittarius Sun at 7:27 am EST (12:27 UT) Saturday, the Moon will reflect the Sun’s light onto a world out of balance in many ways. Fortunately, the astrology of which the Gemini Full Moon will be just a part will provide you reason to reflect on how balance might be restored.

In the sky, on the zodiac circle, and in the rest of the natural world, equilibrium is in practice a continuum of either real or apparent motion. Most often, the motion is cyclical, like the seasons. Sometimes the motion in question takes the form of waves, which also transmit both energy and information.

Other times, the continuing dynamic of balance entails rising alternating with falling, as in the level of rivers, or tides. One can also observe advances followed by retreats, followed by advances, then retreats again.

Whether it’s round and round, up and down, or back and forth, the natural process of balance is never static. Nevertheless, things can go only so far one way before they must come back the other way. It’s a journey more than a destination. It’s an engine more than a creation. The middle way is never attained finally, but always continuously.

Unfortunately, in human affairs balance is not a given. It must be made to happen. Your checkbook does not balance itself. Neither do the scales of justice. There is no natural process to assure that right will overcome might.

Yet, all sentient beings have some sense of what’s right from their individual perspective. The fact that human beings tend to form communities confers upon you at least some additional sense of what’s right for everybody involved. It is through that very common sense of common decency that the journey towards balance begins in your life, and in the world.

An innate sense of what’s best for everybody involved must in turn be balanced with awareness. That’s where astrology, particularly the astrology of Saturday’s Full Moon, will come in.

As a first principle, astrology provides a detached perspective. It’s a way of getting away from the stresses and stories that make everything so confusing and distorted down here. We can look at what’s going on up there, based on the premise that down there and up here are actually one continuous whole — the system we call solar.

The demonstrable fact that you are an interactive part of the cosmos is the premise upon which Eric and others are even now composing the Planet Waves annual edition for 2015, appropriately titled “Cosmophilia.”

Recognizing the same fact will give you something to add to your innate sense of common decency — the perspective conferred by higher ground.

To attain that perspective, it’s not necessary to get all technical and complicated about the astrology of the Gemini Full Moon. But it would help to isolate two factors: a factor of space, and a factor of time.

The first factor is that of space. The Sun will have a lot of heavy company in its Sagittarius ‘space’ on the zodiac when it opposes the Moon at the moment of maximum fullness. Stepping back from the interesting but potentially distracting detail, visualize an entire football team on one end of a seesaw, and you will get the picture

Whereas in mid-Gemini, where the Full Moon will be, you can practically hear crickets. In other words, the axis connecting the luminary (Sun and Moon) opposition this month is, from a non-technical but still valid perspective, a clear symbol of imbalance.

Indeed, when you compare the number of astrologically significant objects in Sagittarius with the dearth of same in Gemini, and combine that fact with the sense that every Full Moon represents a culmination, it’s a clear signal from the cosmos that things have gone about as far one way as they possibly can, and/or probably should.

Then, there is also a time factor. This weekend’s Full Moon will take place only about a week before Uranus and Pluto reach an exact square aspect (a separation of 90 degrees on the zodiac circle) for the sixth time since June 2012.

For astrologers, when significant events occur within a short space of time, it is just as meaningful as when significant objects crowd into a narrow slice of the zodiac. This is especially true of the temporal concurrence between the Uranus-Pluto square and the Gemini Full Moon.

Repeatedly over the past several years, Eric has referred to the unusually long oscillating continuum of Uranus-Pluto squares as “era-defining.” Hence, any closely concurrent events will implicitly contribute to the definition of the era even now being shaped — which is where you come in.

You factor in because you are indisputably here now, and because you are unavoidably (if not undeniably) part of a greater whole. As part of a greater whole, you are also demonstrably more than just a cog because (unlike the Sun, Moon, Uranus, Pluto or any other constituents of naturally oscillating equilibriums) you can choose.

And because you can choose, you have a power conferred to no planet and none of the stars. You have the power to tip the balance.

You are, by your very being as a human, conferred with the capacity to both recognize an imbalance between might and right, and a responsibility to do something about it, if only by the example your conduct sets.

If there’s anything to astrology, your example will make a difference. If indeed an entire era is even now in the process of taking shape, the difference you make will implicitly last much longer and take up significantly more space than you ever dreamed possible.

Realize the impossible dream begins by consciously using the occasion of this weekend’s Gemini Full Moon. Use it to recognize the imbalance perpetrated by might, and to say (if only to inform your own choices), “that’s far enough.”

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

At the peak of this week’s various fire trine aspects, fiery Mars will leave Capricorn and enter Aquarius at 6:57 pm EST (23:57 UT) on Thursday, as if to pass you a torch to carry forward. Now the question is what you will choose to do with whatever form of hot responsibility you are about to be handed.

From a holistic perspective, the nature the responsibility being passed on to you while Mars traverses Aquarius will be conferred by awareness.

Given one way Aquarius differs from Capricorn, the awareness being handed to you will not be yours alone to carry. Rather, it will be shared — at least until Mars continues on to Pisces come Jan. 12.

Outwardly, some people might perceive transition of Mars from Capricorn to Aquarius to represent more of the same because staid Saturn rules both signs. Hence the so-called mutual reception between Mars in a Saturn-ruled sign and Saturn in Scorpio (co-ruled by Mars and Pluto) continues until Dec. 23.

Such a perception of continuity has a valid point, and for nearly three weeks we can continue to expect Mars and Saturn to somewhat share, or even occasionally trade, characteristics. Such an exchange is a primary result of what happens when two planets concurrently occupy each other’s dominion.

In spite of Saturn in common, however, Aquarius and Capricorn do not have the same nature. A relative new-comer, unpredictable Uranus, shares ruling duties for Aquarius with pedantic Saturn, forming an odd-couple arrangement that is somehow appropriate given how element and quality mix in their mutual domain.

For while Capricorn sensibly combines a cardinal (initiating) quality with an earthen (fundamental) elemental identity, the constitution of Aquarius is (on the surface, at least) a contradiction in terms.

Because Aquarius follows a cardinal sign (Capricorn) in the sequence of the zodiac, it’s by definition a fixed sign as evinced by the Sun. In other words, by the time the Sun enters Aquarius next year, the season initiated by the Capricorn solstice on Dec. 21 will be unambiguously “fixed” into place and clearly recognizable for what it is.

Forming one of the greater oxymorons presented by astrology, however, Aquarius is also identified by its association with the element of air. Of the four elements (fire, earth, air and water) derived from ancient natural science and applied for use in astrology, air is perhaps the hardest to imagine being fixed into place.

Nonetheless, when you consider that air is also associated with ideas, the superficial contradiction begins to make sense. After all, it is common to refer to the sharing and exchange of ideas as “something in the air.”

So it is then that Aquarius is rightfully associated with otherwise diverse groups of people who identify with each other through shared ideas, common awareness and unifying consciousness. This in contrast with Capricorn representing a hierarchical and/or elitist power structure.

Hence, with the passing of energetic Mars into Aquarius, there is a sense that some expression of established order is divesting itself of having to carry on somehow. The divestment is, in turn, implicitly being offloaded onto you through association with those people with whom you share guiding principles of conduct and contribution.

There is abundant evidence of recent failures by the established order to hold up its end of the social bargain. Hence it is entirely appropriate that people with the common interest in common should take up the Martian torch of energy and desire to get something done (or at least make a start), especially when a new season is about to begin.

But without awareness — your awareness especially — nothing will change.

Unless you elect to be aware, what’s in the air will pass you by. Unless you take responsibility for what you are aware of, your conscience will not rest easy. Unless you act with integrity upon what you are responsible for, you will not be whole.

Fortunately, the impending ingress of Mars into Aquarius means that the responsibility conferred by what comes to you through the air will not be yours alone to bear. That you will be able to do your part in unison with others, accomplishing more than you ever could on your own.

So, sniff the air a bit come Thursday. Follow your nose to where and when you can do your passionate part to step in with others and make up for where the established order has let us all down. In that way, you will be one with many, and with the cosmos as well.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

Thanksgiving 2014 has come and gone, the last of the Scorpio energies taking their seat at the table, adding to the angst in anticipation of the inevitable Sagittarian blurt. I suppose, given the November energy mix, that every family gathering can expect at least one provocative moment – pushing buttons, kicking baggage, awakening dragons — and some, of course, can anticipate more than others.

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

When I was a kid, prior to every large occasion my Libra mother would advise that “a lady” would never discuss religion or politics in a social gathering (sex, in those days, was out of the question, of course). And as a Sadge with weighty Scorpio placement, I did my best to contain my inquiring mind, but in typical fire-fashion, was as clueless as a puppy snagging the neighbor’s nylons when my offhand comments created a donnybrook at the table. I can still see my mother burying her face in her hands.

It seems inevitable that every November, all the tensions and dysfunctions of family relations merge with those of the larger American family for (as my daughter’s little clan calls seasonal events with the in-laws) Festivus. Most everyone must gird their loins in advance of a full-on family affair, because – as Edgar Cayce explained – family represents the most Karma we will ever face.

This year, some of the pent-up national tension that had been building was purged earlier in the week, when St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch provoked a Thanksgiving topic with his prime-time announcement that Missouri considered all black persons, especially young ones, locked, loaded, and hazardous to life. By Thanksgiving Day, the larger question of justice for Michael Brown – at least for the time being – had been answered, but a whole slew of new questions had begun to gel. Ladylike or not, if Ferguson never came up in conversation, there was an elephant sitting at your table.

Anticipating a gathering marked by division, a number of “how to” articles appeared this year, with hints to guide the unsuspecting away from the sharp rocks and rip tides of a familial day of gratitude. With only two at my little gathering here in the Pea Patch – both of us pretty much in political agreement — I didn’t read any of them, but I’ve been interested to see how this worked out. Our experience of the last few days seems a litmus paper for not just our biases and cultural conditioning, but how well we’re getting the message that our racial attitudes are so ingrained in our daily lives that we simply miss our own culpability in prolonging them. That should be bright as a light bulb, popping on over our heads now, but are we noticing?

I think it’s worth collecting the stories of the hour if we are to get a grip on ourselves and our culture. Many of us seem determined to grow through these challenges, but there’s all that Chiron wounding and wincing to consider, isn’t there! As Pogo said, “We’ve met the enemy and it is us,” and that isn’t a happy revelation. I would be very interested in your Thanksgiving experience, if you’d like to add to comments. We learn most when we share. I’ve had to rely on reports from friends and family, along with news and articles, to assess our progress this year, although a number of factors seem a no-brainer to intuit.

First off, for reasons that can only be equated with pure greed, the finger in the dike of dwindling traditions popped out early in the week, announcing pre-Black Friday shopping by means of earlier store openings and/or full blown dismissal of holiday closing. That means that the full implications of the holiday season suddenly loomed, whispering of the power of credit cards, to occult the glory that is turkey. There are plenty of Black Friday addicts who would not have let dining protocols or hope for seconds interfere with their need to shop — early and continually — ‘til they drop.

Ferguson protesters had launched a boycott against Black Friday shopping, active at various locations here in the Midwest, some joining Wal-Mart workers who were marching for higher wages in Chicago. They wanted, they said, to change the day to ‘Brown Friday,’ as in Michael Brown, but it seems to have reinvented itself again this year as ’Green Friday’ instead, as in ka-ching! So far the protests in East St. Louis and elsewhere have been peaceful and – I presume – stopped very few shoppers from achieving their goals. I read one article that said those entering and exiting one store being picketed were “bemused” by the picketers’ presence – white shoppers, no doubt, unaware that there is “another America,” living, in many cases, just down the street and around the corner.

These more uneventful protests are a relief, given the emotional response to the destruction the young and angry always seem unable to understand hurts the very causes they care so much about. Earlier in the week, as peaceful protests in Ferguson were shattered by Officer Wilson’s verdict, Mike Brown’s step-father, reacting to his wife’s grief and anger, tearfully demanded that the crowd, “burn this shit down.” The next few hours saw the burning of Mike’s birth-father’s church, the one in which he had – only days earlier – been re-baptized, and now those parishioners are looking for a new spot to congregate.

In the same time frame, reports of a small bakery (owned by a white woman) in the same neighborhood that suffered vandalism and broken windows went up on Rush Limbaugh’s website, getting the attention of Sean Hannity over at FOX. Today it was announced that she had received donations of $250,000. I’d like to tell you that this represents the milk of human kindness, but it’s more like an acid drip of self-righteousness. Read the comments over at the Drudge Report and you’ll probably agree.

Those who left Thanksgiving festivities early to get their place in line for a glut of holiday buying may not have had a lot to contribute to a discussion of the Mike Brown/Darren Wilson saga anyway, but don’t count them out. I’ve been interested in who ‘gets this’ and who doesn’t, and it appears that has a lot to do with one’s personal focus. If this was only about systemic racial discrimination and our inability to put ourselves in another’s place, little would stand in the way of this behavior having the nation’s full approval, but the flaws and glaring manipulation in the Ferguson decision have stood even the judicial system on its ear, as well as its outliers.

Take CNN’s Nancy Grace, for instance, a personality I don’t consider even-handed, open-minded or even, at times, rational. In this instance, however, even Nancy can’t swallow the verdict. She told her cultish viewership that she wasn’t buying Wilson’s story that he had no choice but to protect his life by dropping the ‘demonic’ black giant. Displaying hospital close-ups of Darren Wilson’s reddened face, she asked her viewers, “Look, do you know how many times I have sided against a cop? Never. But to me, this is bigger than a badge. And I don’t like speaking out against a cop, but this doesn’t add up.”

On its face, Wilson’s story sounds practiced but sincere. The ease with which he tells it, along with his selection of words, leaves no doubt of his white supremacist leanings. He’s a man of his time and place, and – so he says – easy in his skin, with no regrets. The kind of empathy with which authority figures might become truly responsible arbiters of the law in a community like Ferguson seems beyond his simplistic us/them story of a giant black Negro ‘demon’ who was determined to kill him. No sense protesting that demons are in the eye of the beholder. No sense suggesting that Mike Brown and Darren Wilson each stood 6’4” tall, that Brown was 80 pounds heavier but was not the one with the badge or the gun. No sense explaining that the Supreme Court forbade shooting an unarmed person running away, or even one running toward you, years ago, or that Wilson should never have been allowed to testify in front of a grand jury, as explained by no less than Justice Antonin Scalia.

For a nation that touts its ‘rule of law,’ we seem both lawless and senseless to those looking in from other countries. The question is: how do we look to one another? Is this all just too black and white (pun, no pun!)? Sadly, it seems to me that Wilson is exactly the kind of stand-up guy the police force is looking for, here in Missouri and – oh shit, oh dear – perhaps even where you live, dear reader. And while Wilson will probably not go back to Ferguson as a police officer, not to worry. The hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations he’s received from eager supporters will give him unexpected options.

In the midst of all this Ferguson frenzy, I read an article about how racism has gotten worse since Obama took the presidency. Well, duh! Who didn’t expect THAT after the first fifteen minutes? (Rhetorical, of course. The answer is: too many of us.) In one way, we owe a good deal to the Mike Browns of this nation. To the 12-year-old black child dropped by a rookie cop this week for carrying a pellet gun in Ohio. To the black Texan on death row being denied DNA testing for the alleged murder of his white lover, a woman engaged to a white cop with a history of domestic abuse and rage issues. These souls are holding up a mirror, one we’re forced to look into. There can be – will be – no change without a very close look at ourselves and our systemic failure to value one another, to nurture and protect those among us who need our kindness and compassion.

There IS no answer to all that besets us without education, without ethics, without strong citizen interaction. Ferguson – America – has the ability to rise from these ashes like a Phoenix, taking responsibility for what’s wrong as well as opening our hearts to what’s right. There IS no solution to all that challenges our growth without communication, shared experience, empathy. Whatever we aspire toward can only be shaped and realized by the whole of us, working together, warts and all – because there IS no us and them. There is only us, gathered around humanity’s table, feeding one another as best we can.

I hope that on your Thanksgiving Day something reminded you of how greatly blessed we are as a nation, as a people, as a planet. I hope that if your buttons were pushed, some holy insight quickly followed, making sense of what eluded you. And if there was a blurt by some clueless dinner partner, unaware that they had tripped your bells and tooted your whistles, I hope they were quickly forgiven and/or — depending on your willingness to become self-reflective– appreciated.

To value one another, no matter our differences, to appreciate what is best about humankind, we must embrace our ability to recognize ourselves in each other, vowing to overcome our differences by embracing our commonalities, having learned the alchamy of compassion for ourselves and one another. Like gemstones in a tumbler, we can only begin to shine when we mix it up, grinding down our sharp edges and polishing one another into brilliance.