A Response

~Yesterday in this Comm this little missive was posted here. Usually, I ignore these things. Most Americans have no real inner mechanism for dealing with existential crisis, so we respond with a vast burst of Feel Good Charity Porn. I refer to it as such because it is not really about 'those in need'; it is about salving our own feelings of Terror and Guilt.

But this last one pissed me off because it ended with this; “We need to walk our talk, people.” That is a Shaming Statement and as such is decidedly un-Spiritual. Implicit in it as that if you don't cough up something you're not a good person. I ignore that crap all across the Internet, but I won't put up with it here.

And this has nothing to do with my feelings about Japan and the Japanese. I have had great love and affection for them ever since Madam Saito taught me to use chopsticks when I was seven years old. [1959] Barring anyone who is actually Japanese or speaks such, I likely know more of Japan than most in this community.

If any nation can pull itself out from under this catastrophe, it is Japan. Sixty six years ago they started to pull themselves out from under the total wreckage of their Imperial Ambitions and it is only two decades since many were worried they were going to conquer the world.

Unlike the Haitians. Remember them? It's been fourteen months since that 'great outpouring' and yet hundreds of thousands of Haitians still sit in their own wreckage and shit. And there are tens of thousands of former New Orleans residents, some of whom are multi-generational, who have never been able to return to their homes or even their city after five and a half years.

Where are the Urgent Appeals for them? Long gone and long forgotten.

Now of course a few of y'all did the old “Well, what have you done” bullshit. I've been homeless, that's what I've done, nearly two years. And while I was, I did my best to help my fellows, though usually all I could was tell folks where good food and shelter could be found, talk about getting Sober [I'm 16 &1/2 years Sober] and explain how the so-called 'system' worked and how to 'work it'.

These days I live in the boonies with my Blood Sister. We're both on Disability. We rescue kitties and help out our friends – and they us – when we can. We do our best to be Grateful for what we have and give back what we can in the best way we can.

What we do not do is try to shame others into Feel Good Charity Porn. That is both unthinking and un-Spiritual.

As I said, normally I simply let these things pass. I know full well how weak most of my fellow humans are. But that Shaming Statement was not acceptable in this place and required a vigorous response.

Some will understand that and some will not. But that is between you and your own Conscience and Deities. And so it is.....