We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Poem: Heroes

By Gary Steven Corseri, posted on Brave New World

Do not call them “heroes”
if they have done your killing for you.
Say that they have done your bidding;
say they were your “soldiers.”

Say that you have trained them well:

They are the oiled machinations of war,

performing as expected.

Refrain from saying “professionals,”

and the usual nonsense about “surgical strikes.”

They were never doctors and nurses

in starched, white linens.
The best heroes are dead ones—
mortified and mortared.
They neither complain nor contradict.
They don’t re-live “friendly fire” incidents,
the sonofabitch sargeant-sadist,
nor the rapist in their midst.
They don’t see again
the faces of traumatized children.
Their bones stretch to attention under the sod.

The man and woman who will kill and injure

because some fool tells them to

are just little spin-off fools.

No act born of ignorance is heroic.

Heroes are sensible, not imbeciles.

Heroes dispel myths; they neither create

nor perpetuate them.
The fully manifested hero,
aware of his power and dignity,
is more than human, is humane.

Heroes don’t talk about heroes.

They need no confetti showered in their faces.

They question; they learn; they challenge; they act

according to their own honed principles:

What is truth? for example;

what is honor?