Living in an Unbelievable World

I recall talking to my father about the changes that occurred in his lifetime. Born in 1890 and living until his 90's, he went from a horse in his early childhood to many significant advancements in transportation and communication. From automobiles to space, from person-to-person communication by telephone and television, it seemed remarkable. And it was. But the changes in my lifetime continue to boggle my mind.

Triggered by my use of Turbo Tax to file our tax returns, I have treasured all the advancements in my lifetime.  Recalling that I was not unusual to grow up without our family owning a car or having a television since they were not yet invented or were generally unavailable, I continue to be amazed that I can be "in touch" with the world while sitting looking at the ocean using either my IPhone or IPad.  It is amazing to think that we have to deal with space being "cluttered" by various satellites transported by rockets so that our world can be governed by awareness of the good and bad resulting from human behavior.

I owe much to computers. I lucked out working for the Veterans Administration which provided opportunities for advancement. I started working on computers when information was generated through access to a mainframe. Personal computers (PC) were still being invented. I never lost the sense of amazement that could write a program on the computer and in short order, have a set of data that would serve as the basis of a report. I am still awed by computers, now so easily available and so powerful.  I owe so much to Wang, Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg and so many others.

This moment in time which I have been gifted is precious. Aware of how insignificant I am in this vast universe, I want to continue to be a child awed by the experiences enabled by others. I value mindfulness as an avenue to the reality that there is only the moment now and if not grasped with humility, I will have missed its beauty.

Dissent

My great daughter-in-law is a history and social studies teacher in one of New Orleans high schools. My visit to my son and family last weekend prompted her to ask me to share my experience of protest   against the Vietnam War since this was the focus of their class at this time. I appreciated the opportunity and I discovered after I left a paper I wrote on dissent while a priest in Norwood, MA. I share it because I still see dissent in the same light.

Dissent is never easy. Occasionally it brings results; often it entails death. The dissent movement of religious and lay people did help to create an atmosphere that conditioned our government to change its war policy in Vietnam. A negotiated peace is now a realistic possibility. The answer to the dissenting pleas for the poor and the black people from the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King was a bullet. Dissent is not necessarily productive.

The decision to dissent from the established pattern of any society is filled with risk. Not only is responsibility needed; courage and foresight are prerequisites.

Dissent for any reason leaves people anxious. Everyone has convictions --- everyone wants to be right. The numbers who share the same convictions strengthens the group’s hold upon them. This security is threatened once dissent is registered. People must now react to the new voices. Defenses rise to shield the majority from rethinking their position; opposition is justified to protect the order of the community.

The question, however, is whether order must be maintained at any price.

Religion, in general, and Christianity, in particular, has had a long history of supporting order. The moral code of any religion helps to determine people to be steadfast in holding to the ideals of respect and loyalty for authority. In Christianity, there has been a tendency to emphasize humility and docility as a cherished way towards God. This has always made the road of the dissenter more difficult since he is easily relegated to the category of the proud and rebellious. Therefore he is irreligious. Order becomes such a sacred virtue that its stability becomes more important than the integrity of the individual or of a society.

Some of these characteristics were brought to light in our country’s involvement in Vietnam. Since authority is presumed to be correct, the fact that we become enmeshed in southeast Asia implied not only that our presence was right, but also that the thought that we could be wrong was intolerable, treasonous, and unchristian.  The dissenter, whether out of religious convictions or for any other reason, has felt the finger of disloyalty pointed at him. He became un-American.

Why does a person dissent? No one dissents easily. It is an agonizing personal process whereby a person tried to resolve a conflict of principles, convictions and loyalties. Not only must the dissenter establish a priority of one principle over another, but he must also think of the ramifications and consequences of his dissent upon others. In addition, dissent is hard since  there will be few people who will see with equal clarity the reasons for his dissent.

Pragmatism can never be an operative motive for the dissenter. History books usually describe the good that has been accomplished by dissent; the dissenter often never lives to read it. Often personal sacrifice results from dissent. Within the realm of personal honesty lies the root cause for dissent. Unless dissent is voiced, the person becomes dishonest with himself. The conflict must be resolved in fidelity to his conscience.

The life of Dr. Martin Luther King does portray the role of the dissenter. From a bus in Birmingham to the reception of the Nobel Prize for Peace, from the famed Washington March of 1963 to his risking his reputation in his early criticism of our Vietnam policy, from listening to the report that the warring parties were preparing to discuss the means towards peace to the shattering bullet that killed him, Martin Luther King tasted both the sweetness of seeing the light of success and bitterness of personal diatribes and death.

For Christian people to be chagrined by dissent is rather strange since their religion is based on a dissenter named Jesus. To be horror-struck by demonstrations while celebrating Jesus’ entrance on Palm Sunday is incongruous. For Americans to fear revolution when their country celebrates an annual Independence Day is a contradiction.

Injustice, hatred, war and poverty serve as a catalyst for dissent. People who can live comfortably in the presence of evil never appreciate dissent. It is the message of Jesus to love one another that urges many people to dream of a world of peace, justice and liberty. The dream is worth the price of death. It did not stop Jesus nor Martin Luther King. Our country and our churches can only pray that there will be others who follow the same path. Overcoming fear by hope, hatred by love, violence by non-violence, we need, even if we do not always deserve or appreciate, the moral dissenter.