Humane beings

Nowadays, a politician is held in low regard—along with crooked lawyers and crack dealers. The evil, graft and corruption of traditional politics are in the White House, corporate executive headquarters and in back room secret meetings. No promising college student brags that he wants to be a shrewd politician in Congress. We must go beyond politics as backstabbing or seeing who can screw over whom first without getting caught.

Our own personal lives are influenced by the politics of politicians each day whether we are conscious of that essential fact of modern life or not. Every major decision made, policy position, and every personal conversation that takes place among those in high positions can result in changing our own individual lives on a daily basis for the better or for the worse.

A human being is a two-legged carnivorous animal with the greatest potential to help or hurt the entire environment on a global scale. Human beings must be civilized and refined into true humane beings that have care, concern and compassion for all of us. As humane beings, we must all come to understand that we are all in the same boat together in “this thing of ours called life,” no matter what our position or whether we are white, black, brown or yellow.

In our daily practice, we must transform traditional politics into a new kind of humane politics that serves the basic survival needs of all of us: food, clothing, shelter, health care and community education. We must work with a functional definition of politics in terms of the dynamics and mechanics of helping to meet the people’s basic survival needs and social desires as humane beings, not as a colored race or ethnic tribe. We must understand history as a guide to action, stay aware of current events and participate in our own democracy—that is, we must register to vote and go out and vote on voting day. Beyond voting, we must get involved in local community action by joining constructive community groups, volunteering in our schools and uplifting the spirits of our churches.

Above all, we must create homes, sweet homes, for our loved ones and our families and our communities as we strive toward total humane liberation for all of us.