No Fear

Searching and Finding No Fear

We have a threat to our nation that was here before our covid19 pandemic began. It’s our fear of each other. We have labeled some of the human race as very bad people, and we are afraid they might take something from us, even possibly our lives. To survive our pandemic, we must find our way beyond this epidemic of fear pervading our nation.

It’s right to be afraid that the air we breathe or what we touch in close gatherings might be virus infected. But more insidious is our fear of others of our human race. For this threat to spread there is no need for physical contact or proximity. It is more commonly caught online, with twitter, what’s app, and extremist news media on both sides of the now-entrenched political divide. It's pervaded with toxic language, labels of hatred, disrespect, and carefully crafted lies. Confrontation with absolute power to kill only exacerbates it.  Fear of our own human race, our own species, seems to be increasing.

The best remedy is what the police did in Helena at a protest a few weeks ago at the Capitol. They stood their ground between two groups protesting against each other, one peaceful brandishing signs, the other promoting violence, brandishing rifles. The police acted wisely between the two protesting demonstrations. https://www.mtpr.org/post/helena-protest-draws-crowd-confrontation

Such police action uses the wisdom of past millennia of our human race, when we humans still had collective leadership for resilience against four-legged predators. Our families and clans formed councils to coordinate tools and strategies to keep us safe. Then, those threats were real. Now our most important predators, dominating our entertainment, have become members of our own species, our own human race. How do we overcome our fear of these fellow human beings on either side who carry lethal weapons while demonstrating for their rights? That’s our search. And across the nation, we are finding that way. It’s amazing.

Deep in our many heritage and faith traditions are stories of people who refused lethal weapons against others of our human race. They are even in the Bible, the most important religious document to many of us. Those who follow this way to truth and life held in common among our religions are taking the upper hand now in many demonstrations. The, pain, anger, lies and hatred that so easily escalate to violence are being heard. Courageous people lend their skill to talk or walk down the toxic words or raised weapons. The ancient ways of careful respectful language and come back to steer our national conversation away from violence.  As this trend grows in our demonstrations, our pandemic will end too.

It doesn’t make headline news.  Congratulations to the Helena folks, especially the police, for their careful handling of a potentially lethal protest march. This helps build strong families because children are learning trust over fear of others outside their family.

For a discussion on rebuilding our collective leadership here in Southern Montana, see the webinar series beginning Wednesday July 1 at 11:00 AM, “Collective Leadership and the Role of Council.” Look up this site: https://thelearningcouncil.org/project/collective-leadership/