There is a better way

Three weeks from today, it will be all over but the counting. And the lawsuits. And... what else? Anything?

soon it will be all over but the counting

Photo by J. Harrington

I remember growing up during the time of Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin and the House Un-American Activities Committee. (Yes, I know how old that makes me.) Until recently, almost 4 years ago actually, I had the (mis)impression that we as a country, a society, a collection of governments, had actually made progress.  There are, these days, many well-intentioned and well-meaning folks who are misinformed and/or misguided. In fact, it seems that, if the following description is accurate, our United States could have done better from its beginning if the founders and drafters had hewn more closely to the fundamentals in the "Iroquois Confederacy Constitution ... also known as the "League of Peace and Power."

The democratic ideals of the Gayanashagowa (Iroquois Confederacy Constitution) provided inspiration to Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and the other great authors of the United States Constitution. Many of the articles are very similar but there is a major difference between The Great Law of Peace and the original US Constitution. This was the original denial of suffrage to women, and rule of majority as opposed to consensus in the US Constitution. The women of the Iroquois tribes exercised great influence in the government of the people. Elderly women had the right to sit in the councils and the power to exercise a veto on a declaration of war. The women were also allowed to demand a cessation of hostilities. In October 1988, the US Congress passed Concurrent Resolution 331 to recognize the influence of the Iroquois Confederacy Constitution upon the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

It seems to me that we would be much better served if more women exercised more responsibility and authority in our governance. As it now stands, the Equal Rights Amendment appears to be unratified. If the world in which we now live has largely been the product of men, many of them white and elderly, I can think of no better argument for bringing the US Constitution more into accord with the League of Peace and Power. Between pandemics, loss of biodiversity, extinctions, recessions, endless wars and diminished and diminishing civility, our reliance on my fellow men appears severely misguided and misplaced, especially when viewed in light of the old planning dictum "More of the same never solved a problem."

What Shall We Tell Our Children? An Addenda, 1973

By Margaret Burroughs

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since 1963. Then, my concern was particularly for my own people and this version was written especially for them. I am happy that it has done and is doing its job. However, I want it to be known, that I am not a proponent of the concept of cultural nationalism. I dearly love and am proud of my good, serious, sincere black people, yet at the same time, my concern is with all people of goodwill no matter the color. I make no mystique of blackness. I am a humanist. Indeed, I am a universalist. This truth, I know. The liberation of black people in the United States is tightly linked with the liberation of black people in the far flung diaspora. Further, and more important, the liberation of black and oppressed people all over the world, is linked with the struggles of the workers of the world of every nationality and color against the common oppressors, overlords, and exploiters of their labor. 
                    Thus it was only natural that I should write "What Shall We Tell Our Children?" in 1973. I have tried to tell them the facts of life and the truth as I see it:
                    I hope I have succeeded. 
 

What shall we tell our children who are black?

What shall we tell our children who are white?

What shall we tell children of every race and hue?

For all children are the children of all of us

And all of us bear responsibility for all children

What shall we tell them?

How can we show them the conditions of their lives

So they will see how they can change them?

Those who are poverty stricken in the midst of plenty

Who must live in rat-infested slums

While decent homes stand empty

Who go to bed hungry

While grocery shelves are heavy

Who huddle in tattered rags

While racks in stores are sagging

Who yearn for a good education

But languish in programmed illiteracy

Whose intellectual growth is stunted

And whose ignorance is compounded

While the Academies produce more drones for the labor colony

What shall we tell them?

How can we show them the conditions of their lives

So they will see how they can change them?

What shall we tell our children

The men and women of the future?

We shall tell them the truth

It is our bounden duty to tell them the truth

It may be painful. We must tell them the truth

We may be criticized. We must tell them the truth 

We may be castigated. We must tell them the truth 

The truth it shall be, shall show them the conditions of their lives

Of a glorified way of life, the greatest in the world

Which is not concerned with people, but with profits

Not with the well-being of many, but with the interests of a few

Not with the welfare and future of the people

But only with the profit-making present

We shall tell them the truth about a way of life

The greatest in the world

Where freedom and equality is granted to every man, woman, and child

Where everyone, providing he is willing to do what is necessary

Can become rich and wealthy by doing others before they do you

Where everyone, including you

Can acquire life's most important goodies

Like split-level houses, with wall-to-wall carpeting completely furnished 

And two cars and two color T.V.'s

And the latest style clothes and minks

And schminks and everything!

We shall tell them the truth

About a way of life

The greatest in the world

Which rejects the wisdom of its seers and sages

And whose culture is dictated and delineated by

Violent, vicious, destructive 

Murderous, unfeeling, crude

And quick on the draw supermen

Who deem the men and women of the future

As expendable and shunt them off to

Purposeless death in the name of patria and patriotism

Who slaughter the innocents who protest or speak for Peace

We shall tell them the truth

​We shall tell them the truth

About a way of life, the greatest in the world

Whose primal motivation is material acquisition

Wherein the majority of the people derive happiness

From having things which others do not have

Whose all high, omnipotent

All powerful Jehovah, Jesus, Lord

God, Allah and all Supreme

Is the adulated, sought after, live for,

Steal for, murder for, Almighty D-O-L-L-A-R dollar!

​We shall tell them the truth

About a way of life, the greatest in the world

Which manipulates and expends young lives

So that parasites may live and survive

Whose aim is but to acquire and kill

And kill and acquire again and again

At home and abroad and everywhere

​We shall tell them the truth

We shall urge them to examine their way of life,

The greatest in the world

Which deliberately depresses the conditions of life

Which offers no bright future

But instead keeps people in fear

Insecurity and in constant turmoil

Which decimates their ranks

With endless predatory wars

​We shall tell them the truth

About what life could be made to be

And how they themselves can help to make it

Bright, happy and secure. 

We shall show them that life

Is ever in motion, constantly going through

Processes of change, shall strengthen them in the belief

That it is possible for men and women,

For they themselves, for all of us

To live in harmony with our environment

And the Universe

Shall teach them that our knowledge increases

The more we gain control over our envirnment

And exploit it not for private gain but for our own happiness

We shall tell them the truth

We shall encourage them to expand their knowledge 

Of the known and the unknown

To destroy the cobwebs of superstition 

To find that there are no mysteries

Either in life or in nature

And that above all there is nothing to fear but fear itself. 

​We shall tell them the truth

Shall suggest this way of life

Can truly be made to be among the 

Greatest in the world

That through their own efforts

They can forge a new way

A superior way, a good way of life

Which is in harmony with the true purpose of life

Wherein the people themselves control the conditions of their labor

Wherein the people have the total benefits of their labor

And where men, women, and children

Live lives free from exploitation. 

We shall tell them that a way of life is possible

Wherein the people may own the means and tools of production

And use them solely for the abundance of the whole people

And not for the aggrandizement of a few

As in the old way.

​We shall tell them the truth

We shall arm them with the knowledge of how to survive

In an atmosphere fraught with danger and hostility

We shall urge them to heed

​The wisdom bequeathed to us by the elders

And to have faith. To have faith.

In people, in themselves and their fellow human beings

And to have respect and love for all of humankind.

​We shall tell them

​To keep the belief that the purpose of life

Is to continue to grow and create

And to contribute to growth and create

And to contribute to growth and

Creativity toward a better life

For people now and for generations to come

What shall we tell our children?

​We shall tell them the truth

We shall imbue them with the vision of the new tomorrow

Seemingly far, but yet so near

We shall tell them that they hold the power in their own hands

To make this new way

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