JULY 26, 2024 MAKING CHANGE Where is the revolution? KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 It is often said, “You can kill the revolutionary but you can’t kill the revolution.” On the 4th of July, independence is tainted with a military flavor that usually promotes the military-industrial-financial complex that Eisenhower warned us about. Freedom of expression is limited by the idolatry of flag worship. Fireworks are a magical display that distract from the bombs that are regularly falling on someone in the world. The aspiration for freedom is born with the first breath of every baby. The potential for love and creativity which we recognize in a newborn is the human heritage we all embody. The real question may be, “Where is your inner child?” NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) did a study on genius, creativity and imagination and discovered that nearly all fiveyear-olds scored high. The rate declined with age and was down to 2% for adults. Google can teach us a lot but it is up to us to work with what we have. This means recognizing the plight of our inner child and doing the healing so that inner child and adult learn to communicate. I proposed a workshop at Crazy Wisdom with Joya D’Cruz on this theme and hope to have an announcement soon. Joya was mentored by Eugene Gendlin who wrote “Focusing,” an important book on mental health. Facing reality is a revolutionary act and can inspire you to become an active participant in your life. The dialectic of theory and practice is a lively one as the rhythm of joy appears. Today, July 1, is the anniversary of the jazz standard “Take Five,” the 5/4 rhythm that brightens our life. Search that when you are ready for a treat! Maybe we will play it on October 8 as the theme of my 82nd birthday. I was born just before the baby boomers who once said “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” There is some form of youth rebellion with every generation and the Gray Panthers slogan “Youth and Age Together” is one to remember. We can empower each other to follow through until the job is done. We will know when peace and justice replace compliance with the chain of command. Martha Reeves and the Vandellas sang about it, “Dancing In The Street.” Another treat at your fingertips. We have a long history of victories that seem to crumble just as we want to rest on our laurels. After the war in Vietnam, the ruling class broke the so-called Vietnam Syndrome with Ken Parks at the Ann Arbor Coalition Against the War Art Fair Booth. war in Granada and then Panama. The School of the Americas became known as the School of the Assassins and renamed itself to continue the wars of counterinsurgency. Read soaw.org for updates as the popular struggles continue in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in particular. The most recent victory in the global struggle for freedom is the release of Julian Assange. The popular movement in Australia gained enough momentum that politicians took notice and acted to release him after five years of prison which came on the heels of his controversial arrest at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he was in asylum for seven years. The bravery and persistence of Assange and his family and the struggle for freedom of the press is now legendary. Let’s follow through and support the whistleblowers in our midst. Water protectors — from Standing Rock in North Dakota to the Carrizo Comecrudo tribe of Texas, the original people of the Rio Grande — are active in exposing the extractive war on the environment. As Juan B. Mancias says, “Water is meant to unite, not divide.” I ordered a t-shirt with a striking photo of him and that quote. You can get one at the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas website. I am guilty of being active in both religion and politics, the two taboos of bourgeois culture. This French origin word refers to the capitalist class and sometimes middle class as people adjust to the geopolitical order of our time in history. The French and American Revolutions consolidated the end of feudalism and the deepening of the capitalist revolution which is ripening for the next step towards freedom. This is the responsibility we share as we learn that reality is a seamless whole, that awareness is the next step in our evolution to genuine revolution. James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs are legendary in Detroit and beyond for their life of theory and practice that you can visit in the book “Evolution and Revolution in the 20th Century.” When your life’s purpose becomes a shared purpose with others, the power that arises is formidable. If your intention is to benefit all beings without exception, countless world systems will arise. When inner space and outer space come together, infinity takes a dive into the Clear Light of the Void. This is the moment when masters of mindful awareness will be welcomed into your inner circle of significant beings. Suffering becomes a force to seek the cure. When we discover that reality is a workable situation, the revolution of unconditional love will erase all the conceptual prisons that have enslaved us from beginningless time. Unimpeded awareness becomes a victory celebration. Imagine that! I must mention that July 26 is celebrated in Cuba as the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. Although the attack on the Moncada barracks was a failure, it marked the beginning of open resistance to the Batista dictatorship. I regularly ask my Cuban family “Where is the revolution?” and the response is always “Where is it?” We have unfinished revolutions in many places. Awareness with dignity and confidence will help us weave many local fabrics into a beautiful global quilt. “The Invention of Wings” is a wonderful book on quilts and freedom. The historic friendship of a slavemaster’s daughter and a slave girl is the inspiration for this book by Sue Monk Kidd, who many know from “The Secret Life of Bees.” This world is an amazing place when your curiosity comes out of the closet. The revolution begins here. Since no one can do everything, it is good to tune in to whatever speaks to you and know that anything you do is interrelated and that everyday life is the main stage. Daily mindful awareness practice is my recommendation on where to start. Your inner child is ready to play the game of life. Just as the sun rises everyday, raise yourself to a daily practice of engaged living. The revolution lives in your heart. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5
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