Author: Rivera Sun

If our cars fatally malfunctioned as often as police officers shoot citizens, there would be a massive recall, pulling vehicles off the road, overhauling the engineering design, firing culpable employees and paying out settlements to consumers for injuries and deaths of family members.

The problem of a complete lack of accountability within the police system parallels the demise of accountability throughout our nation. Once upon a time, we believed in accountability but times have changed and wanton, reckless irresponsibility has become permissible for police officers, corporations, politicians and the wealthy.

If you are a wealthy politician or businessman, the law rarely applies to you. If you are a Wall Street banker, you receive bailouts instead of criminal charges. If you own an oil company, you receive mild wrist slaps for causing catastrophic environmental disasters. If you’re in the military, you operate with unscrutinized impunity and negotiated immunity. If you’re a white rapist, you cool your heels for a while before diving back into the pool. If you’re a white killer who opens fire on African Americans in a House of God, you get a hamburger on the way to jail.

If you are poor or non-white, you are slapped with life sentences, death sentences, extrajudicial murders, public lynching, debt peonage, debilitating poverty, foreclosures, homelessness, poisoned water, strangulations, forced sterilization, home raids by SWAT teams— and the list goes on.

In this upside-down world, the poor, the young, the homeless, the old and minority groups bear the deadly cross of accountability for the wanton irresponsibility of the United States corporations, politicians, wealthy and privileged. It is they who are incarcerated, poisoned, executed, and chained to debt. It is they who lose their homes, jobs, bank accounts, safety, health, social networks, societal respect and are stripped of titles, positions, dignity, rights and awards. The poor and downtrodden are held accountable for the wrongs of the society— they pay the price for U.S. violence, greed, corruption, pollution, destruction, hate, discrimination and arrogance. Whistleblowers who demand accountability for atrocities and the egregious violations of our rights are imprisoned and exiled while those that perpetrated the crimes remain in power.

This election season, we are chided to vote and “hold our policy makers” accountable, as if this were the only means of doing so. Where is our judicial system, our oversight committees, or the straightforward enforcement of existing laws? In 240 years, the United States has failed to generate and enforce a practical and effective system of political and corporate accountability. Where are our citizen, oversight committees with the power to subpoena and charge police departments? Where is our version of Spain’s Partido X and its accompanying standards of political accountability? Where are our lawyers and judges will to prosecute and sentence reckless bankers as was done in Iceland after the financial crash?

Accountability for one’s actions is a value that functional societies require at every level from our children to our corporations to our Commanders-in-Chief. Without such a standard, the moral compass of our nation spins out of control, wildly sending us into dangerous and uncharted waters of increasingly rogue and criminal behaviors. When will the American public finally see accountability from all its power holders? The answer is: only when we demand it!

Author/Activist Rivera Sun, syndicated by PeaceVoice is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection and other books, and the Programs Coordinator for Campaign Nonviolence.

During election years, pent-up frustrations, simmering animosities and the toxic legacy of countless hours of hate talk radio erupt from the seething volcano of the American public. Injustice left festering explodes into anger and hatred. Defensive arrogance and condescension drips down the pyramid of privilege.

What should— and perhaps someday could— be a time of remarkable civic discourse, truth-telling, education and public dialogue devolves into political shouting matches that leave millions of American citizens feeling bruised and abused, belligerent waiting for the next go-round of the elections to take vengeance on each other.

I am a member of the last generation of American children who received civics education in our public schools. Budget constraints and curriculum cuts have stripped our youth of access to knowledge not just about the three branches of government, the constitution, the electoral process, but also about the broader context of democracy, historically and worldwide. In the void of education, we learn from observing the current political climate— a circus of extreme wealth, party politics, manipulations, fraud, deceit, personality candidates, disempowerment of citizens, corporate sponsorship, name-calling, shaming, personal attacks, and the endless stream of broken campaign promises.

While this is, unfortunately, an accurate representation of how our dysfunctional political system currently operates, it also fails to articulate or embody the values of true democracy or of a democratic society.

As a child in a rural Maine public school, I learned about the nuanced discussions of democracy from the ancient Greeks through the founding fathers. I learned the shortcomings, foibles and follies of both the individual characters and the governing systems they produced. My memory of my civics courses evoke images of the white-clad suffragettes with sewn banners and African-Americans organizing nonviolent action that led toward civil rights and the Voting Rights Act. And, oddly, I have a persistent memory of a French woman in a cafe holding a lively discussion about politics and elections.

Where did this come from? One afternoon, a civics teacher invoked this semi-mythic figure to stimulate the half-glazed expressions in the classrooms. Politics should not be vitriolic or boring, our teacher told us, we should enjoy political discussions and consider them an essential part of the culture of a democratic society. By lunch, most of my classmates went back to talking about soccer or pop songs, but the lesson stuck with me.

This election cycle, as my fellow Americans froth at the mouth, I find this memory returning as I interact online and in person. Why is it so hard for us to have a passionate – not scornful or vituperative – conversation about politics? Has respectful discourse, like civics, fallen by the wayside of American education? Are we trained only in argument, attack, humiliation, screeching, vilifying, fear mongering, and other forms of verbal abuse?

This is unfortunate and dangerous. Discourse is the foundation of democracy. Even within the context of a representative republic, the ability to have a respectful, engaged, and informed conversation about politics – in the post office, our homes, on the media, with friends, family, or with total strangers – is essential for a society that prizes the ideals of liberty and freedom.

If we are not free to converse without being verbally assaulted, insulted, and screamed at, what does that say about the content of our characters? Why should any of us believe that shaming another citizen for their political choices is an effective approach to building the kind of political engagements and civic interest that greases the wheel of functional political process? Is it really so hard to engage in the practices of being curious about our differences, asking questions, listening, and responding in a sane and civil manner?

We can do better than the obnoxious and insulting manners we are currently displaying during this election cycle. These behaviors are beneath the dignity of a nation that claims to be a democracy and professes to have operated as one for 240 years.

If there is one political action every American should take between now and November, it is to lift our heads with greater dignity and treat our fellow Americans with respect. Regardless of others, our own self-respect should demand such action. We can engage in functional civic dialogue. There is no need to wait for the “leadership” of politicians, parties, pundits or press. In our own lives and interactions, we can discuss politics in a way that uplifts the dignity of all.

Author/Activist Rivera Sun, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection and other books, and the Programs Coordinator for Campaign Nonviolence.

Viewing the destruction of the planet and our natural systems as a form of violence, Campaign Nonviolence— a long-term movement to build a culture of nonviolence— engages people across the country in working toward sustainability, renewable energy, reducing meat consumption, supporting local food, and many other practices of living nonviolently on this beautiful Earth.

As we commemorate Earth Day on April 22, 2016, we are called upon to recommit to protecting our planet to ensure that the human species and our fellow beings will have a long-term future. Founded in 1970, Earth Day is an internationally celebrated day, honoring the natural systems of the planet, and a day of action in support of climate protection. The commemoration was first proposed by two different people, peace activist John McConnell, who created the iconic Earth Flag, and Senator Gaylord Nelson.

In an era of climate crisis, Earth Day reminds us of the urgency and importance of transforming our way of life today! One resource for this is to reimagine these times as an epochal period of great change, one that many people are calling the Great Turning.

The Great Turning is a phrase popularized by teachers and writers Joanna Macy and David Korten that describes our current time period as a massive shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization. We may not make this transition in time to prevent catastrophic climate change . . . but billions of people around the globe are engaged in the three types of actions that support the Great Turning. These three types of actions are:

Holding actions to slow the destruction of human-based systems on the Earth and other beings. These activities include all the political, legislative, and legal work required to reduce the destruction, as well as direct actions— blockades, boycotts, civil disobedience, and other forms of non-cooperation and nonviolent intervention.

These are important to stop the worst of the destruction, but they are not enough on their own; they must be supported by creating new systems that support a life-affirming society, including local agriculture, reducing meat consumption, switching to renewable energy, creating mass transit systems, watershed protection and restoration, cooperative housing and eco-villages. And, to support the movement toward these visionary goals, it is also necessary to engage in shifting beliefs away from old concepts of domination, separateness, greed and destruction. We must move towards new understandings of interconnection, general and living systems theory, deep ecology, cooperation, and collaboration.

The three dimensions of the Great Turning are equally vital. Look around your community and notice how many people are engaged in one or several aspects of this work! Question your own participation – how do you contribute? What more could you engage in? What excites and intrigues you? For the Great Turning to be successful, we need all hands on deck! How will you be a part of this historic moment?

Author/Activist Rivera Sun, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection and other books, and the Programs Coordinator for Campaign Nonviolence.