(This is the text of a speech written for the fictional leader of The Alliance in the novel, We the Enemy.)
I hope you'll join me in creating the Alliance.
The reason is simple--I want to live a good life in the richest country on the planet. But it’s not material wealth I’m after, it’s the things that make getting up in the morning a good thing to do. Shelter. Food. Good air. Good water. Safety. Work. Health. Community. Freedom. Isn’t that what you want?
But I can’t prosper with a gun held to my head. I can’t prosper when courts flood the streets with criminals. I can’t prosper when schools are so impoverished they can’t teach my children. I can’t prosper when corruption is the standard, not the exception. In today’s world, I can’t prosper.
I’m willing to work hard to prosper, but I can’t do it alone. You might argue, hey, we’re not alone, we have government and religion to help us. The sad truth is that, despite everything governments and religions do, and sometimes because of what they do, we are steadily losing way against a growing crush of problems.
It doesn’t even help to be rich. The rich don’t have clean air. Or leaves in forests killed by acid rain. Or safety from kidnappers who want them for ransom. Or a healthy world that holds promise for their children.
The rich don’t prosper.
It doesn’t help to be religious. Yes, a church community can help you bear the burden, and perhaps you’re promised something better after you die--but in this world prayer and faith are losing ground to crime, poverty, and drugs.
Even worse, faiths collide and fanaticism spawns death and destruction. Worshipers are led to murder in the name of God or Allah, and the worst of all human wrongs becomes exalted as a virtuous act.
The religious don’t prosper.
Luckily, though, we can count on our government, can’t we?
We can count on our ‘leaders’ to gridlock because of blind partisanship--to pander to ignorance and emotion and fear--to grasp for money and re-election--to vote according to influence, not conscience.
There was a Kentucky law that required police to sell guns confiscated from criminals, which put the guns back onto the street. A state legislator introduced a bill to allow police to destroy confiscated guns instead, and the cops were all for it. Legislators connected with the NRA rewrote the bill to require police to sell the guns within ninety days, and then specified that the money was to be used to buy bulletproof vests for the police. Stupid is too kind a word for that kind of idiocy.
But we, as a people, aren’t stupid. We clean up floods and earthquakes. We conquer disease. We fight famine. We defeat oppressors. Together, we work wonders. But we’re breaking into smaller and smaller bits--cults, religions, militias, splinters that are angrily pro this and con that.
We don’t prosper.
When religion separates us, when politics isolate us, when money divides us, how can we work together to change things? How do we step around our differences and understand our sameness? I offer you two things that can help turn us around: a promise and a compass.
The promise is one every Ally makes: I promise to help, the best I can.
That may not sound like much to you, but think about filtering everything you do through that and see what happens.
It’s a simple promise. You don’t have to be a saint to keep it. Just try your best. We know there are times when your best isn’t very good. When I get mad, I’m sure not likely to be helpful.
Kinda like you, I’ll bet.
The promise is our engine, but we need something to keep us on course. We need a compass.
I follow a guideline that I call T-H-R-E-A-D. An operating system for the well-being of people. Not a religion. Or a business. Or a political party.
The ‘T’ in THREAD is for tolerance. Have you ever driven past a yard littered with little statues and fountains and other yard art and thought it was dumb?
I used to think that way. But then I realized that the people who lived there went to a lot of trouble and expense to create that scene. Then they stepped back and said, ‘Man, this looks great!’
It didn’t hurt me. Let it be.
What does it matter that someone has hair you don’t like, plays music you don’t get, has a pierced tongue that makes you cringe, follows a religion that’s alien to you--or whose skin comes in a different color? If it doesn’t harm you, let it be. Tolerate.
Why not love instead of just toleration? Aren’t we taught to love our neighbors? Hey, if my neighbor is a nasty slob with a dog that barks all night, I’m doing a helluva job just to tolerate the guy. Don’t ask me to love him, I’ll fail. Requiring unconditional love guarantees failure for anybody who isn’t a saint, and dooms them to guilt. Unearned love? I’m way too far from sainthood. Tolerance? An absolute necessity.
THREAD. The ‘H’ stands for honor. Integrity.
Every unkept promise undercuts all of us. Every sloppily done job shortchanges all of us. Every bribe, every embezzlement, every corrupt act cheats us all, including the cheater.
THREAD. The ‘R’ is responsibility. You do what you say you will, and you’re accountable for the consequences of what you do. You steal, you pay back; you destroy, you rebuild.
For many in our land of caveat emptor, the ‘E’ in THREAD is the hardest. It stands for empathy. Without concern for what others are experiencing, tolerance is a plant without water, help is a sail without wind.
Tolerance. Honor. Responsibility. Empathy. The ‘A’ is for accord. As we’ve seen in government, partisan politics means gridlock. As we’ve seen in the abortion wars, uncompromising disagreement leads to misery and death. In the Alliance, we are bound to stick with it and reach accord when we disagree. Accord is agreement, and it creates unity.
The last letter is ‘D,’ the last word in THREAD is do! Make the promise and keep it. Ideals are hot air if we don’t have the guts to do the hard things that need to be done. Being a good ally is hard, and to succeed we must do!
Thread is only a word. But words have power because they bring us ideas, and ideas change human societies. This thread of principles weaves people into an alliance. An alliance that has power. Power to change the way things are to something better.
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