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Hyde Park on Hudson is a new film about Franklin Roosevelt. Peter Dreier of Truthout has written a lament for the way the Eleanor Roosevelt has been domesticated in this and other biographical films.  Dreier contends that American films routinely hide the extent of her radicalism. He sighs, “In the film, the biggest controversy Eleanor dealt with was whether to serve hot dogs to the British royals.”

“Throughout her life, Eleanor fought on behalf of America’s, and the world’s, most vulnerable people. Over time, she became friends with a widening circle of union activists, feminists, civil rights crusaders and radicals whose ideas she embraced and advocated for – both as FDR’s wife and adviser and as a political figure in her own right.”

…Eleanor was much bolder than FDR in opposing racism, segregation and lynching. …She urged FDR to support federal legislation to end lynching, but he refused to support the bill, worried that southern white voters – almost all of them loyal Democrats – would abandon the party. –Peter Dreier, Truthout

Unlike her husband, Eleanor Roosevelt risked arrest to oppose Bull Connor’s attempts to force segregation. She (unsuccessfully) tried to convince FDR to support an international court, to oppose lynching, and to receive Jews suffering persecution in Germany under Hitler.

After FDR died Eleanor Roosevelt became the conscience of other presidential administrations. Under Truman she worked for universal human rights standards. Unlike her male counterparts, she was not frightened away from radical voices. She would rub elbows with feminists, whistleblowers, socialists, civil rights radicals and peace activists.

Whenever it seems American history is lacking in human rights heroes, it is because we are putting our focus on the wrong players. The people in the spotlight are almost always puppets in the hierarchy. It is there on the margins that we find the true architects of justice. Eleanor Roosevelt never forgot that it is those anonymous people at poorly attended meetings on unpopular topics who represent the truest friends of humankind.

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13621-eleanor-the-radical-roosevelt-deserves-own-film

Before you write that response saying that my last post was hypocritical because I am “judging the judger,” let me save you some time. Stopping a bully is not bullying. No one is doing to you what you are doing to GLBT people. If someone tries to violate your basic human rights, I will stand right by you in your defense, but  you do not have a right to live other people’s lives for them, and you are not being oppressed when people stop you from doing so.

Your happiness is as important to me as anyone else’s. I will stand by you if you are oppressed as much as I would for a gay person. I realize it is a time of tremendous social upheaval. I know you are just trying to stand up for what you believe is right. You are just trying to hold society together, but we cannot do that by leaving others out of the justice equation. Just as white people had to give up their simplistic biblical understanding of slavery to be fair to people of color, so do we straight people need to give up the simplistic biology of scripture if we are going to be fair to people who have been born to love differently than ourselves.

On that day when the church finally says “yes” to justice for gay and lesbian people, I’m afraid it’s going to be too late. I’m afraid it’s going to feel like an unfaithful spouse coming home at 2:00 a.m. in the morning saying, “The bar is closed, I can’t find anyone else. Maybe I do love you”

GLBT people have been faithful members of our synagogues, churches and temples.  They have served our nation in every capacity into which they have been allowed.  Our nation has passed “don’t ask, don’t tell” for the military, but what kind of culture allows a people to kill, but not to love?

The day is long over when people did astronomy using the Bible. We have realized it is foolish to insist the world does not turn because of something found in scripture, but it is infinitely worse to withhold justice from a sister or brother because of some verse found in scripture. The hour is long past for us to know what to do. At this point we must sadly say that any church asking grace for itself, but passing judgment on others, is no church of Jesus Christ. From this point on, when it comes to the question of justice for gay and lesbian persons, it is the church that is on trial.

I will never forget one of my first trips to the hospital to counsel a woman who had been raped. Before I could go into see her, the police pulled me to the side for a word of warning, “You need to know she was kind of asking for this.” The woman had been raped with a screwdriver.

The incident lit a fire of rage in me that never went out, so I understand the rage that is sweeping across India on behalf of the woman gang raped, exposed to public scorn and indifference, and who eventually committed suicide.

“That girl could have been any one of us,” Sangeetha Saini, 44, who took her two teenage daughters to a candle-filled demonstration on Sunday in Delhi, told The New York Times. Women in India “face harassment in public spaces, streets, on buses … We can only tackle this by becoming Durga,” she added, referring to the female Hindu god who slays a demon.

The real question for us back here in the States is, when we will finish the task of making it safe to be female?  We have made strides on the punishment side of the problem, but rape is the natural child of patriarchy and no one is serious about sexual assault who does not work for women having equal power in business and politics.

Thanks to Beth Brogan of Common Dreams, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/12/31-6

I don’t believe there is a being somewhere named “God.” I don’t believe in a God who acts magically to grant my wishes or who wants me to surrender my will. When I use the word “God” I am referring to that depth of being out of which I emerge, but into which my mind cannot go.

We’re taught that surrendering to God is a good thing, but what does that surrender mean?  In practice, doesn’t that usually mean surrendering to a church, to a religion, to a priest, to a practice?  Those who try to surrender to God usually end up serving a very human intermediary. So what would it mean to get past that?

Once we realize that God is not a mere person, then we can understand that spiritual surrender does not mean obeying a boss. It means giving ourselves to the river of life. It means blossoming from the root of our being.

The early church baptized in “living water” which means a moving stream. Why do you suppose they chose moving water? I believe they were not baptizing into institutional Christianity, but into life itself. The world will not be very different if you call yourself “Christian,” or “Jewish” or “Atheist,” but it will be instantly different if you blossom from the root of your being.

It is very important to dedicate ourselves to the whole of life and not just to a sect. Just as one cancer cell can eventually make a whole body sick, so an individual who has not been consecrated to the whole can spread sickness even if he or she is perfect as an individual. If we do not constantly harmonize our will to the common life, even our goodness may be a problem for someone else.

True baptism should not initiate us only into the church. It should baptize us into the common life. If, at the end of your baptism, you’re just a Presbyterian or Catholic, you didn’t get all the way into the river.  If at the end of your confirmation, you’re just a Christian, you’ve not understood the gift that Jesus was trying to give. The whole Universe is yours…and mine. But to live in that New Being we have to surrender the partitions – all of those things that we’ve been told define us – our country, our religion, our job, our status, our possessions, all of those things segregate the vastness of our true world.

Science is attempting to understand the facts of life. Religion is saying yes to whatever those facts happen to be. If science is studying the flower, and art is singing of its beauty, religion is trembling at the mystery therein.

Consider a candle. Think of the wax as the material world, the flame as life, and the light as consciousness.  A lit candle is a chain reaction where matter is turned into energy. Our lives are also a kind of burning where matter becomes life and life becomes thought.

Our true lives are revealed in that process of combustion. The temptation is for us is to try to hold on to life, and to be terrified as we empty into the process, but if we try to hold onto our lives we will lose them. A candle that blew itself out to live longer would give no light. True religion is giving ourselves fully to the process of life. It’s statement of faith is that we are are not the candle, we are what is released in the burning.

“When a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport: when the tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.” George Bernard Shaw

We hide a world of hypocrisy behind our labels. We label our military killing “defense,” but label as “militants” those who would dare resist us. Those who hoard money, we label as “industrious,” but label those who hoard almost anything else as “crazy.” We label an assertive man as “ambitious,” but label an assertive woman as “bitch.”

We often imagine ourselves to have been injured by love when, in fact, we have been damaged by our imagination. When we project imaginary qualities upon another so we can weave him or her into our plans, it is not love that has disappointed us. Love, which desires the happiness of the other without need for a response, cannot be disappointed.

Work for change in between elections.
Voting is important, but it is only the first step in a citizen’s duty. In November, we must choose between the lesser of evils, but there is no reason not to use the rest of the year to broaden our options. Pick a cause you believe in, figure how much time and money you can dedicate, and do it.

Read alternative press
Reading the mainstream news is necessary to know the dominant narrative, but it is even more important to get outside that box and read news from other nations and from alternative presses. Assume every morning that you have woken into a cultural trance which you must break with truth from outside your own bubble.

Leave your big bank
We have little chance to limit the mischief of big banks if we give them our money to play with. Credit Unions are a good alternative to subsidizing the global crimes of big banks.

Shop for a better world
In a capitalist culture, money is the primary value. Words of freedom matter little so long as we invest in our own captivity. Worker owned businesses are a great alternative to predatory economics. Do not shop from companies you know to mistreat their workers and support businesses that are at least trying. Consider every dollar you spend to be a vote for what kind of world your children’s children will be born into.

Go deep
Most activists who are good for the long haul have some personal or spiritual practice. They may meditate, do yoga, read poetry, or walk in nature, but most of them recognize the need of aligning to something deeper than themselves..

Find community
No one can be truly human alone. Only in community can our entire humanity blossom. Cyber activism is as much a part of the problem as it is a part of the solution.

Switch to PC as your primary language
Do not be deterred by those who accuse you of being “politically correct” when you try to speak respectfully of all people. Sexist, racist or classist language is not a trivial matter. As long as we speak the language of domination, our thoughts are captive to hierarchical values, even if we think ourselves prejudice free. The only test for whether one has an addiction, is the ability to quit.