Features Section Editor: Suen Bellamy March 12, 2003 the other press Bruce Mulkey To Stop Our Downward Spiral Of Fear, We Must Cleanse Ourselves Of Ill Will Writer/Columnist, and advocate for peace, justice, and sustainability With a foreword by your friendly, neighbourhood, and retiring, Features Editor, Sven Bellamy. Foreword The internet is an amazing thing in that it brings communities together. This term, I have really enjoyed my “Writing for the Web” class, and am thankful to Gladys, the instructor, for offering a refreshing perspective to a jaded student journalist. As an example, I came across Bruce Mulkey’s article on Michael Moore’s web site, and was impressed by this American’s perspective. I am quite guilty of American bashing. But, its not really the American people who I am critical of—it’s the American machine, the foreign policy makers, and the corporate giants. Americans like Michael Moore and Bruce Mulkey repre- _sent everything that is good about that great country to our south—the people are brave, thoughtful, and yes, even peace- ful. My acknowledgement of the communi- ty-building capacity of the internet, along with recognizing that Americans are mostly good, and the ideas of fear and ill will, ties only slightly into another impor- tant event that’s going on this week, on campus—Diversity Week. I would like to expand upon what is stated so eloquently below in Dr. Martin Luther-King’s quote on forgiveness. The world is a diverse place. It’s a place where there needs to be an abundance of love and forgiveness. Often to embrace diversi- ty, we must fight what Brad Brown refers to as the demons that live in our imagina- tion. I would also like to put forward a chal- lenge to you all this week—Try to find 100 examples of diversity in the college. Go it alone or get together with some friends, email me (opfeatures@netscape.net), and work “More fearful demons live in our imagination than ever lived on earth.” —Brad Brown Well, they didn’t pry it out of my cold, dead hands. But I have just gotten rid of my only remaining firearm. Having grown up and lived in the South I’ve owned shotguns, .22 rifles and an assortment of handguns. But over the years, my collection had dwindled to one old revolver that I kept in the bottom of my T-shirt drawer, a place where it would be handy if danger arose. My ability to actually use the pistol in an emergency was doubtful, however, since my wife, Shonnie, had only agreed to keep it in the house if it was unloaded. What, you might ask, motivated me to hand over the gun to local law enforce- ment authorities? I got rid of it in response to a well-timed question about my possession of it by Shonnie after we saw Michael Moore’s movie Bowling for Columbine. The question: “What are you afraid of, Bruce?” You see, the central theme of Moore's documentary is the high level of fear that prevails in America—a fear that’s fed by the media (If it bleeds, it leads), by our political leaders (Osama's going to get you if you don’t watch out) and by our own minds (We've got to get them before they get us). In times like these it’s not difficult to get caught up in this anxiety and trepidation. And that’s where I found myself until Bowling for Columbine and Shonnie’s question hit me with the force of a two- by-four upside the head. The truth that I realized in that moment: I have no need of the pistol because my fears have no foun- dation. I'm probably more likely to be killed talking on a cell phone while driv- ing than by someone breaking into my home. Another case of FEAR—False Evidence Appearing Real. When the governments colour-coded terror alert system is raised a notch, we always have a choice: We can react by buying guns, installing security systems, supporting the expenditure of billions of additional dollars on armaments and cud- dling up to our TVs. Or we can realize that not even the highest ranking or most brilliant official in the CIA, FBI or other agency can predict the future, and live our lives accordingly. Near the end of Bowling for Columbine I got another proverbial whack on the head as I watched Charlton Heston shuf- fle off after an interview with Moore. | realized in that moment how angry I'd been at Heston, at Bush, at Cheney, at Daschle, and all the rest, and how fearful I'd been about the momentum that was building toward war. But when I was awakened, I saw that each of us is con- nected in some mysterious way, and that I am then linked with this aging man as well. I may not agree with much of what Heston stands for, but I can nonetheless feel deep compassion for him as a fellow human being. In order to move toward a new cultural paradigm for our nation, one of greater together with me to see if we can turn out 100-points of diversity at Douglas College. If we can pull this off, we'll run it in the Features Section next week (March 19 issue). I emailed Bruce Mulkey asking for per- mission to run his article in our humble student newspaper, and he very generous- ly said yes. Thank you, Mr. Mulkey. Without further delay, read on. Sven Bellamy, Features Editor compassion, justice, and sustainability, it is essential that we cleanse ourselves of ill will, including the resentments we hold toward those who appear to be leading us in the wrong direction. We must free ourselves from the down- ward spiral of fear so that we may see our vision for ourselves and our world more clearly. We must regularly connect with that inner part of ourselves—our heart, our soul, our intuition—that knows. We must discern right action in con- fronting our challenges and make choices from the multitude of possibilities that exist rather than reacting and falling into old, automatic behaviours. We must liber- ate ourselves from the hope that the man on the white horse is coming to lead us to a better future. We are the ones who must do it—one heart and mind at a time— each beginning with ourselves. Contact Bruce Mulkey at: page 9 ©