Social and Political Relationships and Friendships.

"Some of these cultural differences quickly became apparent. From the Native American perspective, the significance of the [treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags] lay not in the document itself but in the exchange of gifts and speeches accompanying it, which ritually ended the enmity between the two peoples and redrew the boundaries separating them. Their new relationship was not merely a political alliance, but a spiritual realignment that brought the two peoples into a shared social network where they were bound together by mutual obligation. Shortly after the treaty was signed, passing Wampanoags started calling in at Plymouth, expecting their new friends to offer them food and accommodation. For the Pilgrims, so fearful of pollution even by their own compatriots that they had been forced to emigrate (from Europe), these casual visits by ’Savages’ seemed to transgress all the physical, cultural and religious barriers on which their sense of identity and purpose in the New World depended." -- James Wilson, The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America (Grove Press, 1999), pp. 80-81.


When I in December of 07 read the above quote
I found myself thinking about the day after next presidential election.
I found myself imagining Men and Women who believe in progress, because they had
experienced it in there lives, across the nation making a gesture to underscore that they were
making a commitment/contract/compact, to see themselves as a part of the others community.
Not that the adorable Lesbian couple visiting the the soup kitchen run bythe local church would be that unusual! But with a gesture perhaps involving the giving away of something; one onone
or as a simple public event at a park or street corner, or in churchesand temples stating that,
"We Are In this Together."

Hopefully it could draw attention the the fact that the statement "We are in this together"
besides being true is a perspective that among other things, promotes security for us all. I didn’t
expect the divisiveness in this country to evaporate over the next year.
If anything I expect it to get worse.

With the historic victory of Barak Obama in Iowa came statements underscoring the historic significance of the moment.Then the proud pronouncements of how The United States had progressed.These were finally followed by the analysis of reporters and pundits; "Now it’s going to get ugly."
It has.
And I feel it’s going to get worse.

Between now and the election I’ll be thinking about and formulating/developing/composing,
ome kind of personal out reach to communities who have embraced for what ever reason the
"Global warming is a plot, evolution is JUST a theory, schools should be a for profit enterprise,
marriage should be defined as between a man and a women, immigrants are themselves the
problem, Muslims want to kill me, ..."(You get the idea I hope) and make a "We are in this together." statement.

I think it would be easier for folks to accept as a truth of "We are in this together." statement then the, "This Homosexual Skinhead of Puerto Rican decent with HIV is
family."statement.Although...after a year of thinking about it and developing relationships
ya never know what I may come up with.

Pedro