CONTACT CAROLINE
facebook
rss
tumblr
twitter
goodreads
youtube

  • Home
  • Write Away Blog
  • Books
    • Books
    • Trompe l’Oeil
    • Heart Land
    • Gothic Spring
    • Ballet Noir
    • Book Excerpts
  • Video Interviews
  • Press
    • News
    • Print Interviews
    • Plays
    • Ballet Noir in the Press
    • Trompe l’Oeil In The Press
    • Gothic Spring In The Press
    • Heart Land Reviews
  • Contact
  • About
  • Resources
    • Writer Resources
    • Favorite Blogs
    • Favorite Artists



Thoughts About Revolution, Reform, And Liberation

Jan 21, 2019
by Caroline Miller
Activists in Conservative Country, Hillary Clinton, Martin Luther King, radical thinking, Riley Griffin, Saul Alinsky, The Fellowship of The Wing, Tim Murphy
0 Comment

I opened my ACLUmagazine, recently, to read a young woman’s statement:  “I realized that I didn’t want to work within the system anymore.  I wanted to help reform it.” (Activists in Conservative Country,” by Tim Murphy, ACLUmagazine, Winter 2019, pg. .) I understood her words but not her message.  Was this young African-American advocating violent overthrow of the government?  In her picture, she hugged her two children by her side. It made me suppose she wasn’t advocating violence.  Probably, she meant activism.  

Saul Alinsky is said to be the first American to codify organizing strategies for activism.  Over

Hillary Clinton courtesy of google.com

the years, he’s had many acolytes, Hillary Clinton among them. Radical in his thinking, one of his tenets was to accept a certain degree of hostility as a force for change. In my view, we should examine this male paradigm.

I admit, the course of human events is a chronology of communities being torn down to build others. Want to keep America great?  Keep out immigrants.  Want to make Germany great? Eradicate the Jews. 

For me, this coupling of building a community while defeating another is a curious juxtaposition.  Nonetheless, it does explain why people who join a movement often think of themselves as revolutionaries.  And while movements may come and go, the strategy remains: point fingers, charge others with being too old, too stupid, too corrupt, or too jaded to understand.  How satisfying.  It’s like scratching an itch. Unfortunately, I’ve never known bullying to win permanent converts.

The December issue of Bloomberg Businessweek offered a heartening story of women entrepreneurs who have built a community to aid the business ventures of other young women.  (The Fellowship of the Wing,” by Riley Griffin, pgs. 68-71)  I couldn’t help smiling.  Yes.  Yes.  Inclusion.  That’s the way women work.  My smile faded, however, when my gaze fell upon the words of one young aspirant.  Having tried and failed with previous venture capitalists, she described them as “pale, male and stale.” (Ibid, pg. 69.) I understood her anger, but if we women can’t change the paradigm of division within ourselves, how are we to effect a lasting and positive change?

Strategies that divide the world into “them” and “us” represent an ancient mindset, possibly preceding Hammurabi.  I’m not certain.  I do know that in the 20th Century, Martin Luther

Martin Luther King courtesy of google.com

King promoted a different way.  Though he rose to defend the rights of African-Americans, his strategy was inclusive, believing that by peacefully correcting a wrong, he could begin to heal the nation’s wound. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.*

 King’s dream is a work in progress.  The road is long but the destination is clear.  We have his compass.  Those of us who honor him strive, first, not to make America great again, but to make it whole.  

*I Have A Dream

 

 

Social Share

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

*
*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

Subscribe to Caroline’s Blog


 

Archives

Categories

YouTube-logo-inline2 To access and subscribe to my videos on YouTube, Click Here and click the Subscribe button.

Banner art “The Receptive” by Charlie White of Charlie White Studio

Web Admin: ThinPATH Systems, Inc
support@tp-sys.com

Subscribe to Caroline's Blog


 

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Sitemap | Privacy Notice

AUDIO & VIDEO VAULT

View archives of Caroline’s audio and videos interviews.


Copyright © Books by Caroline Miller