Peace, politicians, and sleeping pills
Sep. 16th, 2002 01:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I attended my very first peace rally on Saturday. The Peace Center of San Jose held an interfaith peace rally in the same park as the other 9/11 memorial on Wednesday. As I was driving over, I pondered what type of thought would foster peace, and came up with the phrase that was quoted by Wayne Dyer of "The Great Way is easy for those who have no preferences" (a statement that makes me wince whenever I think of it). At the very least, the statement got me through a glitch-ridden trip over to the rally with equanimity.
The rally consisted of representatives of different religions or groups coming up and giving a speech or reciting a prayer, singing, or dancing. There were a lot of different groups; the rally wound up being close to three hours long. Some of the presentations that I found the most interesting were from a Sikh group and Baha'i group because I know the least about them. I also was surprised that when the minister of the Unitarian church downtown read a resolution that members of the church wrote after 9/11, it was very similar to something that I wrote after 9/11.
There was a lot of discussion about how we are all one, but I was disappointed that no one addressed how to be a person of peace in the face of provocation. That would seem to be the heart of the matter, and if that isn't the province of religion, what is? What is justice in the face of justifiable outrage? How can we defend ourselves yet still be fair?
Those questions were even farther from the minds of the people at the earlier 9/11 remembrance. It reminded me of an Independence Day gathering: a lot of speeches by politicians, patriotic music, and a fly-over by a military plane towing a helicopter. Leave it to San Jose to pull off a small-town gathering in the middle of a city! The most moving moment for me was when Tony Lindsay (lead singer of Santana) sang the "Star-Spangled Banner" and did an absolutely beautiful job.
I'm still glad that I went even though it wasn't exactly what I had in mind. It was good to be there, to witness.
I left after the concert started because I needed to get back to work. I got into work late (and almost didn't make it to the gathering) because I had a horrendous toothache the night before. I needed to take sleeping pills in order to get to sleep (leaving me groggy and short of sleep the next day). I feel much better and have finally stopped taking the sleeping pills over the last couple of days, but I still need to dig out the contact info to get it checked out. It might be a medication reaction; I don't know.
One humorous moment: while I was standing in the crowd, a policeman walking towards me looked straight at me and then bumped solidly into me. I was rather annoyed and muttered "excuse me" under my breath in a tone that meant anything but. Later, after the concert started, I left to go get money and then go get dinner. When I went to cross the street, the policeman directing traffic motioned me to cross even though the light had changed. (I didn't cross though because I didn't realize what he was telling me to do.) Later, he let us cross before the light changed. After I got my money, I was crossing another street (by myself this time) and I was part way down the block when the light changed to cross. I started walking faster to try to make it. The policeman saw the same thing, and hit the walk button several times to keep the light going for me. So...that made me wonder if he could've been the same guy who bumped into me? I'm not sure.
I've been in downtown San Jose three times in less than a month, and I'm wondering if I'd like to move downtown. When I split with Erik, I considered moving to a place that is downtown. However, that was over 10 years ago, and downtown was a lot more seedy than it is now. Every time I went down there, I got hassled by someone. I decided that I didn't want to deal with the hassle (so to speak) on a regular basis. I think that I'd enjoy it now though. I'm also wondering if should sell my condo to use the profit from it to close out all my debts, buy a new car, keep a hefty cash cushion, and invest the rest. The down side would be finding a rental place that would take the cats. I know that the place downtown takes cats, but I'm not sure how difficult it is to find other places. This time of year is bad to sell real estate anyway, so I can think about it though the winter and pare down my stuff.
The rally consisted of representatives of different religions or groups coming up and giving a speech or reciting a prayer, singing, or dancing. There were a lot of different groups; the rally wound up being close to three hours long. Some of the presentations that I found the most interesting were from a Sikh group and Baha'i group because I know the least about them. I also was surprised that when the minister of the Unitarian church downtown read a resolution that members of the church wrote after 9/11, it was very similar to something that I wrote after 9/11.
There was a lot of discussion about how we are all one, but I was disappointed that no one addressed how to be a person of peace in the face of provocation. That would seem to be the heart of the matter, and if that isn't the province of religion, what is? What is justice in the face of justifiable outrage? How can we defend ourselves yet still be fair?
Those questions were even farther from the minds of the people at the earlier 9/11 remembrance. It reminded me of an Independence Day gathering: a lot of speeches by politicians, patriotic music, and a fly-over by a military plane towing a helicopter. Leave it to San Jose to pull off a small-town gathering in the middle of a city! The most moving moment for me was when Tony Lindsay (lead singer of Santana) sang the "Star-Spangled Banner" and did an absolutely beautiful job.
I'm still glad that I went even though it wasn't exactly what I had in mind. It was good to be there, to witness.
I left after the concert started because I needed to get back to work. I got into work late (and almost didn't make it to the gathering) because I had a horrendous toothache the night before. I needed to take sleeping pills in order to get to sleep (leaving me groggy and short of sleep the next day). I feel much better and have finally stopped taking the sleeping pills over the last couple of days, but I still need to dig out the contact info to get it checked out. It might be a medication reaction; I don't know.
One humorous moment: while I was standing in the crowd, a policeman walking towards me looked straight at me and then bumped solidly into me. I was rather annoyed and muttered "excuse me" under my breath in a tone that meant anything but. Later, after the concert started, I left to go get money and then go get dinner. When I went to cross the street, the policeman directing traffic motioned me to cross even though the light had changed. (I didn't cross though because I didn't realize what he was telling me to do.) Later, he let us cross before the light changed. After I got my money, I was crossing another street (by myself this time) and I was part way down the block when the light changed to cross. I started walking faster to try to make it. The policeman saw the same thing, and hit the walk button several times to keep the light going for me. So...that made me wonder if he could've been the same guy who bumped into me? I'm not sure.
I've been in downtown San Jose three times in less than a month, and I'm wondering if I'd like to move downtown. When I split with Erik, I considered moving to a place that is downtown. However, that was over 10 years ago, and downtown was a lot more seedy than it is now. Every time I went down there, I got hassled by someone. I decided that I didn't want to deal with the hassle (so to speak) on a regular basis. I think that I'd enjoy it now though. I'm also wondering if should sell my condo to use the profit from it to close out all my debts, buy a new car, keep a hefty cash cushion, and invest the rest. The down side would be finding a rental place that would take the cats. I know that the place downtown takes cats, but I'm not sure how difficult it is to find other places. This time of year is bad to sell real estate anyway, so I can think about it though the winter and pare down my stuff.