The High Road

Rain Christi

June 17, 2015

Politics & Literature

The High Road

            I began my young adult life naïve and disconnected from the general population. I was and am a highly empathetic being yet I knew not the common tales that most people my age knew well. I was raised in a household without television and secular influences such as popular music, magazines, books and movies. I was sensitive to the news and stayed as far from it as possible. I could not believe the things that went on in the world around me. Granted, much of what the general population believes is highly influenced via the popular media. Stories told of war, poverty, famine and the like have political angles that can be hard to register while taking in the message of those telling the story. It then becomes the responsibility of the consumer of knowledge to search avidly for the truth regardless of the propaganda.

            I began working at City Hall in Rochester, New York in my early thirties. I worked there for three and a half years. My function in City Hall was to run the City Hall Café serving those that worked within her walls and even guests from without. I spoke frequently to the Mayor, to Commissioners, to the Chief of Police and so many other political figures responsible for running my city. Prior to my time working in City Hall, I counted all politicians as liars and I had never registered to vote or had any active interest in politics. This, of course, horrified my city officials. My attitude changed when I realized that I played an intricate role within my city. The City Hall Café, under my care, became a place of music, art, poetry, knowledge and a brilliant cup of joe.

            By affecting the way the City Hall mornings began and offering those that frequented our café a place to relax and rejuvenate, I directly affected the operations of my City. I came to know many of the city leaders well. During my employment there Mayor Bob Duffy left in the middle of his term to accept the position of Lieutenant Governor of New York. Our interim Mayor, Carlos Carballada (Commissioner of Economic Development) told me I should run for Mayor. I believed he was joking at first, and when I realized he was not, the comment profoundly changed my life. Carlos and I had forged a friendship and have a great mutual respect for one another. He gave me a list of reasons why he felt I would lead well, and I listened carefully. My perspective on City Hall and the world of politics began to change. Upon my resignation (I moved down here to return to school near my family) I was presented with a Proclamation from the Mayor and the mayoral staff. I would not be surprised if one day I fulfill a political role in leadership.

            Upon leaving New York, I began gleaning as much political knowledge as I was able. I registered to vote and voted for the first time as my vote was counted among those that won President Obama office. I took a Global Conservation class with Dr. Johnny Wong and it opened my eyes to the politics of world resources and those that are in control of them. Dr. Deby Cassill presented a new angle for me to add to my repertoire. In her class we looked at the biological perspective of diversity. Dr. Gaskin-Butler taught us to see from the perspective of individual cultures in her Cross-Cultural Psychology class. Nayvi Hernandez taught us about the culture and religion of the Latino people as she instructed us how to speak the language. She sparked my interest in the politics of literature as she offered me an example with an Earnest Hemingway novel. In this novel he spoke of voodoo and presented his words as fact. Ms. Hernandez was troubled by what this did to the popular culture as they accepted the words presented as truth. All of these things and more whet my appetite and continued my growth. Imagine how excited I was to learn of a class called Politics and Literature.

I knew this was the correct next step in my development as a woman of global presence. I signed up eagerly and began reading our assigned coursework. The first book assigned, White Tiger (Adiga, 2008) broached the topic of the caste system in India. Of the books we were assigned to read, this story remains one of my favorite. One of the most profoundly disturbing images in the story is the author’s description of the rooster coop. Wired in, these animals in the market are packed so close to one another and have no means of escape. They must defecate in this close proximity and wait to be purchased to be turned into food. Adiga uses this as an analogy for the caste system and the fact that there is no way out for those in the lower castes. Yet our white tiger does find is way out; albeit, the price is high.

Much like the roosters, the White Tiger begins chewing at the wires caging him in. He finally finds his way out but it stains his hands in the blood of the murder he committed and the consequential murder of perhaps his entire family. Those in the higher levels of the caste system have no need to find their way out of it. Some may argue that their system works because it assigns people to each needed layer of society. A system needs people that pick up trash, clean toilets and other less than glamorous jobs. What would society do if there were no one to pick up trash? This story forces the reader to wrestle with the question: what must be done to be free? Is the murder the White Tiger committed justified? Certainly none of us would like to believe we would willingly risk the murder of our entire family for our own individual freedom. What is justifiable in the caged animals pursuit of freedom?

In Sofia Petrovna (Chukovskaya, 1967) we have to ask how successful Stalin’s purges would have been without the individuals who participated in turning in friends and family members. Stalin believed in moving people around and purging those who did not fit his ideal society. If we were considering this from a biological point of view only, it might make scientific sense. However, when considering that each of these units removed from the general population had families, friends, lovers, co-workers, and others who cared for their well-being, the empathy of our nature takes over. So many people during Stalin’s regime turned in their friends or neighbors so they would not be included in the purge. This book left me with the riveting awareness of what the individual role has been in sagas like Hitler’s Nazi Germany or Stalin’s Russia. One can place all the blame on the charismatic leader; however what power would these men have had without those blindly following them?

With every book I read in this class, I felt a pressure building. Each story offered me a building block for my brilliant destiny in the making. We discuss revolution. We discuss war. We discuss politics. We banter and debate our views and philosophies in a class with a brilliant age range. I soak it all in. I am a planet shaker. I believe in the power of the individual. I know we all have an exponential potential we have the power to reach in this life. Why then do some still choose to murder, rape, pillage and destroy? Why do some leaders have the power to raise their fist and command murder while the population at large simply obeys?  Why do some men like Martin Luther King know to stand up and speak and persuade the people to greater things? What causes some humans to be the best of themselves and others the worst? How can one use this awareness for the greater good?

Under the Red Flag (Jin, 1997) really reached me in a dark, disturbing place. It reached me in a place where children emulate their leaders, no matter how corrupt those leaders are. It reached me in a place where men can kill their children due to jealousy and fear. It reached me in a place where women do not have the rights they deserve. It reached me in a place where what you work for does not matter and the people you call your friends will turn on you the first chance they get. It reached me in a place where the construct of society has a power over a people who simply desire to follow; simply desire to be as free as that society allows. It made me wonder what would happen if a society was earnestly formed on “liberty and justice for all”.  What could the individual become then?

I believe if I could go back in time and sit in at the signing of the Declaration of Independence that I might be surprised by what I find. Of course there would be some men present who were doing it for the glory, for the power, for the money. However I do believe that finding freedom from Great Britain and forging a new way in new territory was the driving force in the beginning of this great nation. Yet as our nation developed we adopted the capitalistic way. We did not show reverence for our own Declaration. All people were not treated equally and the saga of power struggles and oppressed people repeated itself right here on our soil. This brings me to Redeployment (Klay, 2014) which covers soldiers in Iraq, mostly Marines and things civilians will never fully understand.

Redeployment is a dark and gritty read. It touches on several Marines and other soliders who face things like PTSD upon their return. It delves deeply into some of the tragic things they had to witness overseas. It makes you feel guilty for saying, “thank you for your service”, which I have certainly said more than twice. It looks into the politics of leadership and the necessity of obedience within a structure built to depend upon it. It again leads me back to the nature of the individual.

In every society there must be some kind of orchestrated structure. In every society, there must be leaders and followers. In every society, there must be punishment for breaking laws forged to govern. In the heart of every individual there must be some personal awareness of their role within their society. In the heart of every individual there must be some personal responsibility for going against their very soul to obey those in power. The individual must know his own place in society and must also know when it is time to disavow said society.

What leader would have power without the obedience of his people behind him? What social revolution could have been possible without the power of the masses? What genocide could have been carried out without the soldiers who obeyed orders to murder other human beings? With plenty of resources on this planet for all people, one is forced to ask the question why we still fight to the death to obtain those resources. Why are some givers and some takers? What is it in our human nature that leads some to become their best and some to indulge their worst? I believe any powerful positive revolution must begin with the strength of the individual. I believe that to reach the globe we must touch the individual heart and soul of every person on it. I believe that we as human beings have the potential to live in harmony. I believe my life is worth offering in pursuit of this profound realization.

References:

Adiga, A. (2008). The white tiger: a novel. Simon and Schuster.

Chukovskaia, L. K. (1967). Sofia Petrovna. J. D. Murray (Ed.). Northwestern University Press.

Klay, P. (2014). Redeployment. Penguin.

Jin, H. (1997). Under the Red Flag: Stories. University of Georgia Press.