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#3342
- Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - Editor: Gloria Lee
Nonduality Highlights -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
"It's not enough to rage against the lie...you've got to
replace it with the
truth." - Bono "The idea that our dreams are one
and our fates are one.
The idea that anything -- anything -- is possible.
That's the America the world needs.
That's the America I've always loved." - Bono
* * * * * * * *Begin Bono Speech* * * * * * * *
"Let's Put
Humanity Back on Earth"
Posted on October 25, 2008, Printed on October 25,
2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/104506/
Bono addressed 14,000 women in Long Beach, Calif., this week at
The Women's Conference 2008_ (http://www.californiawomen.org/) . The following is an excerpt from his
speech.
Rock stars have two urges. (No, really, just two.) They want to
change the
world, and they want to have fun. And I believe we can't do one
without the
other. It's like music -- no one trusts music that lacks joy.
It's the life
force in rock and roll that we love. Especially in serious times,
in traumatic
times. We need to dig deep to find joy.
So let me repeat, we are here tonight because we want to change
the world in
a tiny way in our 'hoods or in a grand way in our global
community and in so
doing, find our joy. But we can't change the world without first
changing the
way we look at the world. The way you behave in the world depends
entirely
on the way you view the world. Weltanschauung is what the
Germans call it.
Californians call it your attitude ... dude.
My worldview was shaped by rock and roll. Growing up in
the depressed Dublin
of the '70s, music was like an alarm clock for me. It woke me up
out of
suburban slumber. It made me believe that my life could
have some purpose outside
of 10 Cedarwood Road.
It was the time of punk rock. No more flowers in our hair ... no
more
flowers, period. I was weaned on the Clash. The Clash's music was
like a public
service announcement ... with guitars.
Three teenage boys and me, made some music of our own. That was
the plan.
But in the mid '80s my life -- not just my hairdo -- changed in
unexpected
ways.
U2 became part of the phenomenon that was Live Aid, We Are the
World, Feed
the World ... do you remember that?
My young wife Ali and I went to Ethiopia to see for ourselves
what was going
on. We lived there for a month, working at a feeding camp and
orphanage. The
children had a name for me. They called me 'the Girl with the
Beard.'
Don't ask.
Ali and I found Africa a magical place -- a place of big skies,
big hearts,
beautiful people, royal people. Ethiopia didn't just blow our
minds, it opened
our minds.
And it challenged our worldview.
A man begged us to take his son back with us to Ireland, because
in Ireland
he would live, and in Ethiopia, at that time, there was every
chance he would
die.
Ali and I have our own children now. Four of them. We could have
had five.
Our daughters and sons mean more to us than any other thing.
They are the beauty that can take any pain away.
In my travels I have met kids the mirror image of my own and
looked into
their faces as they let go of life.
And it makes me even angrier that their eyes are always free of
accusation.
It humbles me beyond belief that they don't hold it against a
world that
couldn't spare the 20-cent immunization that would have them back
in the bosom of
their family.
Even their mothers and fathers ... their grief is pure. There's
no blame,
just acquiescence. ... I know my rage as a parent would have no
end. In fact, it
doesn't. I do hold it against a world that can accept such things
as
inevitable.
They're not inevitable. They're not acceptable. In fact,
they're absurd.
History has a way of making ideas that are once acceptable,
look ridiculous.
Let's not forget ... "no blacks, no Irish."
Let's not forget ... the back of the bus.
Let's not forget ... apartheid and Jim Crow.
Let's not forget ... women couldn't vote.
Ridiculous, all of it. Totally absurd. We know that now. Most
people didn't
back then. My trip to Ethiopia, considered in that context, told
me what I
needed to do. Not exactly what to do -- just something, anything,
to end the
absurdity of what I had seen. It changed my worldview.
That's how I became the least attractive thing in the world: a
rock star with
a cause.
Except this isn't a cause, is it?
Eight thousand Africans dying every day of AIDS, TB and malaria
--
preventable, treatable diseases -- dying for lack of drugs we can
buy at any
drugstore. Twelve million AIDS orphans in Africa, 18 million by
the end of the decade.
A whole generation of active adults wiped out, children bringing
up
children.
That's not a cause, that's an emergency.
These are fires we know how to put out.
Yes. It's an absurdity. An absurdity. You know it couldn't
happen here. If
someone on our street was dying because they couldn't get
medicine that we had
in our cabinet, we'd get them the medicine. If a family was
starving at the
end of your block, you'd get them some food. You know you'd just
do it.
Because it was right.
You'd do it also because you can.
We can't fix every problem, but the ones we can we must.
And we can. We can. We have the know-how, the technologies,
the
pharmacologies, to transform public health in the developing
world.
With small investments we can radically improve crop yields, dig
wells and
make the land fertile and productive.
Turning the desert into fertile land ... sound familiar? This is
California,
this is who you are. I don't have to convince you of the power of
technology.
California is the frontier of what's possible. The outer boundary
of
imagination ... innovation.
More people live off their imagination in this city than any
other on Earth.
And surely, down the road from Silicon Valley, I don't have to
tell you how
connected we are. Connected in ways we never could have imagined
-- our lives
and our fates.
In a globalized world, Africa is our neighbor. It's right down
the lane. We
see, we know, exactly what's happening. A continent burns, and we
smell the
smoke. It stings our eyes; it sears our conscience.
But maybe not as much as it should. We live with it, don't we?
We're used to
it ... on a certain level, we've come to accept it. Men
especially. A lot of
men have developed an ability to live with this absurdity.
Most women
haven't.
Now, I see your expression. It says:
Oh, Bono, I'll bet you say that to all the girls.
No, really, you're the first.
Listen, I'm not saying this to flatter you. Not even I -- not
even this
rather indiscreet rock star -- would have the audacity to use
gender stereotypes
in the presence of the great Gloria Steinem.
I say it because it's true.
This emergency hits women where they live, more than most men.
As hard as it is to ask fans at a rock show to think about the
value of a
child's life far, far away ... or to ask boardroom America ... or
political
America ... you do not have to explain to the women of America,
the mothers of
America, the value of a child's life.
If you agree, well, why would that be? Why would women be more
concerned?
Biology? Does it have something to do with that second X
chromosome? Do men, on
the other hand, have some gene that makes them look the other way
... that
narrows their vision ... that gives them a penis, but no
conscience -- no
balls?
I'm no scientist, but there's some anecdotal evidence
here.
But of course it's crap ... biology is not destiny. But it does
seem that
women are more empathetic, more attuned to suffering, the reason
may be obvious:
I think women care more because women bear more of the
burdens of life.
Where AIDS is rampant, women are the hardest hit. In South Africa
last year,
young women ages 15 to 24 accounted for 90 percent of new HIV
infections.
Over two-thirds of people with AIDS in Africa are women.
Where children are orphaned by AIDS, it's women who care for
them.
Where schools are few, where education is poor, girls are more
likely to go
without.
Where women are shut out of politics, they're shut out of a lot
more than
that.
Where health systems collapse, it's women and children who suffer
the most.
In Africa, the likelihood of a woman dying in childbirth is 1 in
20. One in
20!
Where opportunity is scarce, women lag far behind men in income,
in access to
credit, the chance to start a business, the right to own
and inherit land.
In developing countries, landowners are mostly men, but up to 80
percent of
farmers are women. Eighty percent! So women can't own the land,
but they work
the land. They till the arid soil. They carry the water all those
miles.
This, I know, is a strange time to come to America and talk about
water wells
in Africa. You might not mind my asking you to care -- but
asking you to do
something about it? That's another story.
The most reasonable response might be tell this Irish rock star
to go back to
his posh house in Ireland ... to come back when the Dow is
up ... or when
U2's next record is out. Bye-bye, see you then.
It's counterintuitive, at best, to ask this country to look
outward at a time
when it's so tempting to turn inward. Tempting to double-lock the
doors,
stop answering the phone, focus on your own problems for a
while. I get it.
Clearly these are momentous times in America, times of crisis,
times of
chaos. Capitalism is on trial. Americans are struggling: losing
homes, losing
jobs, losing savings. The U.S. ... the world ... is changing
shape in unsettling
ways. You can feel it ... the tectonic plates are starting to
shift. Can I
say that in California? Maybe not.
But this is exactly the right time to think about the
world. Even to change
it.
All of a sudden, nothing is set in stone; everything's up for
grabs.
Historically, it's times like these, times of challenge, strain,
disruption,
when America discovers its true greatness. Right when everyone's
full of
fear. You heard Maria (Shriver) today talk about fear. This
is when Americans
rediscover who they are. What they believe. What their values
are. What they're
really about.
These are the questions we ought to be asking.
Who we are, what we're about. And, by the way, what we're
not about.
For example:
We're not about having our scientists come up with miracle drugs
and then
failing to get them to the people who need them.
We're not about mosquito bites or dirty water as a death
sentence.
We're not about politicians making promises and failing to keep
them, which
is what they are doing right now.
One more thing we're not about:
We're not about charity; we're about justice. Justice and
equality.
Aren't we? Do we actually believe that a child's life in Africa
has the same
value as a child's life in America? That they are equal before
the eyes of
God as it says in your blessed Declaration of Independence.
Doesn't it say in
the Holy Scriptures ... "love thy neighbor," and
isn't that a command, not a
suggestion?
And when Dr. King said, "I have a dream," was he just
talking about an
American dream? I thought it was an Irish dream, a Latin American
dream, an
African dream.
Dr. King's dream was a dream big enough to include all of us.
All humankind.
If we really believe that, if we're really ready to say, yes, we
are equal,
yes, Africans are our brothers and sisters, then we're going to
have to make
some changes.
We're going to need some new ideas.
Or maybe just revisit some old ideas.
Like the two-centuries-old idea of America.
America, don't you know, is not just a country, it's an idea.
Think about
that for a second. Your country is not just a geographical
location, it's an
idea.
The idea that all men, and women, are created equal.
That the poorest matter as much as the richest.
That in a world of plenty, no one should die for lack of food in
their
belly.
That where you live should not determine whether you live
or you die.
The idea that our dreams are one and our fates are one.
The idea that anything -- anything -- is possible.
That's the America the world needs.
That's the America I've always loved.
I've loved America since I was a kid ... watching you all
on television ...
on black-and-white television in my house on Cedarwood Road ...
put a man on
the moon.
You know I'm 9 years old ... and I'm thinking Americans are crazy
... "Hey
honey, is that the moon up there? Let's take a walk on it. Let's
bring back a
piece." I love that America.
You know, the funny thing about the astronauts in the Apollo
program ... When
they came back home, the thing they talked about the most
was not the moon.
It was the Earth.
They marveled at the Earthrise. We've all seen that first
picture. Taken
Christmas Eve, 1968 -- America at war, cities in flames, but the
Earth, from
above, so serene ... so beautiful ... so very fragile.
The astronaut who took that photo, Bill Anders, said when he
returned: "We
came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important
thing is that we
discovered the Earth."
A trip to the moon changed their worldview. It changed America's
worldview.
It changed everyone's worldview. America, by its vision, its
determination,
its sheer ingenuity, changed the way we all saw ourselves.
We saw that our
planet is small. That it's adrift -- alone -- a light in
the darkness. That it
needs our protection. That we upon it are one, whether we
want to be or not.
America enabled the world to step outside itself and look back.
To see ourselves as we truly are.
When America looks outside of itself, its view of itself is
never clearer.
Its faith in itself is never firmer.
Its purpose is never stronger.
Today, at a time when America, again, is tempted to turn inward,
turn away
from the world and its troubles, it is more essential than ever
that you look
outward.
America: We are not asking you to put another man, or woman, on
the moon.
America: We are asking you to help put humanity back on this
Earth.
* * * * * * * *End Bono's Speech* * * * * * * * *
Bono is the lead singer of U2 and co-founder of The ONE
Campaign and (RED).
To watch the video of Bono's speech, or to sign the "Keep
Our Commitments"
petition, visit _The ONE_ (http://www.one.org/) .
For more about The Women's
Conference, click _here_ (http://www.californiawomen.org/) .
© 2008 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/104506/