So, I was invited to the White House. Yes, I know, to quote the vice president from
another context, “it’s a big fucking deal.”
I am grateful to my colleague in the Responsible Fatherhood community
who arranged for me to be on the guest list for the Champions of Change
event. I am also grateful that the
current Head of State does not embarrass me so much that I would refuse the
invitation. Those who knew me in my
youth are probably surprised that I would ever be invited to the White
House. As a young man I was radical
enough to advocate the overthrow of the United States government. I wasn’t thoughtful enough to visualize
clearly what would take its place, but as I looked at the legacy of injustice
to Native Americans and African Americans, the people I most closely identify
with, I had little patience for the hypocrisy of the country that declared
itself the home of the free.
After a short stint as a political
revolutionary, I tired of the contradictions in radical circles as well, i.e., revolutionaries
not treating other revolutionaries with kindness and respect, radicals not
living up to our own ideals about equality in relationships and progressive leaders
abusing power through their own human weaknesses. I began devoting myself more to personal
development through yoga, self-reflection and relationship building. But I never forgot the legacy of genocide,
slavery and Jim Crow that provided the foundation for the success of the United
States. And even as the country evolved
through the Civil Rights and other movements for social justice and I
personally evolved through my self-improvement studies, I still maintained a
bit of a chip on my shoulder regarding America’s troubled past and present.
That chip did dissolve to some extent when
Barack Obama was elected the first African-American President of the United
States. In fact, I visited DC more than half a dozen times before his election, but the first time I went to see
the home of the nation’s chief executive was in 2009. I was in the city for a meditation retreat
with my 16 year old daughter and we made the pilgrimage to stand outside the wrought
iron fence with the other tourists getting high off the power flowing from the
mansion. The fact the nation’s first
Black president was in residence took some of the sting out of viewing the
executive mansion. However, I was not ignorant to the realities of politics and
governance. I greatly preferred Obama
to McCain, but I knew that all politicians at that level are beholden to corporate
interests not fully aligned with my own value system, to put it
mildly.
When I was invited this month to visit the
White House for a briefing on the Responsible Fatherhood movement, an old
friend who has spent the last two decades as a federal bureaucrat graciously
agreed to host me the night before. His perspective
helped to open my eyes to the vastness of the federal government. Seeing it so closely, I am left even more
stymied for a vision of what to replace this system of governance with if I
miraculously had the opportunity. Three
decades ago, I abandoned radical politics to work on myself and that still
seems like the best solution to societal malfunction. Continuing to work on the relationships I
maintain with my wife, children, colleagues and most of all, with my higher
self still strikes me as the best way to improve the world.
We all have an inner compass that guides
us and lets us know when we are out of integrity. We all ignore that guidance at times, but
politicians as a group are held in low regard because they become expert
at ignoring that voice. Politics is the art of compromise and requires bending one's values to make progress. Habitually bending one's values may distort the inner compass. To me, it's still amazing that 150
years ago the man who was 43rd President of the U.S. could have literally owned the man who is the 44th
President, raped his wife with impunity and sold his children to a pedophile
with legally binding contracts. The
occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue regularly signed off on such madness. Don't even get me started on their interactions with the native people of this continent.
But, we
have come a long way. It was awe inspiring to walk the corridors where so many momentous decisions were made and powerful leaders strode. I am grateful for the opportunity to walk on that stage. President Obama operates from a position that is in greater alignment with my own values than many of our national leaders and his presence in that mansion truly inspires me. Yet I realize he
is a figurehead for a massive organization with competing interests. In every great social advance, politicians
have followed people of conscience. By
studying and modeling the champions of change who developed the inner vision, fortitude
and persistence to live a life of integrity and goodwill, by transcending our
own pettiness and insecurities, by truly being the change we wish to see, the
planet will continue evolving toward relationships based on love, harmony and success. And politicians will follow.
