Spirituality

This passage below was started as a poem of some kind, but it took on the form of something different. Something that may have started with the words here. I had these thoughts as I listened to a news story concerning yet one more tragedy brought on by the hatred of one religion, one people, against another and the continuous struggle for power that so often occurs. I hope (yes, and pray) that it will never come to this again in this country. I say again, because religion drove early conflict in this country, confining, destroying and marginalizing whole communities (immigrant and non-immigrant) along the way to create what is now this country. Some never recovered, but our country continued on its way to the whole that it is today. May it not be splintered by spiritual power struggles or a rewriting of our history to the exclusiveness of one religion. We are country of many peoples, creeds, religions and we should remain so. We are many things as a whole. What makes America an exclusive club that so many wish to join is that we are not exclusive. We are the sum of all our differences, we are the magic web of all that we have in common, because we are all human.

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Spirituality can and shall inform our lives, our ways, our laws, our decisions and indecision. But never shall it deform our common morals and laws to the strict code of one religion. Never shall it debase one human life in favor of another. Never shall it delineate another race, creed or standing in our society. And never, ever will it place one spirituality over another in our halls of justice, law and ethics.

(11 Oct 07)