Inclusion & Exclusion
I was watching a very emotional installment of Meet the Press the other day and something has been bothering me about it for the last two days, and I just realized why.

No, it wasn't with the President of Jefferson Parrish, though I strongly feel and send compassion towards him. It had to do with some comments by the former mayor of New Orleans who was among a panel of guests. They were talking about the refugee situation in the city, and he stopped them, asking them to please not refer to them as "refugees" but as "citizens" or "Americans." Not wanting to lump us in with them - the millions of other displaced persons around the globe. While his intention was positive, I'm sure, it points to something that is at the core of our national issues.

There is nothing inherently negative or demeaning in the word "refugee." That only comes from the intention, and conotation that we have given to it as a nation, as a people, and as a global community. We think of the poor, we think of the disenfranchised, we think of the helpless, and yes the hopeless. We think of the powerless and those that have no voice. We don't want to be them, ever. Isn't it impossible in this country?

Not calling them refugees has two inherent long range problems that will not only hurt them, but us as well. First of all, refusing to call them what they are has the effect of separating them - and us - from the others who are suffering in the world, and in this country. At a time that could be drawing us together in compassion with the rest of the world, and increasing our understanding as to the nature and effects of our own policies, blindness, and environmental degradation, we are cutting ourselves from that global heart, and that global - and human - REALITY. We are once again not like "them." Inadvertently, the former mayor, an African-American, uttered one of the most ancient racist statements of all time.

Another aspect of this idea lies in the treatment those effected by the hurricane can and will receive. If you don't think that renaming something has an effect on such things, you don't know our government or global system very well. For instance, as soon as Bush declared the city a "state of emergency" money then became available. Nothing changed about the situation except the conceptual and literal framework that it was being put in. Imagine the similar consequences for people! Utter the right words and Open Sesame!, utter the wrong words and waste away in the Astrodome.

"Refugee" carries a lot more emotional and accurate weight than "displaced person" (sounds like they lost their car in the Walmart parking lot). Refugee has an immediacy, as in right now, as in thousands screaming for salvation at the Convention Center. Displaced person has the immediacy of sitting in a doctor's office waiting room.

We've done this before with people we've wounded - as George Carlin so astutely pointed out with how veterans were given less and less treatment for the emotional and psychological scars of war as what they were going through was described as "shell shock," to "post tramatic stress syndome." One is immediate, the other just somehow isn't. The people of the South don't need a lot of debating going on right now. They need immediate action.

I also find the images of those preaching and yelling on New Orleans street corners, comparing the city with Sodom and Gemorrah, very sad. Are we really so lost in the past? Lost in fear? People really do still believe in the Devil, in retribution, that if you don't read the right texts you're going to burn in hell. I find not only those words sad, but also the fact that there is so much more available and true for us, and that some people cannot see this. It's like the rich person who feels poor - who can't feel, expereince, or celebrate and share thier good fortune.

I went to Boise last Friday to Spirit at Work Books & Beyond, which was hosting a Weekend in Tibet. The Ven. Robina Courtin gave a two hour talk and she was so amazing. People asked her for a buddhist interpretation of the situation in New Orleans, and she did not shy away from the idea of karma, and how being there, in that wonderful comfortable space was the result of generating good karma. Being in this chair right now, expereincing some allergies, some discomfort, but a lot of light and love. We all have stuff to work on, and we all can use the things around us to help us bear witness to our own lives more clearly.

Truth and Compassion - words and emotions. So very very important in all that we do. If the eyes are the gateway to our soul, our mouths are the spokespeople for our hearts.

In honor of the refugees of the south, I open my heart, my home, and my resources to sharing and alleviating thier suffering. May their path be clear and may they find joy in thier new lives. I call upon Her daily in their name, and I also am riding my bike as much as possible rather than driving to not fuel the fires anymore than necessary.

In Service,
Angela