wizdUUm.net

Here's an article on msnbc about the reaction of Asian Americans to this tragedy.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18178194/site/newsweek/

I called home last night (home being San Francisco where my parents and brother are). Their responses were interesting. My mother was incensed that the initial reports identified the shooter as Chinese. What she didn't say but what I inferred was her worry that there would be an anti-Chinese backlash. (Tho personally I'm not sure if people who are inclined towards backlash bother to make such a distinction between different Asians. Remember Vincent Chin.) My brother was more direct, voicing concern about an anti-Asian backlash in general.

I was asked to give some spiritual/theological reflections to my congregation on Earth Day.  Here goes.

***

As Unitarian Universalists, we affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part.

Personally I think its funny that we felt the need to add that last bit – "of which we are a part."  If there is an interdependent web of all existence then of course we are a part of it, right?  But the need to add that last bit underscores our feeling of separateness.  We humans as separate from the rest of creation, from Earth.  We as individuals separate from each other. 

As a culture, we celebrate our independence instead of our interdependence.

I've got the Holy Spirit and interconnectedness on the brain these days.  I see them everywhere.

This morning before service, our discussion group was reading an essay from Rebecca Parker's Blessing the World where she describes a soldier's story of how he was ordered to take on a mission that he knew was hopeless.  He knew that most of his men would die, and yet, after some resistance, he gave in and did it anyway.  

We discussed the psychology behind that, how hard it is to go against the crowd.  And talk of war naturally led to discussion of the current war in Iraq, and how so many groups - the Dems, the media, the former generals... - are blaming each other now for not questioning the administration at the time, when the arguments in favor of war were so obviously faulty.