Down Time in Managua

Laid up n Managua with a sinus infection (a recurring problem), I’ve had some time to read and watch movies. I’ve been reading The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein, one of the most important books I‘ve ever read. I had just read the chapter on the coup in Chile when, apropos of that, I watched the 1982 Costa Gavras film, Missing. The film is based on the true story of independent journalist, Charles Horman, a young US citizen who was killed during the US-sponsored coup against Chile’s democratically-elected President, Salvador Allende, in 1973. Also killed was Frank Teruggi, who worked with Horman at a small news magazine, FIN (Fuente Norteamericano de Información, or North American Information Source).

According to history professor, Steven Volk (who was also in Chile during the coup that put Augusto Pinochet in power, and was the person who identified the body of his friend, Frank Teruggi), FIN "was designed to keep interested Chileans informed about the activities of the U.S. government and corporations around the world, and to demonstrate solidarity with the Chilean left by calling attention to progressive movements in the United States." Association with FIN was enough to put Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi on the list of persons to be rounded up and killed in a coup supported (and to some extent organized) by their own government.

Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi were like a lot of us -- passionate about social justice, using every possible means to communicate the larger issues to anyone who's interested, and completely outspoken about we're seeing. We use Facebook to post links to articles and videos that tell the story better than we ever could. We blog. At the same time, we are mostly unaware of the lengths to which the powers that be will go to protect their interests. We may feel insignificant in the larger scheme of things, but if we have anything coherent to say about what is happening around us, it's sure that we've been noticed -- if not by those we want to reach, then by those who know that the ideas we try to disseminate are inimical to their interests. Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi didn't see themselves as very important. That was a mistake.

It's not that we should ever stop speaking the truth that we see to as many as will listen. But we need to be aware of the forces that are arrayed against us. We need to understand that the desire for social justice, for truth, is not on their agenda. Making a profit at any cost is their prime motivator. To them, we are "bleeding hearts," concerned about the survival of people who are irrelevant to their scheme of things, and striving to protect cherished human values that they have decreed passé. In Archbishop Oscar Romero and Reverend Martin Luther King (among many others, nameless, faceless, but still speaking their truth from beyond their unmarked graves) we have examples of the kind of integrity we know we will need in the face of an onslaught by those who desire to frighten us into doing their bidding.

These martyrs boldly spoke the truth they as they saw it, that they were living within an evil system that required the sacrifice, often the blood sacrifice, of those who spoke out against the injustices being perpetrated against the people they loved. They were willing to sacrifice themselves, not to prove the evil-doers right, but to show that you can kill people, but you can't kill an idea. The idea is justice, freedom and respect for all. The desire for these is inherent in human nature, and yet how often do we practice doing unto others as we would have them do unto us? I think that if we applied this principle generally, we could change the world. But we need to remember that the application of this principle has a cost.

More and more people are waking up to the reality that has been before our eyes all along. But the system that controls our possibilities and our perceptions also monitors our desires. It's time to think about these things. It's time to think about the personal cost of challenging a system established to further the greedy interests of a small number of those of our species who would sacrifice the rest of us for their goal of gaining total control of the world. Horman and Teruggi found out too late that there was not even a shred of humanity in the system they attempted to challenge. They were killed because they knew too much. And so, what is our alternative? Refusing to know anything? (Ignorance will not save us.) Pretending that things will get better on their own? (We know they will not.) There are no easy answers. Still, we need to ask ourselves the questions.

All I know is that the more I learn (and The Shock Doctrine has been a real eye-opener), the more I experience the need, the desire, to tend to my own integrity, which is challenged every time I speak out and get criticized for it; every time I have a choice to make between my desires and others' needs; every time I am tempted to give up on humanity. I don't know what the future holds in store for me. All I know is that integrity seems to be the worst mortal sin in the upside down world of today. It seems to mark people for martyrdom. And yet, without integrity, what am I? I might as well be dead.

These are serious thoughts on a beautiful morning in a beautiful country whose people have had to grapple with these issues before (and, judging from the signs, unfortunately probably will again). But at this moment I feel very alive and overwhelmed by the beauty around me. It's a good day to travel back to León to refresh my perspective.

Peace