The Pageless Book

I recently found this video clip of a guy explaining why he supports Barrak Obama over Hillary Clinton. The cameraman’s intention was to show that Obama supporters chose Obama for emotional reasons rather than logical reasons. The guy he was interviewing, Derrick Ashong, soundly disproved the cameraman’s theory in about five minutes. This made me curious so I dug further and found this video:

In case you don’t have time to watch it, apparently the original video went viral and Derrick had been getting a torrent of e-mails about the views he had expressed and wanted to explain what happened that day and his personal motives. Derrick, a.k.a. DNA, is a naturalized immigrant from West Africa, where people have few rights and almost no say over who governs. As he explains it, voting in this country for a candidate who actually stands for something is so empowering in his view that no one should let their chance slip away. If I was not voting Obama before I saw this video, I certainly would be voting for Obi afterwards.

This video sank its hooks into me, and wouldn’t let go - I had to know more about this Derrick Ashong guy! So I dug even deeper. Turns out that he’s a member of a seven-man band named Soulfege out of Boston. Turns out that the three individuals who founded the band met in Harvard. They’re listed as Hip-Hop/Reggae, which really isn’t my style, but I won’t hold that against them for a second. The band’s stated purpose is to change how the media views African Americans, and how Africans on both sides of the Atlantic view each other. They have just relocated to Los Angeles and are, in my opinion, well on their way to stardom.

Derrick and his band are heading up an initiative to “take back the mic” from the media and put it back into the hands of the youth of America. In fact he’s challenged those who’ve come across these videos to engage the band members and himself in discussion through the following video:

If I had the power, I’d nominate this man for political activist of the year - and it’s only February! I’m not only inspired by Derrick’s message, but hope to make others inspired by spreading his message. To know more about Soulfege, you can visit their website, and to know more about Derrick Ashong, you can visit his blog. Please help me in spreading this man’s message and give this post a thumbs up on StumbleUpon.

Namaste.

Above Photo by Señor Codo. Photo Below by Gabriel Agu.

I’ve noticed a tendency among members of liberal religions and other spiritual seekers to discount anger as an emotion that might accompany spiritual experiences. For those who believe that the Divine is perfect love, the idea of spiritual anger, also called righteousness, as being a valid spiritual expression seems misguided at best. However, it is our aversion to anger that is misguided; anger can be spiritual.

The first example that most individuals think of when asked about righteousness is the stereotypical fundamentalist preacher condemning one group of people or another for some minor infraction of biblical law. I would argue that this isn’t righteousness - it is hatred. Unlike legitimate anger which is open to listening to rational arguments, hatred is an extreme form of anger that no longer is bound by reason or conscience. As it is capable of horrible acts of violence and cruelty, rage is rightfully disdained.

Not all anger is hatred, nor can all anger be called righteousness. Anger over a small matter, such as being cut-off in traffic or being given bad service at a restaurant couldn’t be called righteousness with a straight face. So if mundane anger does not qualify was righteousness, what does qualify?

That question goes to the heart of what spirituality is about. Spirituality is nothing less than universal love. Whether we call the subject of that universal love God or something else, that love is the stuff of which spirituality is made. Righteousness, by extension, would be anger tempered by such a love.

What does righteousness look like? It looks like Dr. Martin Luther King speaking on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It looks like rainbow banners held by men and women marching for GLBT rights. And it looks like a gathering of young people wearing Guy Fawks masks outside of Scientology headquarters. This is righteousness in its most honest form - anger tempered by a love greater than any one individual.

Last week, I added my voice to that of other democrats in my state and voted for Barack Obama for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. While I could name and number the faults I find with Hillary Clinton, I voted the way I did not because I was voting against Senator Clinton. I voted for Obama because I saw in him something that I did not see in her; righteousness. He is angry over what has become of this country in this last decade, and yet his love for what this country has been - and can be again - guides his hand. We should all be so brave as to embody righteousness as he does.

There are dangers in righteousness; if you lose the humility that honest love demands, it becomes self righteousness - pretense to that deep spiritual anger. Yet I do not think that we, as a community, are at any risk to losing our humility. I think we can and should risk more of ourselves by expressing our righteousness more than we do currently. It is a part of our spiritual truth and our responsibility to each other.