My fellow Americans .. One is never too old to learn new concepts and all are free to confess their faults in public as long as it doesn’t threaten National Security (or even if it does if you don’t mind being tortured.) Something that has bothered me for a long time has finally become clear enough to express in English. I had heard the word ‘recalcitrant’ before but I never realized it describes me in a large way. I know that at times, I had “…an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline…” as both my 5th grade teacher (Mrs. Wiggins for La Center Elementary students.) and a few of my old bosses could tell you. As a practitioner of a “Christianized” form of Falun Dafa, I remind you that Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance and other Human ideals are not typical of non-human entities such as governments and corporations. Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism and many others are under attack by organized collections of confused individuals that resort not to the best of human natures, but to the worst.
To my grade school com padres, I apologize for all those times I cried in front of the whole class. I remember the bewildered looks on your faces while I was getting railed for my “disobedience” or other random act of rebellion. I know it made you all uncomfortable and made you shun me. I remember you all applauding when it was announced that I was finally moving down the road. It has taken the best part of 50 years for me to understand what happened “back there” in the 1950s and 60s. You all need to understand that my brother Dennis and I were in our dad’s loins when he was captured and tortured by the Red Chinese in North Korea. You see, I understood true authority and strict discipline. My dad was a Master Sargent in a very sensitive intelligence unit doing aerial reconnaissance over “enemy” territory during the Korean “Conflict” through which the US was desperately trying to “contain” communism. I don’t think ANYONE really knew what that war was about, but my mom said that the man that came back was not the boy that was sent over there.
I wonder what my life would have been like if he had been allowed to stay over here and play trumpet with a Big Band as his original ambition was. He loved Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman and had even gotten a part with Jack Stalcup and his Orchestra before he was conscripted to that stinking “police action” or whatever it was. He was the one that had to “contain” all of the nasty secrets and classified information that he took to his grave in order to honor the oath he was compelled to take. I had to stop asking “why” a long time ago. My dad hated that question.
Now that my feet are shod for the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, I’m finished carrying on the torture of not knowing why we had to grow up under the cloud of secrecy that our own government cast over us. All governments on Earth are evil, especially if they use torture, including ours. It is time to arm ourselves again and fight a whole new kind of battle. The reconciliation of national conflict must take place first in the hearts and minds of the combatants. (…and we are ALL enemy combatants in SOME context…) The Cold War doesn’t end as the politicians and profiteers say – it simply gets colder as the memories fade and the wounds heal.
Meanwhile, as the inner battles rage, we as Neochristians, Buddhist, Taoist and other peace-loving spiritual climbers continue to face the nonscientific world. We “get” that the teachings and traditions are often distorted if not lost altogether by the authoritarian and undisciplined. The discipline is not of word or action until it is of mind and spirit. The mind is the only part of our nature we can change. Growing into higher systems of integrated belief should never be painful for others. The science of self-in-community (Greek Christian – Koinonia) adds to the Buddha Fa in Falun Gong. Collective well-being is a measurable side effect of increased participation. It is well understood that the singularity will not be another individual like Buddha or Jesus, but will be the community of practitioners of the sciences they taught.
In Honor of the author’s dad on Veterans Day (USA) 2015: Thank you Knox E. Quinton for your service to The Country I Grow Into.
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