A month ago, I posted to say a little something about current events in Egypt. I sincerely hoped that the intervening month of Ramadan would cool tempers and promote more discussion amongst various factions.
The events of the last several days have proven me very, very wrong. I don't even know what to say, beyond that I've heard from almost all of our family and friends in Egypt, and they are all right, but the whole situation is discouraging, depressing, and scary.
I will try to gather my thoughts. In the meantime, I can only hope for something better than violence and chaos for Egypt and every Egyptian. Our new Kemetic year of Heru-sa-Aset promises that everyone will get what they put into this year, whether it is good or bad.
We need so much more good to be going on right now.
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
August 16, 2013
July 10, 2013
About Egypt
I've been asked more than once in the last several days about why I haven't made some sort of official statement about current events in Egypt, where the first elected president, Mohammed Morsi, was removed from office by the military.
Was it a coup? Is it bad for democracy? Will things get better? Will El Baradei end up being President? Will Mubarak-style Egypt somehow come back? What happens to Egyptian tourism? What about the Copts? Is the Muslim Brotherhood going to turn into (or go back to being, depending on who you ask) a terrorist organization?
Don't you care what's going on in Egypt? Aren't you going to say something?
Was it a coup? Is it bad for democracy? Will things get better? Will El Baradei end up being President? Will Mubarak-style Egypt somehow come back? What happens to Egyptian tourism? What about the Copts? Is the Muslim Brotherhood going to turn into (or go back to being, depending on who you ask) a terrorist organization?
Don't you care what's going on in Egypt? Aren't you going to say something?
May 2, 2011
Death and Remembrance - Osama bin Laden and the world
On September 11, 2001, I wrote a letter about the attacks Al Qaeda, and its leader Osama bin Laden, carried out on the United States. An excerpt of that letter was taken off the Internet and appeared in a book put out by Beliefnet, along with the writings of many clergymen and women far more wise than I am.
Earlier this evening, I listened as President Obama announced the news that the man behind the terrorist organization responsible for these attacks had been found, and that he had been killed. And afterward, I watched as people began to gather around the White House, and around Ground Zero, and all over the Internet, to discuss the news.
Legend has it that Mark Twain once said "I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." Many people will feel that way this evening; the media has been photographing them celebrating all over the world since the news was released. Others, on the other side of the conflict, might mourn. Still others might find themselves in the place that I am, quiet, thoughtful, wondering if one life makes up for the hundreds of thousands lost while he was searched for. And then one even wonders if that is a valid way of thinking. Can one count human beings like apples or stones? What is a life worth?
I went back to the shrine, that shrine I talked about in my 2001 letter, though now it is in another room in another building in another town. Yet the feeling, and the sound, was the same. One death will not bring all those he killed back to life. One death will not atone, cannot atone, for all the pain and suffering terrorism has brought to the world. A chapter has ended, but the book of evil is still being written. There is no gaining back what was lost on September 11, 2001, nor anything that happened between that day and today.
There is only what we choose to do now. And I will pray that what we choose to do makes the world a better place. I can do no more.
Earlier this evening, I listened as President Obama announced the news that the man behind the terrorist organization responsible for these attacks had been found, and that he had been killed. And afterward, I watched as people began to gather around the White House, and around Ground Zero, and all over the Internet, to discuss the news.
Legend has it that Mark Twain once said "I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." Many people will feel that way this evening; the media has been photographing them celebrating all over the world since the news was released. Others, on the other side of the conflict, might mourn. Still others might find themselves in the place that I am, quiet, thoughtful, wondering if one life makes up for the hundreds of thousands lost while he was searched for. And then one even wonders if that is a valid way of thinking. Can one count human beings like apples or stones? What is a life worth?
I went back to the shrine, that shrine I talked about in my 2001 letter, though now it is in another room in another building in another town. Yet the feeling, and the sound, was the same. One death will not bring all those he killed back to life. One death will not atone, cannot atone, for all the pain and suffering terrorism has brought to the world. A chapter has ended, but the book of evil is still being written. There is no gaining back what was lost on September 11, 2001, nor anything that happened between that day and today.
There is only what we choose to do now. And I will pray that what we choose to do makes the world a better place. I can do no more.
February 3, 2011
On "Departure Friday" : An Open Letter
It has been suggested that I have not said enough about my personal opinion about what is going on in Egypt, particularly as pertains not so much to my background as a professional Egyptologist, but as the spiritual head of the Kemetic Orthodox Faith.
While I consider myself strictly a religious leader, and do not concern myself with the politics of Egypt or any country as a rule, the position that I hold sacerdotally once also belonged to the men and women who ruled the country now ruled by Hosni Mubarak. There are those who, embarrassingly enough, would refer to me as a "pharaoh," and others have referred to President Mubarak with the same term. (Semantically that is correct but direct comparison of either of us to, say, Ramses II is more than a bit absurd in my case and only vaguely accurate on Mr. Mubarak's).
It is probably completely ridiculous of me to write this. He will never see it, and even if somehow he did, he probably wouldn't care. But I will write it anyway, because it needs to be said, whether from one "pharaoh" to another, or one human being to another.
An Open Letter to Hosni Mubarak, Current President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Salaam, Mr. President, or as your ancestors would say it, em hotep: in peace.
There have been many discussions in the media worldwide and on the streets of the country you have had the honor to lead for the past three decades about today being "Departure Friday." While you are no more obligated to listen to me than you are to anyone else who is giving you advice, and I am certain there are people who know you and have better advice for you than I do, I must repeat what is being said. It's time. Please go.
Back in ancient times, if an Egyptian monarch made it to Year 30, there was a special celebration called a Heb Sed, the "festival of the tail," where that king was blessed and consecrated and renewed for another three decades of rule. At the beginning of that ceremony he or she was tested for fitness and had to prove his or her worth to be renewed. Nobody got to be king without passing that test, and one assumes that in addition to the ritual and to the ceremonial "running of the boundaries" held in a semi-public place, the king thought about the past and contemplated the future.
I don't think it's any coincidence that the same word in ancient Egyptian that is used to name a king "your Majesty" also means "slave" or "servant." Additionally it can be interpreted as meaning "person of character." Real kings, real rulers, know that they rule only at the will of their people, and their entire lives are structured to make sure that they are serving those people - as their servant not their overlord. They do what is necessary to serve the people because it is only with the people that they will continue to exist. They rule only as long as it is appropriate to do so, in Ma'at which is truth, Ma'at which is so holy it is also considered a form of God.
If you love your country, and I would like to believe that you do, listen to her. Stop sending forces to quiet her voice and still her limbs. You may believe you have been wronged and perhaps that will come out in the future. You have taken steps to make changes and appointed a new government and opened the table for negotiations. These are all good things. I urge you to add to them now by using today as Departure Day. Go and let them make their decisions. Show that you love your country enough by letting it make its decisions and by removing the obstacles to its repression. Show your fitness to rule by recognizing the will and the heart and the passion and the capability of your countrymen. Be Egypt's servant and not her master. It has never mattered more and by doing so you have an opportunity to show your worth to your people in a concrete way that cannot be misinterpreted.
Thirty years has passed. Whether or not you will be acclaimed by your God and your people lies in what you choose to do in the next few days and hours. With all sincerity and prayerfully I ask that you do the right thing and allow for a peaceful transition of power. Recall your police force and signal that you do love Egypt more than you love your position. Be a pharaoh that people want to remember, and not one who will forever be equated with repression and fear.
May Ma'at be with you today, and may Allah grant you wisdom in this time.
Rev. Tamara L. Siuda
Nisut of the Kemetic Orthodox Faith
While I consider myself strictly a religious leader, and do not concern myself with the politics of Egypt or any country as a rule, the position that I hold sacerdotally once also belonged to the men and women who ruled the country now ruled by Hosni Mubarak. There are those who, embarrassingly enough, would refer to me as a "pharaoh," and others have referred to President Mubarak with the same term. (Semantically that is correct but direct comparison of either of us to, say, Ramses II is more than a bit absurd in my case and only vaguely accurate on Mr. Mubarak's).
It is probably completely ridiculous of me to write this. He will never see it, and even if somehow he did, he probably wouldn't care. But I will write it anyway, because it needs to be said, whether from one "pharaoh" to another, or one human being to another.
An Open Letter to Hosni Mubarak, Current President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Salaam, Mr. President, or as your ancestors would say it, em hotep: in peace.
There have been many discussions in the media worldwide and on the streets of the country you have had the honor to lead for the past three decades about today being "Departure Friday." While you are no more obligated to listen to me than you are to anyone else who is giving you advice, and I am certain there are people who know you and have better advice for you than I do, I must repeat what is being said. It's time. Please go.
Back in ancient times, if an Egyptian monarch made it to Year 30, there was a special celebration called a Heb Sed, the "festival of the tail," where that king was blessed and consecrated and renewed for another three decades of rule. At the beginning of that ceremony he or she was tested for fitness and had to prove his or her worth to be renewed. Nobody got to be king without passing that test, and one assumes that in addition to the ritual and to the ceremonial "running of the boundaries" held in a semi-public place, the king thought about the past and contemplated the future.
I don't think it's any coincidence that the same word in ancient Egyptian that is used to name a king "your Majesty" also means "slave" or "servant." Additionally it can be interpreted as meaning "person of character." Real kings, real rulers, know that they rule only at the will of their people, and their entire lives are structured to make sure that they are serving those people - as their servant not their overlord. They do what is necessary to serve the people because it is only with the people that they will continue to exist. They rule only as long as it is appropriate to do so, in Ma'at which is truth, Ma'at which is so holy it is also considered a form of God.
If you love your country, and I would like to believe that you do, listen to her. Stop sending forces to quiet her voice and still her limbs. You may believe you have been wronged and perhaps that will come out in the future. You have taken steps to make changes and appointed a new government and opened the table for negotiations. These are all good things. I urge you to add to them now by using today as Departure Day. Go and let them make their decisions. Show that you love your country enough by letting it make its decisions and by removing the obstacles to its repression. Show your fitness to rule by recognizing the will and the heart and the passion and the capability of your countrymen. Be Egypt's servant and not her master. It has never mattered more and by doing so you have an opportunity to show your worth to your people in a concrete way that cannot be misinterpreted.
Thirty years has passed. Whether or not you will be acclaimed by your God and your people lies in what you choose to do in the next few days and hours. With all sincerity and prayerfully I ask that you do the right thing and allow for a peaceful transition of power. Recall your police force and signal that you do love Egypt more than you love your position. Be a pharaoh that people want to remember, and not one who will forever be equated with repression and fear.
May Ma'at be with you today, and may Allah grant you wisdom in this time.
Rev. Tamara L. Siuda
Nisut of the Kemetic Orthodox Faith
January 30, 2011
January 25 and Beyond: Egypt Today
It's been quite the roller-coaster the last few days with events in Egypt, the homeland of our gods and faith and a place that is very dear to me as the home of friends and people I call family.
I can't get in touch with any of those people, haven't been able to since Monday, and that along with the video and photographs we are managing to get from various news sources has left me more than a little bit worried about all this.
Yet, at the same time, I have a lot of hope for Masr. No matter what the last gasps of the regime bring, the people are united to overcome, and at least for now, the army seems inclined to help. This makes sense, since the army was built for so many years out of and by the same people it protects. What is happening in Egypt is the natural reaction of people who have had enough. It is not some random act of terrorism or even some outside group pushing its will on the nation - I wish I could make this clearer to those I've been talking to over the last few days who want to believe it's "Islamists" or Al-Qaeda or Iran or some other shadowy group trying to make the Egyptian people unhappy. They simply reached the end of their patience with a Father-knows-best government where Father is completely dysfunctional, and so they are doing what they were unable to do within the government or at the ballot box.
Please pray for Egypt, for Masr. Please pray for all the wonderful people of this incredible country, that they continue to be heard, and safe, over the next hours and days and months as she transitions into something new. If you are not the praying type, think good thoughts, inform yourself as what happens in Egypt will have great impact on her neighbors and allies, and accept my gratitude for your concern.
I'm posting news as I get it on anything I can get from Egypt on my Twitter feed and on my Facebook fan page, both of which are linked to the right of this entry. Please feel free to watch them or send me any information you might have. I appreciate all of the help and news and goodwill that has been extended to that effort so far, and the Egyptian people also appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers. The people of our gods, even if they do not worship Them, need us to stand with them now, and thus we will.
I can't get in touch with any of those people, haven't been able to since Monday, and that along with the video and photographs we are managing to get from various news sources has left me more than a little bit worried about all this.
Yet, at the same time, I have a lot of hope for Masr. No matter what the last gasps of the regime bring, the people are united to overcome, and at least for now, the army seems inclined to help. This makes sense, since the army was built for so many years out of and by the same people it protects. What is happening in Egypt is the natural reaction of people who have had enough. It is not some random act of terrorism or even some outside group pushing its will on the nation - I wish I could make this clearer to those I've been talking to over the last few days who want to believe it's "Islamists" or Al-Qaeda or Iran or some other shadowy group trying to make the Egyptian people unhappy. They simply reached the end of their patience with a Father-knows-best government where Father is completely dysfunctional, and so they are doing what they were unable to do within the government or at the ballot box.
Please pray for Egypt, for Masr. Please pray for all the wonderful people of this incredible country, that they continue to be heard, and safe, over the next hours and days and months as she transitions into something new. If you are not the praying type, think good thoughts, inform yourself as what happens in Egypt will have great impact on her neighbors and allies, and accept my gratitude for your concern.
I'm posting news as I get it on anything I can get from Egypt on my Twitter feed and on my Facebook fan page, both of which are linked to the right of this entry. Please feel free to watch them or send me any information you might have. I appreciate all of the help and news and goodwill that has been extended to that effort so far, and the Egyptian people also appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers. The people of our gods, even if they do not worship Them, need us to stand with them now, and thus we will.
January 19, 2009
On the Audacity of a Dream
Those of my readers who aren't from the United States (and some of those who are) have probably already heard more than they will ever be able to take in about the historic events surrounding tomorrow's inauguration of the 44th president of the country I call home.
Generally I avoid discussing anything remotely resembling politics in my religious blog.
I do this for several reasons, most notable of which is that in the United States of America there is a legal precedent for religious and governmental institutions to maintain a strict division, referred to in our Constitution as a "separation of church and state." I also have a more pragmatic reason, which is that our church currently is registered as a tax-exempt religious organization and that such registration can be lost if the organization can be shown to be violating that legal separation of religion and politics, and I believe the distinction is a just one that should be respected and I intend to do so wherever possible.
But enough of an aside. What I meant torant about discuss in today's entry, which is of importance to all thinking people regardless of their religious or political persuasions, was the unfortunate characterization of the election of Barack Obama, our nation's first mixed-race President, as, and I'm going to quote CBS News here, "fulfilling Dr. Martin Luther King's dream."
A suggestion that Barack Obama is somehow the final culmination to Dr. King's contributions to the civil rights movement has been growing in volume and reached its crescendo today, the day we celebrate Dr. King's birthday as a national holiday. It seems to have been added to an already unhealthy attempt to portray the President-Elect as some sort of superhero or messiah figure to a degree that not even Dr. King was ever subjected.
Barack Obama is a pretty amazing man; don't get me wrong. I, too, did my time in the community organizing trenches of Chicago after I moved here in 1987, helping with the electoral process at my alma mater, Mundelein College Chicago, and subsequently working on the campaign of a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in the early 1990s. I heard about him and about the work he was doing on the South Side (I was located on the North Side, so we did not work together). I heard good things.
President-elect Obama was very active in the University of Chicago community during the time I was working on my master's degree there, where he also left me with a fair amount of positive things to say about him. He is a thoughtful, capable individual and perhaps precisely the person we need to represent our nation to the world in this most challenging time for us.
He also represents the face of our nation's future: a little younger, a little less privileged, a little less white. In the Native American community I am part of as an Onondaga, I know that we are excited to have a man about to become president who finally seems to acknowledge that this is not a country belonging only to one race or one tax bracket, and I expect that the same things are being said and believed in other minority communities and cultures across this country tonight.
However, President Obama, as he will be before the next sun sets, is not the fulfillment of the civil rights movement, in the United States or elsewhere.
He represents a significant figure to be certain. On some levels, he is the first and best of those working toward the changes that need to happen before any of Dr. King's dreams become realities across our nation and our world. He is a trailblazer and a representation of a good new beginning, but not the culmination. We're not over the mountain yet, folks, even if Dr. King got there before us and Obama's height has put him in a position that he can see where we can head if we only have the courage to walk along.
Dr. King's dreams will never be fulfilled as long as anyone loses a job or can't get a loan or isn't welcome in a neighborhood because of the color of their skin, the name of their God, the land of their origin or the gender of their spouse. Dr. King's belief in a fair and open world as a possibility will remain a dream as long as individuals choose reaching for themselves over reaching out. Civil rights can never, and will never, occur unless we are willing to act in the civil ways those rights demand. As long as civil rights in the United States of America remain civil possibilities, or civil privileges, or (as they often are) civil impossibilities -- the dreams will only be dreams and continue to elude our grasp.
Obama may very well help us to reach for those dreams in ways we have never before considered, and encourage us to remember what it is to be good citizens and neighbors of our nation and our world -- but he cannot be expected to do this alone or embody it alone. We cannot put all our dreams on this man who is climbing the ladder ahead of us; we will only weigh him down with their expectations and slow his rise. What we must do, is start climbing up behind him, and reach back with the other hand to help the one behind us to reach up and climb too.
I will be praying for Barack Obama tonight, alongside the prayers I usually say for Dr. King's ka on this day. I'd like to think Dr. King is sitting on the other side of that mountain watching what we're doing and being very happy for us, but he's probably praying for Obama as well. I'd like to offer some of Dr. King's thoughts for each of us to contemplate, taken from his acceptance speech for the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize:
For my part, I can speak no better words than these, made just over 45 years ago. I can only echo them and honor their speaker by pointing out something important in the face of those who would suggest all the hard work is over just because there is "a brown man in the White House" as of tomorrow afternoon.
I refuse to accept that Barack Obama alone will be responsible for culminating the dreams of a better world, or that they are somehow fulfilled simply by the fact that he managed to win an election.
There is much, much more work to do, every day, to make the world a better place in Ma'at. Each one of us has a place in this plan, no matter what nationality or religion we embrace. The dreams of Dr. King should not require audacity -- they should be the united aims of compassionate and rational people everywhere -- but until we have achieved that reality, it's time for more of us to be a little audacious. Who's with me?
Generally I avoid discussing anything remotely resembling politics in my religious blog.
I do this for several reasons, most notable of which is that in the United States of America there is a legal precedent for religious and governmental institutions to maintain a strict division, referred to in our Constitution as a "separation of church and state." I also have a more pragmatic reason, which is that our church currently is registered as a tax-exempt religious organization and that such registration can be lost if the organization can be shown to be violating that legal separation of religion and politics, and I believe the distinction is a just one that should be respected and I intend to do so wherever possible.
But enough of an aside. What I meant to
A suggestion that Barack Obama is somehow the final culmination to Dr. King's contributions to the civil rights movement has been growing in volume and reached its crescendo today, the day we celebrate Dr. King's birthday as a national holiday. It seems to have been added to an already unhealthy attempt to portray the President-Elect as some sort of superhero or messiah figure to a degree that not even Dr. King was ever subjected.
Barack Obama is a pretty amazing man; don't get me wrong. I, too, did my time in the community organizing trenches of Chicago after I moved here in 1987, helping with the electoral process at my alma mater, Mundelein College Chicago, and subsequently working on the campaign of a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in the early 1990s. I heard about him and about the work he was doing on the South Side (I was located on the North Side, so we did not work together). I heard good things.
President-elect Obama was very active in the University of Chicago community during the time I was working on my master's degree there, where he also left me with a fair amount of positive things to say about him. He is a thoughtful, capable individual and perhaps precisely the person we need to represent our nation to the world in this most challenging time for us.
He also represents the face of our nation's future: a little younger, a little less privileged, a little less white. In the Native American community I am part of as an Onondaga, I know that we are excited to have a man about to become president who finally seems to acknowledge that this is not a country belonging only to one race or one tax bracket, and I expect that the same things are being said and believed in other minority communities and cultures across this country tonight.
However, President Obama, as he will be before the next sun sets, is not the fulfillment of the civil rights movement, in the United States or elsewhere.
He represents a significant figure to be certain. On some levels, he is the first and best of those working toward the changes that need to happen before any of Dr. King's dreams become realities across our nation and our world. He is a trailblazer and a representation of a good new beginning, but not the culmination. We're not over the mountain yet, folks, even if Dr. King got there before us and Obama's height has put him in a position that he can see where we can head if we only have the courage to walk along.
Dr. King's dreams will never be fulfilled as long as anyone loses a job or can't get a loan or isn't welcome in a neighborhood because of the color of their skin, the name of their God, the land of their origin or the gender of their spouse. Dr. King's belief in a fair and open world as a possibility will remain a dream as long as individuals choose reaching for themselves over reaching out. Civil rights can never, and will never, occur unless we are willing to act in the civil ways those rights demand. As long as civil rights in the United States of America remain civil possibilities, or civil privileges, or (as they often are) civil impossibilities -- the dreams will only be dreams and continue to elude our grasp.
Obama may very well help us to reach for those dreams in ways we have never before considered, and encourage us to remember what it is to be good citizens and neighbors of our nation and our world -- but he cannot be expected to do this alone or embody it alone. We cannot put all our dreams on this man who is climbing the ladder ahead of us; we will only weigh him down with their expectations and slow his rise. What we must do, is start climbing up behind him, and reach back with the other hand to help the one behind us to reach up and climb too.
I will be praying for Barack Obama tonight, alongside the prayers I usually say for Dr. King's ka on this day. I'd like to think Dr. King is sitting on the other side of that mountain watching what we're doing and being very happy for us, but he's probably praying for Obama as well. I'd like to offer some of Dr. King's thoughts for each of us to contemplate, taken from his acceptance speech for the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize:
I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.- read the rest of Dr. King's speech by clicking here -
I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. "And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid." I still believe that we shall overcome!
This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.
For my part, I can speak no better words than these, made just over 45 years ago. I can only echo them and honor their speaker by pointing out something important in the face of those who would suggest all the hard work is over just because there is "a brown man in the White House" as of tomorrow afternoon.
I refuse to accept that Barack Obama alone will be responsible for culminating the dreams of a better world, or that they are somehow fulfilled simply by the fact that he managed to win an election.
There is much, much more work to do, every day, to make the world a better place in Ma'at. Each one of us has a place in this plan, no matter what nationality or religion we embrace. The dreams of Dr. King should not require audacity -- they should be the united aims of compassionate and rational people everywhere -- but until we have achieved that reality, it's time for more of us to be a little audacious. Who's with me?
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