Monday, April 22, 2013

Eric Garcetti for Mayor of Los Angeles 2013

by J. Evert Jones and Olivia Rubio

Politics.

Our lives, it seems, are uncomfortably tied to politics. After all, they determine our laws, our environment, our futures. However, the images of politics, secret back-room dealing, negative campaigning and scandal, are bitterly pervasive. It's unrealistic at best to consider the notion that there can ever be an escape from politics.

Politics. An unsanctioned four-letter word.

Somewhere, and sometimes, in this thick and inky muddle, there is a second, a unit of time, split and subdivided, that rises above the inescapable. There are words and people and events and memories that pull us in and pull us up, away from the smallness of politics.

A bugle playing reveille. A girl rescued from a well. A baseball player trotting in the glow of a flashing "715" on a scoreboard. A soldier reuniting with his or her son, or daughter. A tumbling of skyscrapers.

Not all of these respites are welcome ones.

Although politics is closely related to our lives and lifestyles, there are these moments, these events, these people, these things that enable us to rise. That connects us to our shared existence, our shared hearts, our shared humanity.
Yesterday, we were reminded of that shared humanity.

We witnessed not only unspeakable evil and incomprehensible tragedy, but also incomparable compassion, uncommon courage, and indomitable spirit.
Some things in our lives rise above politics.

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven.
Today, we pray for our brethren. We pray for their families, we pray for their loss, we pray for their healing.

Tomorrow, we live on.

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