Awkward question...hope it's not inappropriate, esp. in eyes of POC here.

[Hekate]

29. Embrace. Expand. Learn more. Above all, enjoy. However, when it comes to equating all of Western

… values with violence, etc etc, etc, reflect on this: there is no land on this planet that is not soaked in blood and that has not known tyranny.

The men who wrote our founding documents were (as my mother used to say admiringly) Sons of the Enlightenment. But as educated men of their time they were also steeped in European history, which was awash in blood shed in religious wars. They wanted to do better in so many ways. That they and their descendants often faltered or failed does not mean their ideals were wrong, only that we are all humans who need to do better.

We know our own culture’s flaws because we live in it. Other places seem ideal when viewed from a distance. When the deep philosophies of the East made their way into the West for the first time, the cultures that gave them birth were seen only mistily and often idealized by people here. The writings arrived detached from the societies and whatever flaws they had.

Buddhism, in my opinion, is a great gift to us, but the many cultures through which it sojourned over the millenia were as tempestuous as our own today. The First Noble Truth was not conceived in a vacuum, but was an observation of our common human lot.

When I was studying Hindu mythology, one of my classmates wondered passionately how anyone born in India could ever abandon the beauties of Hinduism for Christianity. As dryly as I could, I commented, “Oh, bride burnings, the caste system, things like that.”

My comments were not always well received by my classmates. We were all older grad students, but as far as I could tell I was the only one who was grounded in the study of history and read a major newspaper’s overseas columns. I have always tried to see history plus literature plus religion plus culture plus…