If Six was Nine [View all]

[H2O Man]

"Rubin Carter embarked upon a journey of reconciliation many years ago. His path was longer and more difficult than others who had preceded him, for Rubin's Spirit was dead. .... I commend Rubin Carter and the dedication he has for others. He has journeyed a long way and has touched the hearts and souls of many whom he has come into contact. His rich heart is now alive in love, compassion, and understanding."
-- Nelson Mandela, foreword to Eye of the Hurricane


I was on another internet forum of Democratic Party members yesterday. A person asked where do we go now? What direction should our party move in during the future? I suggested that at the grass roots level, we might benefit from studying Gandhi and King, and attempting to apply their wisdom to the current situation.

As could be expected, the majority of those responding were expressing "rage." Indeed, one woman let me know that she found my comment weak. She was fully invested in being outraged. Now, I can appreciate that people are extremely upset by the election results. I can relate to anger and rage. Yes, I can. Likewise, I accept that I am weakly human. That is why I study others who were much stronger and wiser than I.

A lot of words can be used to accurately describe Rubin Carter, but I do not think that "weak" is one of them. Although the woman's attack on her image of who I am and what I was saying was soon removed, for sake of discussion, I responded by focusing on some of Rubin's teachings. He did not advocate submitting to bad people. Instead, he favored chosing the setting of where one would contest human beings' injustices and violence. More, he spoke of what "weapons" were more likely to bring about victories, and what ones result in self-destruction.

For example, when he traveled to Texas to talk to (then) Governor Bush, he told me that George W. was the coldest human being he ever met. He said that Bush was "giddy" about executing people. Years later, when Bush was president, Rubin traveled with Mandela to try to prevent the war in Iraq. I'll never forget him calling me late one night -- he was on the other side of the Earth -- when he was traveling with Nelson Mandela.

And I remember the night Rubin was speaking at Binghamton University in 2001. He was telling how angry he was when he was in prison, comparing himself to "a grizzly bear in heat, who ain't getting none." Above the audience's laughter, everyone could hear my 4-four year old daughter yelling at her 6-year old sister, enraged about the closeness of their seats. "That's it! That's exactly it!," Rubin said, before introducing my daughters and I to the audience.

The next day, a professor contacted me, to ask if I could get Rubin to add a chapter to her book. He was working on his second autobiography, and we talked frequently at night. The professor's book was about her inability to forgive her long-dead parents. She was friends with one of my friends, a psychologist, and from what I knew of her -- and after talking with her about her book -- I thought Rubin could make an important contribution.

Below are quotes from Rubin's contribution. I know that it is not exactly where most Democrats might be open to hearing now. And that is fine. Still, I am hoping some might recognize it as a direction to move in. -- H2O Man


"I spent 20 years in prison, in a hell hole where people every day tried to strip me of my dignity. I did nothing to be there. I was given a triple life sentence for a crime I did not, could not, and would not commit. I did not belong there. Because I refused to follow their rules, I spent 10 out of my 20 years in solitary confinement -- 6 feet under ground, 5 slices of stale bread a day. I was stinking and starving. There was no morning, noon, or night -- just different shades of darkness.

"Hate took over everything, I was furious at everyone -- the two lying criminals, all the people that sent me to prison, the racist white jury who accepted the decision. All I could see was man's inhumanity to man, police brutality. All I could smell was the vile stench of shit. Simmering anger and hatred consumed me. I was existing in a living hell....

"I had to understand conditioning. People are not born hasting othersor themselves. Their hate did not need to become my hate. ..... I had to get rid of the bitterness and anguish. They only consume. I came to an understanding of who and what I am. Like Victor Frankl wrote about the concentration camps, I realized that prison provided me the tools to become all that I could be. I was able to seize the opportunity to use these horrible conditions to find something above the law. I had an opportunity to go on an anthropological expedition into an unnatural laboratory of the human spirit. ....

"Hate can only produce hate. That's why all these wars are going on, all this insanity. There's too much anger in the U.S. People are too afraid, too numbed out. We need to wipe out all of this hatred, fear, distrust, and violence. We need to understand, forgive, and love."