Laws

1. The Law
One way to end oppression
is to pass laws forbidding it,
or issue proclamations and emancipations
indicating that the “other”
is free and equal and welcome.

2. Laws and proclamations can serve the “other”
when in the midst of acts of oppression,
they can point to and draw on the laws and proclamations
for relief or justice.

3. Yet laws and proclamations often fail
to stop oppressors
who continue to see the “other”
as foreign, as a danger, as a pollutant
who needs to be controlled,
suppressed, exiled, or eliminated,
despite the law.

4. Laws, proclamations, and emancipations
cannot change how we see the “other;”
they may control our behavior,
but they do not control our seeing.
Can anything change how we see the other?
Is it possible to really see the “other?”

Act III – Seeing the “Other” Through Power or Love

1. What do we see when we see the “other?”
Do we see them as like us
or as different from us,
as connected to us
or as separate from us?

2. Power seeing
is seeing difference
and separateness.
The “others” are different from us
and unconnected to us.

Love seeing
is seeing commonality
and connectedness.
The “others” are like us
and connected to us.