On Walking Through Minefields to Build Bridges: Continuing reflections on Baha’is and politics

A black man and a man who turned 72 two days ago are each running for President of the United States, and there is a woman running for Vice-President. Racism, ageism, and sexism are all being challenged by certain political developments in the United States.

Politics can be dirty business. The man who is running for Vice-President this year advocated back in 2004 that a Democrat take a Republican (the current candidate running for President) on as his vice-presidential candidate, “saying the cross-party ticket would help heal the ‘vicious rift’ in U.S. politics’ (source).

There is a lot on current politics for Baha’i bloggers to comment upon, although any political season anywhere can be, as I’ve described before here, a minefield for Baha’is to walk through. How do you comment on the political events of the day without giving the appearance of political partisianship, is a question facing many bloggers. One way is to try to build bridges.

Baha’is can be found in every country in the world. The need for Baha’is to exercise care is perhaps more obvious in some countries than others. Baha’is have been traversing minefields to build bridges for 165 years and will continue to be doing so for many years to come. -gw

“Reflections on race, gender, class and culture as seen through the prism of the Obama candidacy” is the sub-heading of a two month old blog project by a the blogger Queen Tiye.

I have come full circle, to a deep, abiding sense that politics as practiced in this country and others are inherently bad - and that the world needs to take a second look at the Baha’i revelation as a cure for what ails the world.

http://obamaproject.windonwater.net/?p=103

Image: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=queen+tiye&aq=f&oq=