Ten Thousand Things
Multicultural Webfinds

"Ten Thousand Things" is a Buddhist expression representing the dynamic interconnection and simultaneous unity and diversity of everything in the universe.

Grace Lee Boggs: "We're the leaders we've been looking for."
(Jean, April 5)

(photo credit: http://www.boggscenter.org/)

This is a great YouTube excerpt from American journalist Bill Moyers' broadcast interview with 91-years-young Chinese-American GRACE LEE BOGGS, a social activist for over 70 years, part of every major social movement in the U.S.

The entire interview is available online at Bill Moyers' website, along with background on Boggs' journey, as the daughter of Chinese immigrants who lived in New York City, awarded a scholarship at Barnard College, and a PhD at Bryn Mawr, to lifelong advocacy of many interconnected social justice and peace causes.

Her father ran a popular Chinese restaurant on Broadway, near Times Square. Despite all his success, in the 1920's, when he bought a house in Queens, he had to the put deed in the name of an Irish-American contractor because Asian-Americans were not allowed to own property.

Grace Lee Boggs came to identify with African American intellectuals and activists, the vanguard of all American ethnic minority movements, as well as significant part of the global leadership for other human rights and anti-colonial struggles.

"When I was growing up, Asians were so few and far between, they were almost invisible, so the idea of an Asian American movement was unthinkable. When I got my PhD in 1940, even department stores would come out and say, 'We don't hire Orientals, and so the idea of my getting a job teaching at a university was ridiculous."

Grace Lee Boggs emphasizes that activists must remain aware of that we, and those before us, have lived through struggles for equality, dignity, justice and peace throughout history. We are part of a long humanistic tradition that is interconnected and global in scope. The philosopher-activist sees nonviolent grassroots social change as part of a "pilgrimage" that humans have been involved in for thousands of years.

Talking about her mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Boggs reminds us that King didn't just talk about civil rights. Similarly to Malcolm X and other anti-colonial activists of his time, King saw the American Civil Rights Movement as one piece of a historically connected global human rights movement.

King also was not simply talking about a civil rights revolution, but instead he he was speaking about a "radical revolution of values" -- spiritual, moral, creative, and human values -- that begins in ourselves. Grace Lee Boggs echoes King's emphasis that our challenge is a global and interconnected pattern of racism, materialism, consumerism, and militarism that still plague the U.S. and the rest of the world.

This spirited mentor to so many sees hope for change by "bringing together small groups for a major cultural revolution" to address the monstrous growth of the military-industrial complex, the planetary environmental emergency, the plight of the marginalized and other globally interconnected problems.

We must look for ways to "regain our humanity in little, practical ways." She recommends gardening, especially community gardening, as a means for us to remain connected with and become empowered by our living, natural world.

She reminds us to stay focused and gain strength from being effective in our personal worlds,and to finding alternative ways to regain and expand control over our lives:

"Do something local...Do something real, however small...There was a time when we thought if we just received political power, we could change everything...But we have to begin new practices...Discussions...Community...Dialogue...We have to change in the way we think...I think we have to rethink the concept of 'leader' because the idea of 'leader' implies power... We need to appropriate the idea that we are the leaders we've been waiting for."

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