The Power of Betrayal

In Santa Fe this week-end at the Tony Hillerman Writers Conference. This writing community feels like family. Some things work out and some things didn't. Good instructors, good food, good setting. The Finale is Valerie Plame Wilson speaking about her new book; the story of our government's betrayal of her trust in their capacity to protect her other identity--the identity of a covert CIA agent. She is very articulate and very passionate and is trying very hard to toll the bell for the rest of us--the ones who don't think about power and how it is abused by those that have it and those who only want more. Pay attention! Close your eyes and listen with your heart, can you hear the drumbeats of the future rising up to meet us when we will no longer be able to contain it? Can you hear the clarion call of the center shielded by our friends, neighbors, family, and total strangers who have woven their arms into a circle that can be moved but cannot be broken? A circle that holds what we all hold dear, our national pride, our community of pluralism and assimilation, our personal integrity--our character and values.

Is betrayal a sword of power used to threaten, intimidate--wielded by those who would not join with us and now want only to cleave us one from the other, to sublimate the fading memories of what we were and why we struggled so dearly to hold the line?