I think this picture of my home office desk today offers a suitable commentary on the day’s events.

While listening to the Impeachment debate in the U.S. House of Representatives I was browsing my newsfeed and came across an article in the online magazine Buddhistdoor entitled, Dalai Lama-Greta Thunberg Dialogue a Call to Action for a Planet in Peril. With the debate muted on one monitor, I called up the video from the January 9 online conference entitled, The Dalai Lama with Greta Thunberg and Leading Scientists: A Conversation on the Crisis of Climate Feedback Loops.

The crisis of a lawless president egging on his followers to storm the Capitol and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power is real. It is important, both here in the United States and around the world if unchecked. But what have we saved if we preserve democracy and fail to act to save the planet?

During last Sunday’s service broadcast from the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada, Rev. Shoda Kanai devoted his sermon to the topic of reaction to the invasion of the Capitol and the requirement that Buddhists, especially followers of the Lotus Sutra, never lose sight of the fact that everyone – Trumpers included – has the potential to become a Buddha. We should all be Never Despising Bodhisattva.

Impeaching and removing the president won’t save democracy if the causes and conditions that brought 74,222,593 men and women to support him are not addressed.

No, I don’t have an answer, but I do chant Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō as I try to be Never Despising Bodhisattva.