...enough already...

After one million shouts

I’m tired of yelling "fire" for the same thing again and again (and again and again). Yes! That was a Nazi salute! Yes! He wants to be a dictator! Yes! Democrats are failing. Yes! Elon Musk absolutely sucks! Yes! Our democracy is deteriorating. Yes! This administration is racist and evil! No! I do not understand how anyone doesn't see this the way I do!

It feels stupid and whiney and unproductive. I feel like it's time to move on. But how do we move on when the fire is still burning? How do we move on when we want to jump into the headlines we read or the photos we see to punch someone in the nose or otherwise save the day, somehow. I feel especially...there is no word to describe my feeling...as I have watched over and over again the Venezuelans being led off the plane in El Salvador. Heads forced down under the arms of two men lucky enough to be wearing uniforms and carrying guns. Nearly naked, under harsh lighting. What were those men and boys thinking and feeling? Were there women? What about the 14 year olds? Not even one of them deserves this. I care about them. Truly. Latino immigrants have been described as alien super-predators since 2016. Since they are no longer human in the eyes of their perpetrators, they will be disposed of without a second thought. Easy to do after nearly a decade of violent language. See why the way we talk about people matters?

Anyway, back to my point. We have to continue naming what we see and lamenting the horror of it. But.........

We also MUST manifest the future we hope for, by BEING the change we want to see. And we have to do that starting yesterday. We cannot stop short of being the change, or our words will ring hollow.

For example,

The other day, I was driving on a stretch of the road that is a runway for the beltway. It's a "Jesus Take the Wheel" stretch of road. I turned on my blinker. I planned to squeeze my way in after the van approaching on my left finished passing. But wait. The van actually SLOWED down JUST to let me in. I thought..."What the HECK. That was so nice!" It was a happy moment. We can cultivate many happy moments in our communities every day and that will ripple out and we will begin to see the change we hope for.

P.S. Our action on a "larger scale" (think protests and postcards and running for office!) are meaningless (and ridiculously hypocritical) if we cannot be the change we hope for in our ordinary lives. We should be peace makers wherever we go. We need to make peace where we are when we can.

(I hate to write that as I consider the ways I fall short...but nevertheless, it's true.)

Finally, I know how much we loveeeeee to quote MLK even though many of us, maybe even me (though I hope not) would have been among the stumbling blocks in the movement for freedom. I post this anyway.

Let us not prefer order more than justice or the absence of tension more than the presence of justice.

There is no more convenient season than now.

The End.