Chicago this past weekend: The projects raided. Elderly people forced to sit on the sidewalk pavement, young children’s hands zip-tied, as they looked for ‘gangs’. This is not the American way. Aren’t you the big man you twice impeached, 34 felon convictions and numerous sexual counts narcissistic fool. You’re running our country into the ground, with every intention of doing so. And if you dear reader voted for him, you are equally accountable. Hopefully you will resource and research, and vote accordingly in all upcoming elections. To people of faith – this is not the time to be timid or politely understanding while trying to explain the unexplainable.

We cannot continue on this way. Legislators – RISE UP. We as the public need you to return to the values that freedom gave us.

Please…

I’m back. Contemplating how I want to use this format. But in the meantime…

Retirement. Freedom to say what I want, for that matter do what I want. The 25 year job was a bit confining, but also a basket of opportunities that brought me to – today.

45 – I refuse to use his name – danger, danger! There are so many good Republicans who are not a twice impeached, 34 count convicted felon, fraudulent entrepreneur etc etc etc. Yet they screamed about President Biden? Two very different men with very different ethics. Go Kamala!

However –

All this to say – you must vote. Vote for who you believe will lead our nation as a democracy and world leader. Base your vote on factual information. And see – that’s the thing isn’t it? Because the various news (Or such as Fox – entertainment is their legal classification. Can you say $787 million settlement for lying? https://www.foxdominionnews.com/post/fox-news-pays-787-5m-in-largest-ever-defamation-settlement-with-dominion-voting-systems?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw5Ky1BhAgEiwA5jGujkOUx1OWzvjOCikzBCF-1qSt1ki5271rHDWedAfLwXGRqEwCkFhdZBoC-PUQAvD_BwE) make it difficult. You have to search and sift through much to get to the facts. But one thing is for sure – if people are on the attack, if they are calling schoolyard names, if they are intentionally misrepresenting statistics, if they can only attack and not roost on what their policy and plans are) and more – that’s a red flag. So don’t turn it into a white one.

We deserve a balanced and justice oriented Supreme Court. We deserve representation at both the state and federal levels where party is put aside in favor of the work that is focused on the best outcomes for the nation and globally. We deserve representation in legislatures and Congress that will represent our interests – and – if we are misguided by previous people who were elected – help us to understand what is the reality of any topic. Our earth and future generations deserve a planet that continually strives to be environmentally sound. We have abused much, for so long, so yes… its going to cost all of us. But it will be worth it for our children and grandchildren – let alone the caring of all people everywhere, including you, and me.

These are hard times. These are divisive times. Many have been led there by leadership. So let’s take “us” back. It should not take a 9/11 or war or some catastrophe to bring us together as one. We don’t have to consistently agree. We just need to know how to talk, how to listen, and how to learn from one another. We got ourselves in this mess – let’s work together to get ourselves out.

The future of this nation rests in our hands. In our vote.

Come November let’s do our best to have honestly come to the vote we cast.

Place yourself in this moment.

Your son has been stopped by law enforcement while driving your vehicle. As his mother and to the best of your knowledge, he has done nothing wrong. Your son is on the phone with you. You are telling him to comply; you are telling him to have the officer speak to you and you will explain things.

But it never got that far. What you heard was the commotion that followed. What you saw was your dead, black son lying over on the passenger seat, shot and killed by police over an expired registration.

Not a fabricated story. No made up details. Simply what happened to a young man named Daunte Wright. Another dead African American at the hands of law enforcement.

The fact is, Daunte Wright’s killing is one of over 260 police killings that have taken place in just the first three and a half months of 2021. It happened less than 10 miles north of the now completed trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer responsible for the death of George Floyd.

In the past – 

I recoiled when I heard POC (person of color) organizations speak of their disdain of the police. Because I was raised

   White

   Secure

   Good schools start to finish with resources and access to all services needed to raise a child

   Police persons, firefighters – they’re city helpers – right?

As we are clearly aware – this is not the case for many POC today. And my feelings have totally changed.

Let’s talk about schools:

Segregation or inequity in school resources is not healthy for any of us – not whites, not people of color. Children and youth in these schools do not gain the experience needed in navigating diverse environments – experience that they need as adults when they have to make their own way in the world. These disadvantages make higher achievement more difficult. And its not only about resources. Think about where schools for impoverished populations are built. Many in or near residential / industrial neighborhoods. And what happens there? More dust, pollutants and vermin. African American children are much more likely to develop asthma – they suffer nearly twice the rate of white children likely because of the location of these neighborhoods. If they have a bad night physically, and IF – a big IF – they come to school after such a night – they can be drowsy and less likely to pay attention. 

The child who has more frequent absences – whether from poor health, unreliable transportation, having to stay home to care for younger siblings, an unstable family, or disciplinary suspension from unwise and unjust zero tolerance policies – what happens to that child?

What might happen, what does happen: growing frustration, growing loss of self-esteem, an escalating sense of I don’t care anymore and forget about it. Then what might happen… if you know longer care about yourself, if you no longer care about what happens, if you no longer care about anything – the thrill is gone. And you just might seek some kind of meaning, some kind of belonging, some kind of thrill, some place else. And that some place else is what has led to the school to prison pipeline. Its the whole chain.

Some of you know I worked with gangs for a long time. These kids, once you got to know them, and once they got to know you – most of them truly were ok. They had so much of what it takes to succeed – its just that those energies were directed in ways that led to a whole lot of trouble.

And I do need to say – do ALL kids fail because of circumstances beyond their control. No. There are those who succeed. And there are teachers who help them succeed. But the thing is – if you have an entire class of 20 or 30 or more kids who have these life circumstances, how can a teacher devote the time needed and special attention to help that child. They simply can’t. And the possibility exists that the curriculum becomes remedial and too much time is taken from instruction to attend to the issues of disruption at hand. The cycle continues you know. Because these children grow up to have their own children. You can’t be what you can’t see. You can’t know what you don’t know.

I wasn’t raised 

  Poor in America

  Judged by America

  Killed in America

My mother raised me with rules

  Be polite and obey the rules and I’ll be fine – and I was – because I am white

The mothers of black children raise their children with different rules

   Because

      They experience life very differently, their parents experienced life very differently, and those generations that went before experienced the same. Lynchings are not ancient history and you know this. Racism is not ancient history and you know this. Hatred and white superiority are not ancient history and you know this.

We have shootings every day in this country with a national average of 109 people dying a day from gun fire. In some places the numbers much, much higher. Black on black crime exists, but so does white on white. 

There is profound grief in the black community as they watch the Black bodies pile up in the streets. Fatal encounters of all kinds with little response to make anything better have led to anger, long pent up anger generations old. It is not as if people have not tried to “work within the system” to make change. It hasn’t, it doesn’t, work. You can look back to the earliest architecture of cities in modern history to see how segregation and racism, played a part in where POC lived, how their schools were funded. What discipline in schools was like. Did you hear of zero tolerance policies such as we have today when you were in school? There was discipline yes. You knew you might get sent to the principal’s office or sit out in the hall or miss recess. VERY DIFFERENT than being removed from school for speaking your mind, or worse. Removal far easier for the adult in the room, but what about the student. How much school can you miss before you just don’t care anymore. How much school can you miss until you are so far behind you will never catch up? How much school will you miss until you never return, but yet each year you get a little older, with less options or opportunities for the life that you see on television? So who looks good to you at that point? Who has the power? Who’s going to help you? Who do you need to be an ally with and who do you need to be afraid of? Who? There’s the drug and gun dealer in the neighborhood, the gang king or the trafficker. Or there’s the police. Where do you find community and where do you find fear? How is it that you …. survive?

Author Tony Morrison wrote – Not a house in the country ain’t packed to its rafters with one dead Negro’s grief. While the book Beloved is fiction, sadly those words ring true. She wrote from the heart, from the soul, she wrote from her experience. She wrote from a place she lived – that you and I – no matter how many books we read or movies we watch or news we hear, can ever know.

“Is it right that an ever-growing list of names become global icons of the civil rights movement in this country? That their names cry out from the grave for racial justice? Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Sandra Bland,  Daunte Wright and so many others who died without the attention of the entire nation. Name after name. They did not have the luxury of dying a natural death. “

And the rest of us feel – helpless.

“Are there good teachers who know and care – yes. Are there good officers who know and care – yes. Yet – the cycle of inequity continues. Racism continues. Death continues. And society decays. You can only take so many hundreds of years of oppression before other means erupt. The body carries the memories – our own, and of our community. If we are part of humanity, their death becomes the community death. Another’s drop of blood is our drop of blood. Sometimes if you can’t get a response through the channels of the “system”, you channel your energies in other ways. That is what we have witnessed in the past, and what, with much more frequency, we are witnessing now. As Dr. Dyson writes in Long Time Coming, The shame of contemporary riots, uprising, and rebellions does not belong to those in the streets; the shame is that it took even a little destruction of property for them to be heard.” 

What I personally hear behind that statement is – apparently the ongoing march of death of black young people isn’t enough to get our attention.

There are rays of hope but they’re coming awfully late. So we need to act, and do so now. Allies need to rise up, and continue fighting. We cannot assume as white people we know what Black people are feeling, or how to direct their efforts of response. We just can’t. We do, not, know a better way as white people. The closest we can get is to be in relationship. We cannot assume that just because we’ve read multiple books, attended conference events, and watched multiple films and paid attention, that we know all. We as white people cannot be the first voice. We can be an ally. We can learn all we can. We can reach out and offer help AS ASKED. We need to learn to listen first and to be in relationship. Always. 

We need to involve ourselves if we truly care and want to see change. Working as an ally, “we need to explore how schools can offer balance between education and discipline. We need to explore how to mend the gap between law enforcement and people of color so that police again become servants of the community’s best interests while protecting the community from neighborhood’s worst impulses. President Clinton’s phrase about affirmative action was “mend, don’t end, policing”. That is what defunding the police is meant to communicate. We need to watch legislation at the municipal, state and federal levels – who’s proposing what and why? What is their end game? As members of the white community we need to wrestle with how we have harmed the Black community. That is not an easy proposition. We need to end the planned residential segregation of our neighborhoods, our cities. We need jobs that pay livable wages. We need community policing where we change fear into friend. We need to ensure there are adequate transportation systems.”  

Friends segregation & the ensuing racism has not been by accident. If you want to know more read The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein.

Looking at our own sin of racism never is easy. It is not enough to say we live in a country based in freedom, until we all live in a country based in freedom. That is not the case today. If we really think about it, this should hurt our very soul. We cannot afford to continue to deny our complicity, however small, however large, in the social evil of racism. Traci Ellis Ross, daughter of Diana Ross, and an actress on the series Blackish, wrote: “Our freedom keeps being dismantled and limited because of white comfort.” Yes… all of this makes is making us uncomfortable now. In our hearts many of us don’t want what is happening now to be our way of life. But why? Is it because we don’t want to have riots in our streets? Is it because we fear for our safety? Is it because we don’t want change in our lives that might make us feel – less? Is it because we truly want change and will work for as long as it takes doing whatever it takes as an allied voice to see this world become more like God created it to be?

Someone is not a thug simply because he wears a hoodie. Someone is not a thug because she came to school hungry and acted out. Someone is not a thug because they’re angry. Someone does not deserve to be pushed out because they don’t meet our expectations of what a child, a youth, a young adult “should be”. “A young person in school should NEVER come to the realization” and its accompanying loss of hope – “that they are simply a corpse in the making.” 

She stood in front of the reporters, only hours after her son was killed. Protocol broken, a gun used when it was supposed to be the taser. I watched as her husband rubbed her back as she started to cry. A mother, searching for the answers as to why, when no words will ever answer that question that has been asked by far too many mothers for far too many generations. But it happened. He is gone. Tomorrow will never arrive with her son because there are no tomorrows left – not with him. Tomorrows will be lived only through memory. His voice will fade, his smell will slowly disappear from her memory. We understand. All of us have lived loss.

But have any of us lived THIS LOSS? 

Resources:

Pushout    M. Morris

Lift Us Up, Don’t Push Us Out    M. Warren

Long Time Coming  M. Dyson

The Color of Law R. Rothstein

Author’s Note: These four texts are well worth your purchase & are summarized in the document above along with my own commentary.

This post is from a speech presented to Velda Rose UMW on April 21, 2021.

We are in this together, but sometimes it can feel very alone. I’m so completely grateful for the amazing friends in my life. Here’s a glimpse of my Covid vaccination travels to date.

Vaccine journey. Journey? Well, yes, for me, and perhaps all of us. Difficulties in securing an appointment: Is it my block – am I in this group? This website isn’t functioning exactly the way I want it to. I don’t understand why not with thousands of people all trying at once. Timing. Which vaccination? What about the second shot?

But for me – it’s the ‘what if’ that has been most deafening.

For full transparency, I haven’t had my vaccination yet. Due to the ‘what if’ dilemma. I had an appointment, but then data surfaced about shock reactions. That’s my history – twice back in the ’80s.

Co-pay one. Allergist/immunologist just out of diapers notes that because I have had a shock reaction to MRI contrast dye some 30+ years ago – could be a problem. Can you test me for anything? No. I’m so sorry. Will future vaccinations reduce the risk? No. I’m so sorry. Lots of other questions with all No, I’m so sorry answers. “But if you get the vaccine do so in a hospital setting. No one’s exactly died yet – weigh the risks.” (Spike in blood pressure noted.) So I canceled my appointment to see if more data would come through over the next few months. She noted that it was likely that it was the PEG binder that would likely be my problem. Can you test me for that to see if I’m allergic, Dr. Allergist? Say it with me: No, I’m so sorry. She did say the fact that I had not reacted to previous vaccinations – flu shot, shingles shots etc. worked in my favor. But other than that, the appointment was a real downer as we used to say back in the day. And, it sent me into a tailspin of “tt”. Tears & trauma.

I’ve been fine the last year with virtually complete isolation. Thank goodness for FaceTime so I could see my family, especially my new granddaughter who was born just prior to the start of the C19 mess. Have seen her in person only once. But I keep up with both sons and their families weekly. So I miss seeing them in person but I recognize how truly blessed I am to have technology. Not everyone does. I pray for their safety and mine every day (yours too) without fail. But to be told that it wasn’t necessarily going to work for me – this ol’ vaccination, well, nightmares every night, heart palpitations most of the time, and lots of tears.

My friend Don suggested I call Mayo. Insurance approval – check. Called Mayo and talked with a scheduler. (My fault, should have asked to be connected to the Immunology Department.) She said no one was addressing this particular issue. (I have since learned from someone at Mayo on a neighborhood app that was completely false – Mayo is addressing in much the same way as I’m about to share.) More tears. Then I thought – well – I would have seen an immunologist there – I’ll search out another in my plan for a second opinion. Found him! And…. was there a test for PEG? Yes. Did I get the test? YES. And I’m good to schedule for my shots. But he also gave me a great deal of other data driven vaccination info. And now… two days in from that appointment… I’m starting to calm down. Hoping when they open the March block I’ll get an appointment and join the ranks of the vaccinated – which should be all of us.

Bottom line, its a vaccination. Just another shot. Definitely like all immunizations will have its own unique side effects etc., but I will likely be just fine. And, survive. And, protect myself. And… you. Please vaccinate. Encourage leadership that vaccinations need to be shared worldwide, every country, every person.

Lastly – pray. Pray to the Creator. Learn about the Creator. Be one with all humanity and all living things. This is our time to cherish. To turn back the tide of judgement and hatred. To learn to understand each other, even when we disagree. To be all that we can be and were created for – love.

Be safe. Be well. Be calm. Be happy (its a choice). Be vaccinated.

My heart is so sad for so many, many reasons. Prayers for the Floyd family, yes, and for so many other people of color families who have been victimized for literally years – perhaps centuries far more accurate. Prayers for the peaceful demonstrators who are far in the majority with the least media representation – their message for justice but also for change, being overshadowed by the endless reporting on looting & violence. I’m not saying don’t report what is happening. I’m asking for balanced coverage rather than sensational coverage. Prayers for our nation’s people to listen first rather than react to the demonstrations and how they might affect you personally. This time reminds me of the Detroit riots (and elsewhere but I lived an hour outside of Detroit) when I was a little girl. It was a time of immense fear, judgement, violence. I remember my mother fearing any person of color that came near, and trying to instill that in me. But what I remember the most were the conversations around people from outside of Michigan coming across the Blue Water Bridge from the Canadian side into Port Huron, to then not so secretly travel to Detroit with weapons and more. People who’s objective was to incite others to violence and push their own agendas. History repeats itself. When will we learn we are all part of the same family? That when one is attacked we are all attacked. That when one family is in pain and hurting, WE should feel the same for humanity? That when one is broken we are all broken. When? When…

All right.  

All right, all right, all right. Apparently we have a problem. Several of them actually. And every single one of ‘em is this virus’s fault. COVID 19. What does COVID even stand for anyway? Continual Overdrive Virus in Disguise (our President has mentioned more than once we can’t see it – oh…… ok. I hang on his every word as a proud D.) 19. I think I garnered somewhere that refers to the year it started. The model number. Maybe not. I probably don’t care because that isn’t the real problem. These are:

I saw on Facebook a meme that said (I think it was a meme / I don’t really know what a meme is so I’ll go with that) “In about 6 weeks we are going to know everyone’s true hair color.” Well, that’s true and it’s beyond irritating. Only your hair dresser is supposed to know for sure. My hair is my thing and has been ever since my Stevie Nicks days in the band. While my bestie from childhood Tish has the most beautiful gray hair on the planet, I don’t even know what color my hair is now (or last year, or 5 years ago or even 10). And I don’t want to know. It looks like it might be coming in white – not even gray. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? So… among the supplies I purchased this morning was some little root touch up kit. I’m sure that’s going to go well. Which brings me to my next topic. The grocery store.

I apparently qualify to go into my local grocery store at 6 am under the “seniors” plan. I know you’re shocked that I qualify (say that even if you don’t mean it). The store manager was dutifully asking all who entered if they were 60.

She didn’t ask me. (three letter question should be inserted here).

In my defense I did have a mask on. And gloves, jeans and a long sleeved shirt – you can’t be too careful these days. They were wool gloves that made me drop half of the product that I picked up. Those were the gloves I had. Have. Will use again. They are a lovely bright red, a detail I’m sure you were wondering aloud about.

What I learned at the store is this. My fellow seniors have no clue about social distancing, physical distancing or whatever you want to call it. Zero, zippo, zot. Or, they are unfamiliar with what 6 feet let alone 3 feet looks like. I scowled but said nothing as I maneuvered myself around them as possible. Scowling felt really good by the way. Walk around your house today and try it. But not for too long. My understanding is your face may freeze that way.

I actually already had 6 weeks worth of everything a single girl could want in my house. But the news in Arizona last night said our cases and hospitalizations will peak at the end of April or in May. So, I decided I wanted to shop while there were not so many sick people in the store. I bought things I normally wouldn’t buy. But I will eat if I have to, like vegetable soup. Or kiddies macaroni and cheese because there was no adult macaroni and cheese on the shelf. (Is there a difference?) Of course the challenge will be to make all of this food last through to May rather than eating it tonight.

Surely I will lose weight during this stay at home and work with your dogs on your lap phase of my life.

So I’m good food wise, wipe wise (whatever kind you want to interpret that as), dog food wise. The only problem will be milk. I have milk for my tea. My family’s background stems from jolly old Brexit ridden England. Milk in the cup of tea (BEFORE you pour the tea in) is simply a must. It’s really quite the sin if you do it, or drink it, any other way. But… If I must go without, that will be my contribution of sacrifice to the world at hand. But oh…. the crisis of it all.

Be safe, be well. Stop touching stuff and stay away from other people.

But this for sure – fill your heart, soul and mind with love.

Betrayal, hurt feelings, unanswered questions, dreams trying to answer what happened. Sometimes you just never know why a friend has left you. Why a friend has lied to you about the lack of contact. Why a friend once family, disappears.

 

The dangers of social media are unless you want to block, you end up taking a punch. Notifications let you know whatever the so-called friend is posting, bragging about, or clearing their own issues for themselves by painting a rainbow of masks. So, you either block, and risk (is it really?) not hearing from them again, or, you take it in and let it go.

I have a friend like this. Well, had. Reached out, reached up, reached in  –  to no avail. I really don’t know why there is this chasm. Is it the friend’s partner and that influence? Is it my refusal to cross a moral boundary? Or does it fall into the category of… you just never know. And end up realizing you don’t need to ever care – again.

This is the first time in some 64 years that I haven’t been able to put the puzzle together at some level. This person has embarrassed me professionally and hurt me personally.

Two factors to live by in this world are “fear is not an option” and “never be a victim”.

Your silence is not victimizing me. I have chosen to let you go, never to return. It’s what you’ve earned in your me-i-tis world of silence.

Sometimes, you just have to say goodbye, even if, you don’t know why.

Sometimes, you’ll just never know.

Good morning. I’m Billie Fidlin, Director of Outreach & Justice for all United Methodist Churches in AZ and S. NV. I am Vice President of the Arizona Faith Network, which is an interfaith organization, as well as I chair its Public Policy Commission for the state. In 2000 I founded and am President of Whisper n Thunder, which is a Native American non-profit, as well as I sit on a number of other boards including Arizonans for Gun Safety and the Arizona Giffords Coalition. Today, I speak to you on behalf of the many diverse faith communities that we find in AZ and beyond.

Often in the spaces of disagreement that we find ourselves in, we hear the phrase something along the lines – that which we have in common is so much greater than that which divides us. Well, I would like to take that a step further. That which seemingly divides us CAN BE instead, the catalyst for unity. You see, whether we call out for God, Allah, Creator, Great Spirit or Savior, we can all acknowledge that there is One Creator who creates and loves us all. All faith practices can agree on the following – we value and cherish the child among, and within, each of us. We value and cherish the gift from the Holy bestowed upon us – the sanctity of life. That life, is sacred, and worthy of protection, of safety.

Our divisions regarding weapons possession and background checks and bump stocks and all the rest – could we not take a step further, go just a bit deeper, and agree that our sometimes combative discussions, in their foundation, could in fact be a place where we find common ground. Where we agree there Is No Other Side. Where as people of faith practice, wherever that faith practice finds its origin, the sacredness of life is what is at stake. In the end, we are talking about safety. It is just how we get there that may differ among us.

The gift of life, freely given to you, and to me. It is there we find common ground and unity. Foundational to each of our faith principles – value in being given and holding in honor, our very existence and therefore our possible contributions to this world of ours. When I hear of any shooting, I cannot help but wonder, what was lost? What did that person bring to this world, what did the 12 in Thousand Oaks, perhaps even the 13… what did they bring to this world that has now been forever taken away?

When we talk about gun rights and related subjects – what is really at the core of those discussions? Why do we become engaged? Why do we feel such passion? Is it not our responsibility to authentically discover in ourselves – why we care? Is

it simply about one’s rights or the perceived loss of same? Or does it go deeper? What is within you? Why… must we care? Why… must we as a people, faith or no faith, find a solution?

You know the answers as to why. 1991 Killeen, TX. 1999 Columbine & Honolulu / 2005 Red Lake Indian Rez. / 2007 Blacksburg, Va / 2009 Binghamton, NY. / 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary & Oak Creek & Aurora / 2013 Washington DC 2014 Fort Hood 2015 Charleston, SC & San Bernardino / 2016 Orlando. 2017 Las Vegas. 2018 Parkland, Pittsburgh, Thousand Oaks. And taking a step back, a personal, painful step back for all of us gathered here today, 2011 Tucson, Arizona. But other answers as to why we must respond are every bit as devastating – every domestic violence victim or random act of assault. Every stray bullet shot on a holiday or in anger or by accident. Intended violence or even unintended victimization is NOT how the Holy calls us to respond.

What has been unleashed in this country must be reined in.

Today, here and now, we call for respect. We call for living out what we hear from faith leaders from all over the country. It is not enough to listen on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. It is not enough, to simply take in the information. We cannot remain silent, either in voice or deed. We must join where we can, agree when we can, march together, stand together, talk together, pray together – for one, for all. For the angry and the angered. For the victim and yes, the perpetrator. For the voter and the elected, the victorious and those who may have or be, lost, to find a way to come together. In peace, in dialogue, in community as one for a better tomorrow.

This is what the Giffords Arizona Coalition is calling us to do. To join. To take part. To be not just a voice for change but an element OF change. As you have heard stated today so eloquently by our panel speakers, when it comes to preventing gun violence there is no other side.

Will you come together today in unity? Will you join Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords in their efforts so that on a not too distant tomorrow, we can say with confidence, not only that we made a difference, but that yes, we saved lives. The choice to join us is up to you. Today.

 

Eat, Pray, Vote

Yes… I’m going there. I am so infinitely sick of extreme partisanship. What has happened to this country? This isn’t new with the current administration. Been going on for a long time. Ugly ads. Slamming the opponent. Doesn’t seem to matter to a segment of the American public whether what’s presented is true or not. Just feed our hunger for slam slut mush. Because that is exactly what it is. And I for one don’t like it. I’m not the only one. I see social media posts shouting the same.

Dark money – political spending that’s untraceable and has transparent intent. The agenda is clear – disable unions, limit voting to the constituencies that pull for the right, deregulation of the corporate structures so they can do as they please the right – with no regard for the socio-economic impact on the people who need our help the most, tax the poor more than the rich, and deny any acknowledgement that yes, climate change is real and we should be doing something about it. No wonder chocolate sales are climbing. I don’t really know that but if our office is any example the answer is a resounding  yes. We eat, our visitors eat. Candy at large – the food of my people. I do know that trick or treat sales are expected to break an all time record this year. Wonder why….

Pulpit Frenzie… I wish. My guess is in the African American churches, which have always had a proud history of speaking to justice – those pulpits are alive and well with commentary about our current political poultice aimed at soothing the far-right fear of a possible (please, probable?) left wing (ie. logical, intelligent, fair and just) resurgence. But the so-called left-wing best get its message together. Make it loud and clear and possible. A clear vision about how they are going to re-mantle the dismantle. You can pray on that one. Denominations – be brave! Soar with vigor into the risk atmosphere of holy boldness from the pulpit. ‘Member? We used to do that.

Oh for the 60’s to return. I was like 5 for one of those years, but let’s regroup with signs and banners – like we are doing a bit today. Oh wait. I believe that’s what someone in POTUS land calls the mob. Something like ‘they create mobs, we create jobs.’ Really? How much do they pay? And as for creating mobs, what exactly is the vitriol from ol’ yeller? (Ok – that was an insult to the dog. I’m sorry). Things like “…punch him in the face”. Less than presidential. Street talk yes. Were you ever on the street per se? Just wonderin’. You know, like West Side Story street? Oh oh. Movie theme in my head for the day…

Vote. Yes your vote matters. Yes the mid-term elections matter. They not only matter – this is arguably the most important mid-term election in years if not history. Remember in November. My new mantra when meditating to try and escape the banter attack ads, phone calls, endless curb signage and so forth. Forth. Doesn’t that mean going forward. Maybe not.

Just a word to the folks running for office. Truly – none of us REALLY need the caustic, inflammatory lies. I can do my own research. What we DO need YOU to DO is just tell us. What do you want to do, why do you have your agenda, and how are you going to implement it. What’s the plan friend? Then let me make up my own mind. THAT will get me to listen and you just might get my vote. At the moment, I’m not paying attention to your ads, I’m not even answering my phone for any number I don’t recognize. Because I, don’t want to hear, YOU. Not at the moment. PS. I already voted.

Ok. I took a riff on the title of the book Eat, Pray, Love. Go buy it. It might help one’s mood in these political times.

Sometimes life is quizzical at best. At times you wonder how did you trust, how will you trust, should you trust. Recently someone important in my life, someone I’ve known for many years, someone I’ve spent so much time with the person feels as though they’re a part of my skin… well, I caught the person in a lie. Not a fib, not a stretch, not just a moment in lapse of judgement. A bit fat lie with big, fat ramifications, that affected us both personally. So when someone you trusted lies and acts on those lies… as women, what exactly do we do? As a person of faith, when you discover the breech, does one forgive? That’s the model, but is it the reality?

That is the struggle isn’t it. Do you throw away years of friendship and all the associated memories? Do you “treat her/him as you treat me” and pitch the person to the wind? Do you forgive and be mindful? Do you ignore it and just move on – with or without the glass of wine turned bitter.

When does “I’m sorry” actually mean more about you than the other person trying to make themselves feel better? How do you know? Is a liar, always forevermore, a liar? Like an adulterer, once you taste forbidden fruit, do the lies just get easier? Apparently so.

Lying seems to be in vogue lately. Our President lies, reportedly six, seven times a day. Truth is a moral value. Trust is a moral value. Or have we gotten to a place where values don’t mean anything either?

To rebuild trust or not – that is the subject at hand. Is lying ever justified – for example because as was told to me, you don’t want to hurt the person so you live with what you’ve done and hope to God you don’t get caught. But then, when caught, ultimately it hurts all the more.

Lies are like a bullet. The bullet can be extracted, but the wound is there. And then it scars over. Maybe the scar is troublesome, maybe the scar seems almost invisible. But… it’s there, isn’t it.