Summer of 2017......Charlottesville musings

Some thoughts after this past week and things I've seen discussed in social media:

People who carry torches and shout "Jews will not replace us" and "Blood and Soil" (former Nazi slogan in Germany)...are not "good people." Period. Look up the video. There is no moral equivalency with people who showed up that day to counter-protest such vile hatred.

Most of the people who were counter-protestors in Charlottesville were peaceful people who wanted to show these racists that they did not support this in the community. They were faith leaders, students, people like myself who want to stand up for what is right and would never dream of being violent in that process.

Peaceful candlelight vigil on the UVA campus, August 16th, 2017

That being said, there were some counter-protestors who were physical in response to the antagonism of the white nationalist groups. What is striking in these reports is that none of those groups were from the local Charlottesville community.  The Charlottesville police did not do a very good job of containing all these more violent protestors. But let's put it in perspective. If those vile Nazis had never come there, neither would any of these groups who felt the need to be there to be on guard or defense against their hatred.  The white nationalists showed up with guns, shields, helmets, and torches.   Apparently this makes some people feel threatened.  Shocker.  I do not advocate violence, ever.  But the Nazi symbol tends to bring out the worst in people.  Wonder why?

Black Lives Matter in no way equates with these white nationalist hate groups. They do not advocate killing police. They do not advocate killing white people.  They protest how African-Americans have been treated in the criminal justice system and if you don't understand that BLM does NOT mean that other lives don't matter, I don't know what to say. It MEANS that in THIS COUNTRY, too often, we see incident after incident where it appears to be a person of color means your life does not hold as much value. Get it? I'm not saying the organization is perfect. But it's not a hate group. It's an advocacy group. Look it up.  No, don't look it up in social media.  Do some research from credible sources.

People are still debating the Civil War and what it was about. Seriously. This is unbelievable.

We are NOT erasing history by removing monuments or plaques that HONOR Confederate leaders or the Confederacy. Those monuments can go right into a museum. If anything, more than ever, we need to remember our history and learn it very well. But GLORIFYING it is a completely different matter. Learn the difference. The Confederate flag is not "pride in the South." It's offensive. And so are monuments to Lee.

The current so-called president is an embarrassment and disgrace to this great country. He has shown who he is since well before his election so nothing that he does or says shocks me...he has made it clear who he was from the beginning: hateful, rude, sexist, racist, and small-minded. Not fit to serve. If you voted for him, I am sorry for you. That's not a burden of conscience I would ever want to bear. Now is the time to say you made a mistake and to stand up for a return to a country that rejects hate and oppression, whether conservative or liberal.  I am heartened by conservative leaders like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, commentators like Ana Navarro, Tara Setmeyer, and others, who are speaking out against his tyranny.  We desperately need our Republican leaders to stand up for our country and demand the removal of 45 from office.

There's a ton of bad stuff happening while all these discussions are going on that are destroying our environment, our legal protections, and our freedoms. And we still don't have good health care. Congress can't focus on the work of the country because of the mess in the White House. Patriotism means standing up for your country, not for a particular politician. Our country is in jeopardy. More and more people from all sides are recognizing this. Be one of those people. Get it right.

"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."-Elie Wiesel  

Love Wins.  The peace vigil at UVA tonight gives us all hope.  

Tsunami

In 2009, I wrote a post about my thoughts and feelings about witnessing the inauguration of Barack Obama, our first African-American President of the United States.   Over the past year of 2016, I hoped fervently that we would witness the election of the first female POTUS.   As we all know, it was not to be.  I won’t rehash all the difficulties of the 2016 election but suffice it to say I still feel strongly that I was supporting the best candidate in the race, and that our country would be a very different country under her leadership.

Instead, we have in the White House, a completely unqualified and unprepared man, of very base motives, with a background of greed and corruption, unlike anything we have ever witnessed in this country before now.  I’ve lived through both Democratic and Republican administrations.  There have been scandals, illegal activities, irrational decisions, and high-level politics on both sides that have not revealed the very best of our leaders.  But I have never in all those years, feared for our country; feared that we might lose our way as a democratic republic, as a shining beacon to all in the world, or as a country where freedom is the highest ideal you can aspire to, and where all are welcome, of any race or creed.

You need only look back at America’s brief history to know that the ideal we all hold in our hearts, is far from the reality.  Our struggles to achieve the ideals of our founders has been a long and difficult one, and too many instances in our past history shows we are still a people at times driven by fear of the “other” and the unknown.  While the pilgrims came to seek religious freedom, as our country grew and more immigrants came, those that arrived first were often disdainful and intolerant of new arrivals and new cultures, that threatened the status quo.  Our country was late to the battle of WWII, a pivotal time in our world’s history, only jumping into the fray after we were attacked….despite the horrible stories already coming out of Germany and Europe at that time.  I grew up amid the civil rights stuggles of the 60s, which made a profound impact on my view of the world.

So as much as there is an American ideal of a shining city on a hill that beacons freedom to all…we are also a country at war within itself.  What will the final America be?  A country that shuts down to outsiders to preserve "purity"and what we see as encroachment on our values…or one that is a melting pot of multiple races, cultures, ideas, and points of view?  To me…the rise of nationalism championed by our 45^th President, is a reflection of the past, not of the future.  It does not carry a vision of what America can and will be in years to come; it only reflects glimmers of the ugliest of America’s past.

I woke up recently one morning after a dream that I’ve had before in different iterations.  I call it my tsunami dream.   This dream was related to my scuba diving, as it involved some of my favorite dive buddies.   There were 2 groups of us, apparently coming out of the water after a dive.  In my group, we were exiting on the far end of the beach, with rocks or land to the left of us as we left the water.  We were crawling out through shallow water towards the beach…a common technique to use when the water is rough and exiting through waves.   Further down the beach, to my right, I could see a group of my diver friends, standing, talking in a group.  As I looked back over my right shoulder, I saw it….a huge wall of water,  hundreds of feet high, moving towards the shore.  In my dream, I froze, struggling inwardly to keep going, but unable to make my limbs work.   I looked again at the group further down the beach, still talking and laughing, completely oblivious to the oncoming disaster.  Somehow, I inwardly talked myself into moving, slowly, painfully, but surely towards the shore.  My group exited the water and ran for our lives up the beach away from the water.  We watched in terror as the wall of water crashed down, covering our friends, in what looked like sure death.   As the water receded, we rushed down to what we feared would be a horrible disaster.  But amazingly, (as happens in dreams)….our friends, who were indeed strewn across the beach, and not in great shape, were still alive.  But they had suffered much more than those of us who had crawled out of the way.

I have always been interested in dream interpretation, and wrote a paper on it many years ago in college.   Like many of us, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed the last few weeks, as daily it seems another highly concerning event has occurred at the highest levels of our federal government. 

So, I’ve chosen the path of moving as fast as I can from the oncoming wave, to safer shores, by finding a local grassroots activist group, coming together to resist the onslaught against our freedoms and ideals, and to fight back through local elections and national elections when they come.  If you don’t know about Indivisible, look up the guide, and find a local group near you to join.   https://www.indivisibleguide.com/  There is a way to fight back….peacefully, and with respect for our fellow citizens and our institutions, but also to resist what is happening under this newly elected president, who seems in many ways, to treasure none of the values that so many of us, Republican or Democrat, hold most dear.

I still believe in hope and change.  But now I know that making it happen, is up to me, and up to all of us.   The song is by an artist who goes by the name of MILCK, and her song became very significant during the Women's March, and will continue to resonate in the days ahead.

 #WeThePeople #Indivisible  #Resist #ICantKeepQuiet