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