I mean, really?
Once again, I found myself having a hard time putting words on the page. Even while limiting my access to social media and the news, I still know and feel the horrors happening around the world, and my head and heart are a mix of sad, angry, incredulous, overwhelmed, and hopeful.
Two questions keep coming up for me:
How (or is it, WHY) are we supposed to move through our day-to-day lives amidst the chaos, destruction, suffering, and death that seems wholly unnecessary yet grows daily?
Why are so many people accepting what is happening and even supporting our orange tyrant and toxic United States’ imperialism (and addiction to violence)?
I have no answer right now. My husband and I often just look at each other and say, “humans are stupid.” But that’s not helpful. Some people are stupid or deliberately ignorant. Others are deeply self-centered and/or uncaring. But I want to believe that most of us, the majority of us, have hearts and spirits that see our current reality as NOT OKAY. Those who are looking for ways to fight this oppressive system. Who abhor billionaires as much as I do. Who believe that starving, burning, and blowing up children and their families is NOT OKAY. Who know that dudes covering their faces and armed as if they were in active military combat as they kidnap brown people off the streets is completely F**KED UP. Who believe that deployment of soldiers to Los Angeles is the next stage in (t)Rumps move towards a dictatorship. Who knows that the US is not a democracy but instead a fascist state run by the uber-wealthy on both sides of the aisle. Those who believe that Human Rights are real and belong to EVERYONE. Who, like me and my closest friends, envision a better world and will work every day, in any way they can, to bring it to life.
Hope is a verb, and we need to build our hope through our community and connections.
This week, for me:
Hopeful is watching throngs of community members forcing ICE out of their neighborhoods.
Hopeful was watching the Freedom Flotilla with Greta and others, making their way to Palestine.
Hopeful is Francesca Albanese always speaking the truth.
Hopeful is the time I spent this morning with peace educators around the world talking about ways to bring peace education to more spaces and communities, to make peace a concept that folks understand as easily as they understand violence.
Hopeful is sitting at the Peace Education Center with my university student interns and employees as we map out a summer of programming designed to build community, question assumptions, explore methods of communication and peace-building, and resistance to fascism and draconian governmental practices.
Hopeful is seeing and hearing people wake up to the reality of (t)Rump and his dictatorial ways.
Hopeful are the (all too few) elected officials who actually push back and ultimately uncover the cluelessness, stupidity, vapidity, and ineptitude of the “people in charge” and truly represent their constituents (not their funders and AIPAC).
Hopeful are the conversations I have with children and youth, and young adults who know what matters and who want to create a different, more just world.
What brings you hope?
I often return to this photo I took in Cuba in 2004. Che said, “Hasta la Victoria Siempre” (Ever onward to Victory!)
May it be so.
