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A few thoughts
Aug. 20th, 2017 04:46 pmThese last two weeks have been stressful beyond belief, and anyone out there with access to the internet knows what I mean. I have watched the situation in Charlottesville, I have watched the situation in Boston and I am still feeling a rush of helplessness, anger and frustration about all of it.
Short version: I don't want to live in interesting times anymore.
Because I am a boomer who grew up in a military household I had a particularly patriotic outlook as a kid. My father was a Civil War enthusiast who used to take us to all the battlefields when we lived in Virginia. And in all that time I never felt particularly comfortable with the monuments to the Confederacy. Tombstones and cenotaphs I understood, but it always seemed to me that anyone sporting a Confederacy flag was somehow caught in a past time, and unable to understand that their side lost. I remember feeling vaguely threatened by comments like "The South will rise again!" even when said in jest.
As I got older and more involved with the world I also began to see outside of my middle-class white view of the world. I traveled, I met people and made friends. I became aware that there was a side to history I hadn't even considered before--it started with Native Americans for me, and grew to include Black History and the sordid reality of the California Mission story. The more I learned about the men who had been considered heroes and leaders, the more I realized the truth of the saying, "History is written by the winners."
I'm woke as the saying goes, but I'm older and tired. The good I can do is much more limited now, and more focused. I work with my church and I talk to my children--those in my school and those in my house. I try to model kindness and fairness and compassion. Sometimes that gets challenged and tested but I persist because it's the good I know how to do. I want to show that change and awareness can and do happen, and that they are worth the effort if there is to be peace in the world.
Why mention all this now?
Because I'm also old enough to stand up and speak my mind. For years I never talked about politics if I could help it, and did my best to avoid moral judgement about issues in our country but it's time. There are things I believe:
Black Lives Matter.
The LGBTQA community deserves the right to marry and live in happiness.
I support the Trans community fully.
Everyone deserves health care.
The disabled, the mentally ill, the homeless and the elderly all deserve respect, care, and support.
No-one should be barred from entering our country on the basis of religion.
Climate change is a real and serious problem.
There are others of course, but those are the primary ones. Simply stating them makes me feel stronger and sharing them is important. I know doing so is hardly groundbreaking--others have been speaking up in louder and stronger voices out there, but for me this is huge.
Thanks.
Short version: I don't want to live in interesting times anymore.
Because I am a boomer who grew up in a military household I had a particularly patriotic outlook as a kid. My father was a Civil War enthusiast who used to take us to all the battlefields when we lived in Virginia. And in all that time I never felt particularly comfortable with the monuments to the Confederacy. Tombstones and cenotaphs I understood, but it always seemed to me that anyone sporting a Confederacy flag was somehow caught in a past time, and unable to understand that their side lost. I remember feeling vaguely threatened by comments like "The South will rise again!" even when said in jest.
As I got older and more involved with the world I also began to see outside of my middle-class white view of the world. I traveled, I met people and made friends. I became aware that there was a side to history I hadn't even considered before--it started with Native Americans for me, and grew to include Black History and the sordid reality of the California Mission story. The more I learned about the men who had been considered heroes and leaders, the more I realized the truth of the saying, "History is written by the winners."
I'm woke as the saying goes, but I'm older and tired. The good I can do is much more limited now, and more focused. I work with my church and I talk to my children--those in my school and those in my house. I try to model kindness and fairness and compassion. Sometimes that gets challenged and tested but I persist because it's the good I know how to do. I want to show that change and awareness can and do happen, and that they are worth the effort if there is to be peace in the world.
Why mention all this now?
Because I'm also old enough to stand up and speak my mind. For years I never talked about politics if I could help it, and did my best to avoid moral judgement about issues in our country but it's time. There are things I believe:
Black Lives Matter.
The LGBTQA community deserves the right to marry and live in happiness.
I support the Trans community fully.
Everyone deserves health care.
The disabled, the mentally ill, the homeless and the elderly all deserve respect, care, and support.
No-one should be barred from entering our country on the basis of religion.
Climate change is a real and serious problem.
There are others of course, but those are the primary ones. Simply stating them makes me feel stronger and sharing them is important. I know doing so is hardly groundbreaking--others have been speaking up in louder and stronger voices out there, but for me this is huge.
Thanks.
