Following up my last post, “Do Not Look Away,” I say to all of you – do not despair.
Yes, brace yourself for daily pain and punches to the gut because now is no time to get numb. Feel all the feels. But do not succumb to the seductive nature of despair.
We are a nation waking up. Our neutrality has been our most flagrant complicity in the circumstances of today. The greatest gift, if we choose to engage in this arc of humanity, is this moment of reckoning. Of reaping. And of sowing a different course.
We have been on a slippery path where college campuses have been prizing safe spaces over free speech. Where our youth are becoming soft-skinned in their digital bubbles and weary of disparate opinion. Where everybody gets an A and nobody values hard work. Where our young adult generation’s reverence for the principles of democracy is at an all-time low. Where high school students are strung out on opiates and civics classes have vanished. Where we shun intellectualism. Where memories of internment camps and the House Un-American Activities Committee seem all but forgotten. But the Patriot Act was none too long ago.
In June of 2001 I stood before my graduating high school class and the sprawling audience on the lawn and spoke for my generation. I declared that we were an American generation not shaped by grand tragedies or major upheaval, but that there was still plenty to fight for and stand for and do. I warned against complacency. I said we should not wait to be shaped by outside forces, but to harness proactive intention to move society forward. The cause does not need to find you.
Three months later, 9/11 happened. And a half-sleeping society high on nationalism, cocaine and investment schemes marched right into the most egregious surrender of our privacy and our freedoms in recent history.
Pain Over Paralysis
Despair is dangerous because it induces paralysis. Paralysis is dangerous because it perpetuates real suffering. If you feel the entire weight of the future of our nation is on your shoulders, can you move? Can you breathe?
Commit yourself to healing rhetoric. When finding yourself in condemnation, rephrase the comment to a question. Find connection with your brother or sister and criticism of our systems instead. You may find this a unifying factor.
Avoid discourse (those pesky social media conversations) where you find yourself aiming to change a person’s mind using outraged energy and instead engage in actions that work to address systemic issues. Love your neighbor. Change the system.
We cannot heal if we don’t engage. And we cannot engage effectively if we beat other people over the head with righteous indignation. Stop looking at the person you don’t agree with and start looking at the systems that have convincingly divided us.
We are witnessing – in a real time exercise – where our current version of democracy has fallen short. Where our systems are weak and untrue to democratic ideals. Where hate and divisiveness is deeply engrained in policy. Where the status quo is unsustainable. Where money is the deciding factor. Take notes. Learn. See every shoddy hole in our current system as an opportunity to make it right. There’s a big bright glaring light now shining through the fabric of our government. Go where it’s threadbare. Look where it’s tattered.
Do not let this opportunity pass you by. Bring your heightened sense of activism and engagement to your work, your children, your friends. Be passionate, compassionate and engaged. Free your mind from the digital maelstrom of carefully curated advertising and feed it with history, complex analysis, healthy debate and art. Read.
And do not misinterpret what I said. The ideals of democracy have not fallen short. Our current work-in-progress has. This is not a failing of democracy but a suffering government still on the birthing path toward a better ideal. There is so much to do. Pick one thing and do it compassionately.
Today as I held my head in my hands in the pet store parking lot I understood so very palpably that, man, this is going to hurt. Every single day. It’s going to feel like a knife to the heart. I had to reach deep inside of me to fully grasp that pain and not reject it. But to hold it knowing there are reparations to pay and responsibilities to take – all while expanding the love in my heart. This is not about one man. This is about our society as a whole. We can survive one man – but not by holding our breath and holding our nose over the network of systems and injustices that created our current reality.
Now that would be a severe disservice to our children.
Do not despair, friends.
The world needs you to feel.
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