Angry, Fed Up, and Determined

I’m spending Saturday working a fund raiser for the church’s separately incorporated 501(c)(3) mission organization. It’s not protesting on the front lines against the horror that is the “Zero Tolerance” family separation immigration; it’s not protesting the utter gall of an executive who is under multiple federal investigations to think he has the right to appoint a justice to the court that will undoubtedly decide some or all of his fate in the years to come. But it is, in its way, a protest: that this mission organization is even necessary makes raising funds for it a protest against the deepening unkindness of American civic society that allows the wealthiest and loudest to get far more than their fair share when far too many of the poorest and silenced don’t even receive a chicken in every pot, never mind any more than minimal public support for the education and care of their children or jobs that pay truly living wages.

I am angry.

I’m angry that the government that is supposed to represent me expects two-year olds to defend themselves in court. 

I’m angry that the government that is supposed to represent me has stripped children as young as four-months out of their parents’ arms merely because those parents and those children have the temerity to have skin darker than a peach Crayola crayon. 

I’m angry that those two-year olds and four-month olds and eight-year olds and teenagers have been sent all over the country without even a luggage tag with a UPC code so they can be found when it’s time to reunite them with their parents. 

I’m angry that most of their parents have been unceremoniously dumped back in the countries they fled, facing even more violence and economic hardships now that their attempt to find succor and asylum in “the land of the free and the home of the brave” has failed. 

I’m angry that militarized police forces that can arrest a white man accused of a mass terror event unharmed but use deadly force against an innocent black boy running down his own block.

I am fed up.

I’m fed up with the outright lies being trumpeted by this administration about everyone and everything. 

I’m fed up with bullies who are fine breaking rules but then insist that everyone else follow them, especially when those bullies have the power to affect American jurisprudence in a draconian way that could recriminalize love between two consenting adults, strip women of the right to determine what happens to our bodies, impose yet another iteration of Jim Crow and segregation, and empower what my brother calls the “Christian Taliban” to define an all-but-state-sponsored religion that is intolerant of anything but itself and expects Caesar to be worshipped alongside of, if not in place of, Jesus Christ. 

I’m fed up with calls for civility from the very people whose words and behavior are anything but civil.

I’m fed up with willful denial of scientific evidence that we are killing our planet. 

I’m fed up with the hysteria that accompanies any attempt to have a rational conversation about the way we idolize guns in this country, especially any conversation that allows for studying gun violence in a scientific way. 

I’m fed up with the insistence that marijuana is as dangerous as methamphetamine, especially given that the “War on Drugs” that began with possession of marijuana has resulted in the imprisonment of an obscene number of black men and the disruption of every life each man touched. I’m also fed up with the idea that drugs are a criminal thing until more white lives are disrupted than black lives and drugs suddenly become a disease. The overt racism in that attitude makes me ill. 

I’m fed up that our current federal drug policy does not allow for adequate research into whatever benefits the compounds in marijuana may have for a host of human suffering including epilepsy (yay for the small victory of an approved drug this week!), pain relief, and cancer/chemotherapy side effects.

And I am determined.

I’m determined to let my anger be righteous so that it brings about positive changes, to get into what Representative John Lewis calls “good trouble”. 

I’m determined to show my support of my elected officials far more often as they fight the good fight against the egregious erosion of norms that have occurred in the past 10 year; once I moved back to New England* and was no longer represented by Tea Party Republicans, I lapsed in my communications because I wasn’t needing to send angry and fed up missives to a senator and a House member with a copy to the other senator thanking him for being sane. 

I’m determined to preach and teach the GOOD NEWS that God’s love touches everyone, including those who have been called murderers, rapists, and gang members and those who actually are murderers, rapists, and gang members…as well as—and this pains me to say it, but consistency demands it—those who use fear and might to scare people into hating others for no reason other than power.**

I’m determined to help people understand how science works and why it’s important to practice good science. To that end, I have a group gathering to read through the manuscript of my book; we’ll start in the fall because summer got busy (yay!). I also have a brief outline started for a book of science-base devotionals for families with curious kids that I am determined to write this summer in my “free” time.

I’m determined that I have a part to play in keeping this country and this world from going over a cliff that kills us all. I may not hold elected office or have enough money to influence policy, but I have a voice and I have knowledge to share with that voice. 

I’m determined that this country that I love so very, very much—despite all the glaring flaws ancient and modern—can be better than we are right now.

I’m determined to live in a country where BLACK LIVES MATTER as much as white lives.

I’m determined to live in a country where people who are fleeing violence and famine are welcomed with open arms…and where we help those who want to make their own countries better are given a hand up to end military dictatorships, create peace where there is war, and develop good land use and fair trade policies that allow every citizen a chance to thrive.

I’m determined to live in a country where political debate is about the best ideas to help the most people enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: a true COMMONWEALTH in which no one goes hungry, every child is educated well enough to strive for the job that he or she wants most, and where no one needs to worry about how to pay the doctor or hospital bill when emergencies arise.

These things may not happen in my lifetime, but if I don’t work for them now, then the generations coming after me don’t stand a chance.

I hope you’ll join me!

*It’s not that I consider myself a Democrat; I’m unaffiliated and, save for any party registration necessary for primaries, have been my entire voting life. I just wish the GOP hadn’t sold its soul to the Russians, and if all the evidence thus far isn’t true, it should start acting as though it’s concerned about the mounting evidence of influence exerted by Vladimir Putin and his lackeys on the 2016 election and the consequent administration by getting out of the way of the investigations and shutting up about Rosenstein, Mueller, and the FBI. We need at least two functioning parties that work together to make the best possible decisions for the entire country from poorest to richest and youngest to oldest and most disenfranchised to most powerful. I’m old enough to remember when there was at least a semblance of that…and I’m not THAT old!

**I’m not God, but if I were, the requirement for entry into eternal life would be for each person who promulgates hate to experience the pain they caused to any person, all at once, for as many minutes as there are people they hurt. I don’t believe in eternal hell, but my very human self demands recompense somehow and if it has to be after death, so be it. This is why it’s good that I’m not God….