Reality Bites Back #2

As we stand here in the storm... watching the world we and the generations before us built being dismantled, piece by piece... we can't help but ask "Who is going to stop this?!"

The answer is... no one. No one that is, except us.

You, the waitress working double shifts to pay for your car insurance and apartment.

You, the IT tech doing contract work and hoping that this isn't the week they say "cutbacks".

You, the guy on disablity living check to check and SNAP, sitting out the 3 yr long waiting list for a HUD apt.

And me, a freelance web designer finding less and less work by the day, barely existing let alone surviving. With a checkered resume and iffy history.

Not the ideal leaders of today... but without us... there is no tomorrow. Even with us, the landscape will be so changed as to be almost unrecognizable.

But here's a clue. That is how history goes, how revolutions are won, how the world and we humans evolve.. build it, burn within in it, burn it down and build again.

But there aren't heros waiting in the wings this time around. No JFK, no FDR, no King Jr or Malcom X. 

Oh, there are signs that some may rise in the future, if they and we survive this cruciable. But that is the thing isn't it. How do we survive to get to those leaders?

We stand, we act... we sacrifice. We rise, above and beyond to the moment.

The time for protests to be an evening/weekend activity is well past. It is beyond past time to do more than say "oh shit" at every news story that comes out. The time to sit passively as all this plays out, ended before most of us were born.

That's the biggest bill of goods we've been sold, of course. Not the most immediate but certainly the most insidious. That the work of protecting, creating and living democracy was finished by our parents and grandparents. That those civics classes were just proforma... no need to stay educated on world affairs or politics on any level, even here our own country.

So you skipped them... snoozed through class, voted the way your parents or your spouse does, if at all, Just didn't take the time to learn about the candidates or the causes and then only voted when your own self interest was involved.

There is no single part of your life that isn't effected, involved now. Always has been, of course, but now there is no hiding from it.

You're not on Medicare or Medicaid, so who cares if those get cut? How about your parents, will they be living in your attic or basement soon? Or how about when you can no longer afford your own private insurance because it has become so expensive due to a flooded, bankrupt heath care system?

You aren't an immigrant, so who cares if they get shipped off, blocked from schools or citizenship? Well, did you enjoy that meal you ate at the restaurant last night? Look at the number of non white faces in the kitchen. How about the food on your table? Is your teen child going to go work for long hours picking it? Or all those other "menial" jobs you don't want to do? How about the other end of the employment spectrum.. the scientests, doctors, educators that come to learn in our institutuions... to teach in our institutions and stay to offer their service? 

And what about the way we're dealing with those immigrants? They deserve it right, being "criminals" or "illegals"? They don't believe like you or think like you. First off, educate yourself on who and what they are... the vast majority are here waiting on some part of the legal process. Changing a law to make it convenient to say otherwise isn't something taught in that civics class we talked about. And once we do that to THEM...how long before we do that to you? I mean, it's just that easy, right?! But it isn't REALLY, no matter what bill of goods they try to sell you.  Habeas corpus is not an us or them thing... by ANY definition.

We have the cause, we keep hearing the call... but now we have to realize that it's on us to answer it. Ain't nobody else home. And by the way, the call is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE.

There isn't just ONE step to this fight. It isn't just a protest every Saturday. Or prepping for your household when things fall apart.

It's about reaching out to people you wouldn't normally... people different in belief, in color, in country of origin, in financial class or education. Homeless people, people who who can't walk or do all the things.

It's about creating communities amongst yourselves to protect each other, educate each other, support each other. About warning someone, taking someone in, standing up for someone or between them and danger.

It's about not just showing up for an hour or an afternoon but showing up for a day or a week... or longer. It's about flooding the streets of DC, NYC, L.A. and others until no vehicle moves in or out. Not just a few city blocks but miles of roads choked with people who stay and sit and occupy. Who don't don't start fights or riots, don't set things on fire but who stop the process.

It's not just reposting something on Facebook or Bluesky. It's about talking to people, showing them the FACTS not the fables, leading them step by step through history to today and where that path goes in the future if we follow where we're led.

It's about creating spaces for those who lose homes, family, insurance, entire lifetimes of savings and self as the changes we aren't standing up to take effect. Finding room in our homes, at our tables for those with no where else to turn. About being willing to take a person or resources from where they are plentiful to where they are needed or safe. It's about planning how to do that BEFORE they are needed so its in place.

It's about standing with those who have stood for and BY themselves so long that they are too tired, to suspicious of even allies to stand yet again. That they deny that the fight is theirs, even knowing that they will suffer yet again and even more than before if they sit out. About standing for those who can't due to disablity. It's about showing that we are the allies each other needs and can depend on. That we will be both sheild and voice.

It's about saving a world from choking on OUR filth. About knowing that we are not only destroying our home but doing so knowingly and doubling down. It's about making the decisions that while more costly, slow that destruction so we might find a way to heal the damage done.

Is there risk? Yes. You might lose your job, your immediate freedom, your comfort. Your reputation or business. Your place in a community that doesn't want different. Some may lose their lives... 

But you stand to lose ALL of those anyway. Be very sure, there is no safe place anymore. No matter the color of your skin, who you are or who you love. Who you believe in.

Gahndi's famous line "Be the change you want to see in the world" has never been so immediate. Because this isn't just a game for lives in your home, your block, your city or state, your country. It's a war that tips the world if lost. And it seems to be one we've forgotten how to fight.

We think because we see the overthrowing of governments in 3rd world or war torn countries it can't happen here. That our denial of the world beyond our shores, our "big stick" of business and wealth... our very arrogance protects us. We deny that those very things create the most spoiled of children who grow into men who play a winner take all game that leaves us the losers.

We think that because we still get in our vehicles and go to work, take our kids to activities, go to the store, pay a bill or have a girls night... it isn't happening YET. That everything will suddenly become sane through someone else's effort because why should you make trouble for yourself if all is well.

All is NOT well... it is all ready too late.

I tell you it is... at this second, all happening... basically unchecked. And we are the only hero's. Not in some self aggrandizing way but in the simplest of terms, that there is NO ONE ELSE.

So decide. Lay down and die or fight and survive. It really is just that simple.