I Have to Say This

I’ve been trying to write this post for a few days now. It’s a struggle to find the right words.

The words still aren’t right, and it’s rambly, but I have to say this.

Renee Good should still be alive.

Liam Ramos should be in preschool, not a detention center.

Alex Pretti should still be alive and caring for patients.

No one should be so terrified of being sent to a concentration camp that they cannot leave their house to go to work or the grocery store.

What’s happening in America is not okay.

If you are okay with what is happening, with mothers being murdered in the street, with children being used as bait, with ICU nurses being murdered for trying to help, then we’re not friends.  Not in real life, not online, not in any way. 

I’ve never considered myself a very political person.  I still don’t.  I would like to think I’m a decent person, though, and I cannot reconcile basic human decency with quietly ignoring what is happening. 

I’m not a political blogger.  I never have been.  Anytime I’ve had to classify my blog, I’ve clicked “lifestyle” because it’s mainly about the things in my life, the things that are important to me.  Most of those things are frivolous and silly, but they make me happy, so I share them. 

But, if you are murdered by your government, you cannot drink sweet tea, you cannot rescue cats, you cannot feed groundhogs, you cannot cook for the people you love, you will not see another spring, and you will miss out on so many things you should be there for. 

I am older than Renee Good and Alex Pretti were.  I’ve had years more to do and write about the things that matter to me and that make me happy.  And there’s still so much I want to do.  All of that was stolen from them. 

I don’t consider it “political” to say that it is not okay when what is essentially a masked army descends on a community and begins murdering citizens in the streets.  I call that basic human empathy. 

No one should live in fear because of the color of their skin or the accent they speak with.

No one should live in fear because of who they love.

No one should live in fear because of how they worship (or don’t worship).

No one should be murdered because they tried to be a good person and help their neighbors.

We are not okay.  What is happening in our country is not okay.

I don’t know how we got here, and I honestly don’t know how we come back from this.  But I am sure it is NOT by being silent. 

In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” 

I’m still not a political blogger, but I’m also not going to be silent about what is happening.  Silence isn’t going to fix this.