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.
