Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Sandy Hook Promise

I have had hope for change brewing in me, at a low pitch, for a while now.

I resist it because I come from a generation that tried to effect enormous change and was defeated. We identified the enormous evil in America, shined a brilliant light on it, marched and protested and rallied and speechified and fought and sang and introduced imagination and the power of truth and a completely new perspective to the conversation. We were persecuted, shot and killed, and bullied in response.

For a while that evil incubated while it hid from the spotlight. Eventually it reared it's ugly head brazenly, and now evil rules this country defiantly with no fear of retribution.

The things we protested against have flourished to make this country weak and a laughing stock compared to other civilized countries in the world. These forces have combined to make life for most Americans an enormous struggle, devoid of hope.

The election of President Obama was the birth of hope for me. But I told myself it was a fluke fueled by white guilt. I had no other way to explain it. Hope was a flickering flame.

His re-election fanned the flame a little higher because I recognized it as voters fighting back against the juvenile stupidity of politics. The republicans exposed our political system for the joke that it is and voters fought back against that. I was amazed.

Along the way you had Arab spring. A revolution fueled by communication at a basic level between the persecuted many.

You had Occupy Wall Street. A movement fueled again by communication and infused with intelligence and defiance and a coordinated effort.

I think these protests are better informed and better organized than we were and they have more and better tools at their disposal to publicize the injustice in the world.

There is a sisters crusade vocally fighting against regressive republican politics AND standing strong against the Catholic church and the pope himself. These are nuns openly contradicting the church on issues ranging from gay rights to abortion, and taking on issues like income inequality, universal health care, corporate responsibility and immigration reform.

This one blew me away, even as it cranked hope a little higher, knowing that a corrupt, immoral and supposedly untouchable organization like the church is not above being challenged from within and by humans with seemingly little influence. I love it.

The Sandy Hook community is the latest beacon of hope for me. People banding together and responding to an unspeakable tragedy in an intelligent way. With compassion and determination. The image of grieving parents standing together, holding pictures of their slain children in front of them, was heartbreaking. And inspirational.

They appeared to me to be standing together in defiance of apathy.

They started a website called Sandy Hook Promise.org.

Go there and read The Promise. Put your signature to it. It is open minded and filled with determination, looking to  turn the tragedy into a moment of transformation, to respond with love, belief and hope instead of anger, to be remembered not as the town filled with grief and victims but as the place where real change began.

These people just experienced the worst pain any human can endure. And they respond with intelligence, compassion, open mindedness and determination.

As opposed to the NRA, which just ran an ad suggesting that President Obama feels that his children are more important than yours because his are protected with armed guards even as he doesn't believe armed guards are the answer.

The stupidity is incredible; the callousness is repugnant.

There are a hell of a lot more people who would love to see President Obama's kids dead, than there are psychos looking to kill kids in general. And the majority of these are probably zealots who fiercely defend their right to own assault weapons and semi-automatic weapons with over sized clips.

To see these parents stand tall against whoever chooses to fight against gun safety reform, to see and hear and feel the determination in this country to put an end to an epidemic of violence, this gives me hope.

I don't know. Maybe things are changing. Maybe the human spirit is coming back alive, resisting fifty years of oppression and abuse and exploitation from those who wield power, those who have money.

I am feeling a ripple of optimism. I will nurture it carefully.

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