I have shied away from speaking up much on hate-crime for a while now, for fear of coming off as ignorant as I feel. This is sensitive – breathing life is miraculous, murder is serious, and I AM ignorant. Not because I don’t care, but because I haven’t had to, it hasn’t been personal – me or mine at the other end of a gun, face to face with injustice, begging for my life to matter, to be recognized. I let others speak before me, for me, I let them mourn. I acknowledge grievances, I keep quiet. It hasn’t been me. It hasn’t been my people. I don’t feel right to speak.
But the fact of the matter is, it has been my people, our people. Our brothers and our sisters, we are ALL witnessing senseless, violent, hateful attacks against the cosmic and vast source in which we all come from and are made of – we experience this life together. We forget.
And though my first instinct is to be angry (and yours may be angrier, rightfully so) as I sit and watch – helpless, hopeless – the act of hate against living beings, what is important here, despite it all, is uniting. What is important here is remembering that we are all connected, a team. When harm is done to some, we all suffer. Just as when we harm others (or justify it), we are not only perpetuating an ugly frequency, but we are also hurting ourselves (and then putting that bad energy back out into the world – a dumb little cycle that hasn’t benefited anyone, ever).
Empathy and compassion are some of the most precious and soft things our hearts are capable of. We are stronger than the cold and corrupt systems oppressing us beCAUSE of our ability to hold each other, to heal each other, to spread and share our softness.
This is a time of revolution – I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels it’s a long time coming, either. It’s easy to be demotivated, even heartbroken, in the face of the idea that we are a doomed, self-destructing species, despite our great evolution into so much potential… but what is important here, is uniting. Is picking ourselves up even when we’re wounded, picking each other up… and not quitting.
These systems in place want us to forget our power. Don’t. These systems will collapse – we won’t. We are stronger. Love is stronger. It is easy to feel hate, anger, fear, grief in the face of such corruption – and we will. But extend love. With your voice, with your actions, with your thoughts, with your prayers – and don’t stop. To prepare for what’s to come, prepare your heart. Tune into that cosmic collective that is our breath itself and you will hear what you need to, we will hear what we need to. Uniting in this, love will win. Collectively, we will rise.
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It was in 1964 that people of color were given full civil rights (In America, we whites don’t like to rush things). 52 years later there is still rampant discard of those rights. This illegal attitude, response and protection is still flagrantly abused all too often at the hands of a minority of the police, That is where we find ourselves today and that is unacceptable. The police pledge themselves to a higher bar of civility (many, like my brother) step up and raise themselves to that higher ground. Many don’t. And I don’t believe we will see a positive radical improvement in the abuse of power by police in my lifetime. I don’t mean we shouldn’t protest and fight back with every legal tool we have. But the answer is with our children. Raise them to know that every human being is of equal worth and respect. Teach them to respect the police because they too are coming in from a new generation and need to rspect us on a whole new level. Teach peace.
amen to that, Tom