Our children and grandchildren will look back at this time, at the choices we are about to make, the goals we will strive for, the principles we will live by, and we need to make sure that they can be proud of us.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrX3Ql31URA[/youtube]
The calls for unity are strong. One problem: The bullies have not apologized.
The bully is still smirking. And if we make nice with the bully and his cronies, giving them a big hug, we are doing that in the face of the people they have so long bullied.
There is a large segment of American society with an extraordinarily short memory. It was truly startling, during the election, how quickly evangelical Christians, for example, were willing to forget the awful things Trump was saying about minorities, immigrants, women, and other groups of people. Many of us who were deeply affected by those comments found them harder to forget. The people who were avidly in agreement with those comments seemed to cherish them, as well.
Now, it seems, we’re supposed to forget the past and “grow up” and unify. But that’s not what growing up means. I was taught that even as a young child in a Christian conservative home. Growing up never was about being callous and forcing people to hug those hell-bent on hurting them. Growing up has always, for me, meant defending the defenseless, loving the vulnerable, and empathizing with those who need it most.
What I’m afraid is beginning to happen in America is that we’re changing that definition. Instead, we’re increasingly replacing it with one that we usually associated with being childish — the selfish insistence to bully and refuse to apologize, refuse to share, and try to shut up anyone who wants to say anything bad about you.
This is unhealthy. It’s unhealthy for ourselves and our children. The moment we make a virtue out of forgetting the oppression of the most vulnerable in this country, and judge people not by how they treat the vulnerable but by how well they get along with the people determined to bully the vulnerable, we have lost sight of what it means to grow up. We have replaced infantile, selfish bullying with grown-up love and empathy.
I’m just one blogger. I can’t really stop this. I’m just telling you what I see happening to my country, and it’s sad.
I’m going out marching, showing empathy and support, mobilizing the other grown-ups with full hearts who seek to support the broken, and I’m being told by Trump supporters, who have been jeering and insulting the most vulnerable in the country for the last 18 months with schoolyard bullying worse than most of us ever faced in any schoolyard — I’m being told by them that I’m not the grown up. That I’m childish for “whining” and caring too much.
And others are agreeing with them. It’s sadder than election night, in some ways. It’s like we’ve lost sight of what it means to grow up.
So I’m going to go out, again, and march the streets of Fort Worth tonight. Because I want to be an adult, not a schoolyard bully. I want to show and demonstrate to America how an adult is not supposed to tolerate the insulting of the people most struggling in this country. I want to hug other grown ups, not the bullies, as we mobilize.
And practically speaking, I’m gearing up for a long fight to make our discomfort with any callous bullying Trump does during his presidency known. I’m also trying to get people together to sign up at protests on email lists to mobilize for further action. I’m also working on changing Congress and its makeup in 2018, a long, hard, fight that has to start now. I’m working to show people that they aren’t alone, to keep progressive liberalism alive, and to keep the definitions of what it means to be an American alive. This isn’t the finale. It’s just another step in a long, long fight.
Personally, I want to be better. I want to be more loving to the most vulnerable in this country. I want to be more empathetic. I want to promote equality even more. I want to mature in my dedication to those Trump and his supporters are determined to bully.
I don’t want to go backwards. I don’t want to lose the maturity I have gained by throwing all those values and all that love in my heart away to embrace those in power as they ruin the lives of the most vulnerable in this country.
That’s why I’m fighting. You may succeed, Trump supporters. You may. Your schoolyard bully tactics may turn the most vulnerable people in this country into a pulp. But I’m telling you, when I march, that it’s not going to come easy. There are still adults on the playground, and you’re gonna have to get through us first.
Thank you for reading.
PS: I have a Patreon, in case you want to help me keep doing what I’m doing.