Love Wins is sort of a popular slogan - what is there not to like about it? We all value love and winning is a highly valued thing in the US. But in a time of such huge struggle and political turmoil what does it mean?
A friend of mine was recently coming upon her 32 wedding anniversary and she told me she felt funny to even celebrate it because so many people are actively struggling, immigrants being deported without rights, people losing their jobs and businesses and rights, etc. I told her she must celebrate that if we do not celebrate love in all its many faces then hate has completely won.
In saying this to her I was thinking of populations that have been historically oppressed: Jewish people and African Americans for example. In these cultures there are many traditions that are very joyful, and the use of music and ritual and holidays is both to remember historic victories but more than anything else to celebrate the small and large joys of life. To fully celebrate weddings, the birth of babies and even an full life ended in funeral. There is an understanding that even amidst the suffering these are the good moments - these are the promise of goodness and better times and they are to be fully engaged.
Like many people it is hard to engage the news very much these days because of the grief I feel for all the losses and destruction of democracy and a once healthy vibrant society. So many are asking how do maintain hope, how do we preserve the energy to go forward (unless entirely fueled by anger which is certainly not good for anyone's health.) For me, as a therapist, I have focused on keeping my nervous system regulated. I do understand the idea of "don't look away" which honestly I feel needs to be applied to the 50% of the US that did not even vote in the most consequential presidential election ever. For those 50% who regularly pay not attention to US politics to the point that they do not understand how previous destruction to voting rights impacted this election, or don't understand how Supreme Court appointments lead to the overthrown of Roe vs Wade, etc. And even for some of those folks I understand that the daily grind for economic survival has long left them without any additional bandwidth to pay attention to things they have long felt disenfranchised from.
But for those of us who understand what the march of fascism looks like how to we keep our nervous system regulated? I have discovered it is possible to train the algorithms of You Tube to show me exactly what I want to see. One does this first by making requests, and then by clicking on those things and not by clicking on any of the other stuff. It will always suggest possibilities that it thinks you might like and that can even expand what you are trying for, or if you click on the wrong things will continue to "pollute" your stream. So I trained it to show me things which I felt were life affirming and examples of Love. So cute babies, people saying their wedding vows (and later wedding toasts), humans rescuing hurt or trapped animals, and this lead to talking cats and dogs. (yeah that is real- they use pre recorded buttons). Anyway, when I need to sooth my nervous system I return to my trained You Tube channel for this reminder of the goodness of life.
In addition to this, I have started making music play lists. The first one which I called "happy songs" were ones that when I listen to them make me feel happy because they once again remind me of the goodness of life. I have also made a spiritual song list of songs that connect me to God. And now I am working on my "songs for the struggle". Music is a powerful way for all of us to access different emotions than the ones we are currently experiencing. Therefore, this has been very helpful.
Does all this mean I have been able to live in lala land? Far from it. I have kept working hard as I have for the last 18 years on climate change. I have however asked myself the question over and over again: should I be shifting my focus? Should I be working on anti-fascism/save democracy issues? I understand both are necessary and I also understand there are not enough hours in the day or energy in my body to do both. I know the Holy Author would have both things happen and that our Holy Author will, as Thomas Kelly said long ago under another fascist regime, "particularize in each heart their call". So I just keep trying to listen and see what I hear - whether the call changes. And I will just be so grateful for every activist I know who works on issues I don't work on: from voter's rights, general anti-fascism, peace in Palestine, reproductive rights, etc etc. It takes all of us to have a better world.
Early in the ICE nightmare I took inventory of everyone I knew who was an immigrant - including those who have citizenship already (since the current administration does not seem particularly bothered about legal rights and seems to want to change the definitions to citizenship to that which looks white.) The top of my list to people I was concerned for was Zahid Chaudhry. (Please run your own inventory and reach out to those folks who are often feeling very alone and very vulnerable these days and very much in need of citizen allies.)
Zahid is someone who has been essentially a refugee his whole life. Zahid's parents are Pakistani but they had left Pakistan due to the politics in post India/Pakistan divide. As a result Zahid grew up mostly in a refugee camp in - I believe in Afghanistan. As he came of age he made the choice to join the US army as an interpreter as that then opened a path to citizenship in the US. Thus he was serving in the Iraqi war (although not stationed there) when he was wounded in training and subsequently both decorated and wheelchair bound for life. He and an American nurse fell in love and were married. They came back to the United States and most of that time lived in Olympia WA where I first met Zahid and also worshipped together in the Olympia Friends Meeting.
Zahid has tried to get his citizenship for close to 25 years. Apparently, he forgot to put an arrest he had in another country on his original paperwork - in part because he did not fully understand the event when it was happening and because he had forgotten the event. For this reason, he was said to have "lied" on his paperwork and has been in a bureaucratic loop ever since. However, sometime during the Biden administration a judge had sifted through the mountain of paperwork and had finally cleared Zahid of this previous snafu. Thus a path to citizenship at last seemed on the horizon. In the meantime, Zahid and his first wife, who he calls still his best friend, divorced and he remarried and with his new wife had two children. He now has a two year old and an 8 month old. Zahid was called for a citizenship hearing on Aug. 20th. This is a catch 22 because failure to appear can mean the closing of your case and the end of a path forward, and yet being anywhere around ICE is not safe these days. Traditionally despite the outcome of the hearing people are not taken into custody at citizenship hearings, but that too has begun to change in the last few months. So Zahid was taken into custody that day and remains in detention in the ICE facility in Tacoma, WA.
It is another low for the US that a decorated and disabled US veteran would be treated this way. Furthermore, he is being held in solitary confinement despite being rated the lowest "risk". We, his friends and family, understand the real reason he is held in solitary - they fear that he will organize the other prisoners because that is who Zahid is - someone who always tries to make things better. They are also not allowing him to have his medications which is abuse, plain and simple.
I had been planning to do something else the day the protest for Zahid was happening at the detention center. It was a non brainer decision to cancel my other plan and go to the protest in the 90+ degree weather. I had a short wrestle with myself about whether this again meant I need to change were I focus my organizing attention permanently. The answer still was no, but it was also that Love always requires that we show up for those we love and care for. And as more and more people discover that the woman who use to serve them at the store or the guy who ran a local business, or their neighbor or as WA residents discovered this week the people literally fighting our forest fires, that these people are being "disappeared by ICE" - the more every day citizens will be moved by love and compassion to stand up and say no to this madness. A movement of people moved by their heart is what Love Wins will look like.
No comments:
Post a Comment