What do we have that they should want? We have a wall to work upon

[sovay]

For the first day of summer proper, I had lobster and ice cream. I mended two out of my three pairs of jeans. I baked a lemon cake for the chorus potluck tomorrow. I bought a tank top on sale. I passed out on a couch for an hour in the evening because I had slept maybe two hours the previous night.

I do not know what to do about the planned mass roundup of immigrant families, obscenely described by ICE as a "family op." [ETA: As of this evening, the roundup has been delayed. May it stay so and may there be no advantage to the White House from the threat of it.] I do not know what to do about children tortured, American concentration camps. I already have a senator whom I call to express support of her unwavering opposition to these monstrous policies (which makes a nice change from my governor whom I call to yell at about everything) and I donate when I can to RAICES and I am feeling trapped by the limitations on my finances and my physical capacities which make it difficult enough already to keep myself alive, but what is the use of being alive if I can do nothing for anyone else? It feels like being cornered into complicity, as if I should be expected to raise my hands and say not I didn't know but so what could I have done? I want to know what to do from where I am, which feels terribly far from any levers of power. Fretting is just thoughts and prayers, secular edition.

Comments

[rosefox]

The raids have been delayed for two weeks because people like you spoke out, so what you're doing isn't nothing. Two weeks is a gap into which a stick can be wedged by those who are closer to those levers.

Your senator depends on those calls; every one increments the "my constituents tell me to keep doing this" counter, which is hugely, hugely important both for morale among the senator's staff and for press around her actions.

And when you model your values for Fox and your godchild, when you sing and reach the hearts of your listeners, when you write and shift the thinking of your readers, when you smile at a woman in hijab or a Spanish-speaking family sitting across from you on the bus, that's not nothing either. Tikkun olam begins at home.

[sovay]

The raids have been delayed for two weeks because people like you spoke out, so what you're doing isn't nothing. Two weeks is a gap into which a stick can be wedged by those who are closer to those levers.

I hadn't seen that! Thank you for telling me. That is useful.

that's not nothing either. Tikkun olam begins at home.

I feel you should know that is effectively what my mother said. She also spoke of my writing. I just hope it makes the difference I want it to.

*hugs*

[asakiyume]

This this this. I was talking about this with others yesterday, and someone was saying similar about the horrific stuff going on, and I was realizing that because there's always new awfulness coming down the pike, it's easy to imagine that nothing we do has any meaning because things don't seem to be getting better. But I think even things like the perpetual phone calls matter--they're echolocation for our representatives, telling them yup, still supporting them, yup, still want there to be a focus on this, etc. And when there's so much awfulness, we're not going to get a total, instant win, so it's the keeping on.

Two years running the in-town social justice group protested the speakers the local gun club brought to town for Flag Day (one year it was Arpaio, next year it was those national-park-occupying brothers). And this year, they decided not to bring anyone. THEIR OWN MEMBERSHIP decided that because even in the gun club, most people hadn't supported those speakers, but they had been apathetic and let the white supremacists among them go ahead and do it--but the protests got them to speak up and stop. And so this year, no one like that is coming here. That's a triumph. Can we rest? No--but we can take note. The protests **did** accomplish something.

And YES to smiling at a Spanish-speaking family or a woman in a hijab--because INSTANTLY with that gesture, you're showing that there's still friendliness, that they are still wanted here, and that's an injection of hope; that's cultivating community as you walk.

At the meeting I was at where we were talking about the state of things, I was also reflecting on how our society doesn't really support the notion of followers--we're always focused on leaders and dramatic actions. But if you think about wars, it's not just the strategists and the generals who make things happen, it's actually the infantry. You can't win with just generals and strategies. Because our society disparages followers and reveres leaders, it can be lowering to think of ourselves as "mere" infantry, but we're indispensable.

... I say all this to encourage myself as well as you. And I thank *you* rosefox, for encouraging *me*.

[rosefox]

You are most welcome.