February 1: Let's Begin Again
Hope, Staying Informed and Staying Kind
Lawzamercyme.
What I was thinking promising a follow up within–what did I say–48 hours after the inauguration? My apologies, if any of you were waiting.
I have started and stopped and rewritten so many drafts I lost count, but better for you because they were giving off more heat than light and I didn’t feel like adding to the reactionary noise. News-wise, each day has been more bewildering than the day before. It’s taken a minute to get in the right headspace.
The speeches, the Executive Orders (EO’s), the memos, the chaos, the disbelief, the news cycle, the 64 precious lives lost and a US president defensive, sarcastic about expectations to visit the crash site (hugely unpresidential), THE SCAPEGOATING, the ideological purge, and everything about this second and LAST TERM of a hostile, cold, vengeful, arrogant, perpetually aggrieved, self-loathing authoritarian has led to nothing but a mental paper-jam.
Which is the signal to retreat, rest, and work things out personally about how I want to show up in this extraordinary (I have cancelled the word unprecedented) cultural moment. As mentor advised: now is the time for internal work, to get grounded, and to take care of ourselves for the work ahead, for the good work ahead.
A note to the reader: my words about DT come from a heart that loves this country especially as it becomes closer to its founding ideal of liberty for all, and I believe in free speech, freedom of the press, equal access to vote and upholding the humanity of all. But when groups of people are targeted as they have always been in this country, and when authoritarians without merit gain position and power for themselves and dispense it to individuals who, without merit, gain titles and access to undermine basic laws and freedoms, I will stand up and say some things. DT is riding his wave of populism and cultic loyalty of religious and quasi-religious institutions for now. He just may war and grab and grope his way to territorial expansion, but not without me hollering about it.
“I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” James Baldwin
Resist The Powers that threaten and destabilize by a cool calm assurance that their moment is, well, momentary. The betrayal we feel will be overcome by loving our “enemies” and renewing our commitment to love ALL neighbors. Hope remembers that no man of flesh with breath in his nostrils (Isaiah 2:22) can actually go toe to toe with the Lord Almighty, who keeps records and is very angry at injustice and those who go after the impoverished and sidelined. We have hope because The Powers on earth are not eternal.
Here’s the thing about bullies–and some of you can attest to this–they always lie about their power and reach. They are successful when WE think they are omniscient and unstoppable. We freeze and shake in our boots, wring our hands and blast unproductive things on social media (guilty!).
But take courage–we don’t overcome oppressors by being like them. The Civil Rights heroes taught us that. We have to be smart, strategic and speak where we can speak. With love. Always with love, and naming things as they are is part of that.
These particular bullies are ideological supremacists who have also remade a form of Christianity into their own image, where loyalty to the authoritarian is love to God. And we have men who now preach upside down definitions of empathy and neighbor, and are crusaders for a new Political Correctness based on bible stuff. So for many of us, those close to us have called us names, accused us of caring about people who have been historically overlooked and disenfranchised since America was America, canceling the honest histories that tell those stories, then using wokedeilgbtq to label us as enemies of the common good.
So what now?
We hope. We remember who we are. We look at those lights settled in the vast chasm of darkness, stare at the wrestling surf, wonder at the power of fire and wind, observe the awakening that is spring and remember that we are part of a bigger bigness that fills our perceptions and senses, reminding us that none of us are really in control, especially the bullies.
Hey subscribers! I’ve got an idea some of you may be interested in! Many of you amazing women have shared the need to have a space to talk, process and share ideas about some of the things you read in Bearing Witness.
WHAT IF there was a safe, virtual space for women who take seriously the call to love our neighbors as ourselves? What if there was a place of belonging for women who have felt abandoned by the religious/political status quo? What if there was a place for the curious, looking for a meeting of minds and candid conversation with those like and unlike ourselves? Would you be interested?
A bit of photography for you to enjoy from Fells Point, Baltimore.
Recommended Reading and Viewing Honoring Black History Month
I strongly encourage my dear white friends1 to take the time to watch and read these in their entirety. MLKs letter is a literary masterpiece. Note and reflect on the quote pulled from the letter and what it may mean for us today.
It just may be a good time to begin collecting or downloading such books and documents just in case.
65th Anniversary of A&T Four Sit In Celebrates the Power of Perseverance link here.
Fannie Lou Hamer’s America is a new and original documentary told through the public speeches, personal interviews, and powerful songs of the fearless Mississippi sharecropper-turned-human-rights-activist. Known for being “sick and tired of being sick and tired” and her impassioned pleas for equal rights, Fannie Lou Hamer helped change laws and was very influential in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Click here to access the documentary.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail click here.
I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: "Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother." In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: "Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern." And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular. -Letter from Birmingham Jail
And finally, if you like staying informed, here a few ideas to get you through the next month:
We can care deeply about oppression and injustice and also put down our phones, unplug, and recharge.
Do not follow conspiracies repeat do not follow conspiracies
Resist sharing unvetted information.
YES reflect respond./No react
Yes Awareness that is purposeful, meaningful and beneficial/ No Awareness that is addictive, fearmongery (I made up that word), unbeneficial.
Stay informed, but not to the detriment to your emotional health and stability
Do you homework: find trusted information sources that cover various perspectives, check your sources—original without media commentary is best, Don’t neglect local news or how local governments are applying the EO’s
Look for ways to show others even the smallest amount of kindness—they need it, you need it.
The Federal Register click here
The literal Playbook | Project 2025 click here.
Project on Government Oversight: super cool! Click here.
Some GenX Wisdom below:
Untwisted Scripture
33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Matthew 12:33-37
Grace and peace, my friends!
I make the distinction white because more than likely white folks are less familiar with these names and historical accounts.