(On Sunday night – 29th – a gunman killed six men in a mosque in Quebec City)
“The people who wish you harm, are not my people.”
“The politicians who spew forth racist, fascist, isolationist rhetoric, are not my people.”
The woman who comes up to you on a bus and says these words, is me.
The woman who weeps for your dead, is me.
The people who rise up and fight against those who try to destroy you, are my people.
The people whose borders are open to you, are my people.
I’m sorry that our toxic propaganda has spilled over into your country, and caused the murder of your peaceful citizens. The only definite currently is that the innocents are bearing the brunt of all this evil, and I’m also heartbroken over it.
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Thanks … I’m on the other side of the country from QC and I wondered what I could do, so I wrote these words.
The toxicity is spreading across the globe like a plague … and for every plague there is a cure. For this one, we are the cure.
(I heard that last line in my head in an Ellen Ripley kick-ass kinda voice. 🙂 )
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Doing my very best to maintain an Ellen Ripley sense of kickassery, though it feels like the aliens are multiplying faster than bacteria.
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Right now they are. They’ve been mobilising for a while. We’re just getting started.
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Thank you for your sentiments but believe me, we know how many Americans are suffering the toxicity too. We are standing with you.
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The aliens have always been there: what they have become is emboldened. They’ve come out from under the rock. They used to be afraid of the light: now the fires illuminate them.
None of this is good, but it sure has been mobilizing some of the people who, if we really thought about it, realized the world wasn’t all that wonderful for a lot of our people – and expected the government to be the prime mover.
Turns out we have to get involved, in whatever way we can – the healthy younger ones in actual protest, the old weak writers like me in words, and everyone where they are. We can’t afford to give an unpleasant person a dirty look when he insults a handicapped waiter – we have to say something on the spot. Or when he snarls at a Muslim woman on the train – then and there are the time to say we won’t stand for this, and we will stand in solidarity with the Native American, or the woman, or the black man – or even the white person being attacked or bullied.
It’s not a silver lining, but it IS what’s happening.
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Just as they are everywhere, we are everywhere too.
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Unfortunately, there are always twisted, hateful people in every country. The important thing is for a country’s political leaders not to give them the slightest encouragement. From everything I read, it seems that Prime Minister Trudeau and the vast majority of other major political figures in Canada hit the right note.
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Most of them do, most of the time, but the darkness is creeping north.
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Oh dear…
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Me too.
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I still believe that the majority of people choose not to be toxic. They may want change, but not through the loss of life or through hate. Hate is so contagious though, and we must be strong.
A huge problem is that it only takes one hater to destroy the happiness of many. And destroying happiness is a sure road to propogating new hate — not everyone will “turn” but some will, and the cycle continues to grow and get worse.
Solidarity fights the darkness with love and logic, though. Thank you for posting this.
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I agree, most folk just want to get along, and live their lives … and nothing wakes them up like disaster and hatred.
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It’s so distressing that we live in a world where hatred, bigotry, and racism have found such a loud and powerful voice. Our only option is to raise our many small voices as one and speak for kindness, compassion, reason, and each other.
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And as part of that greater whole, those small voices become very loud indeed.
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I think that might be the only good thing that comes out of our experience with Trump – a united force against him.
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Pray for us who are south of the border. The voices of the majority who are compassionate and loving is being silenced by a minority full of hatred and fueled my corporate money and greed.
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Always. 🙂
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