My own meager contribution to the worldwide movement to counter the fundamentalist thought that is sweeping the globe and is being exploited by politicians with interests in furthering the rule of corporatism kicked into high gear shortly before the national U.S. elections last year. While I'd participated in dissent and protest prior to last fall, I had not helped to organize such actions. I gave all I could to efforts of organization, building regional and national links and bringing new energy to a very tired progressive movement when it needed to maintain energy no matter what the outcome of the elections. Goddess, it was hard. Like all women I had to balance the personal and the professional when both needed full time attention. I did the best I could for all that needed me. No one can do anymore.
I'm feeling guilty as a tug of conscience pulls me to step back up to the plate with U.S. Supreme Court fight that is beginning, the G8 protests and Live 8 counterpoint bringing attention to the horrific costs of inequity of resource access in the world, the treasonous actions of Karl Rove, The Downing Street Minutes proof that the need for an Iraq War was created through lies to the public to further Dubya's private vendetta at the expense of stopping a group that had attacked the U.S. on our own soil as well as the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's.
I burned out at the end of May and decided to step back and rest for a month or so and just focus on home and family for a few weeks. (Living in the Southwest June is a good month to not do a lot as temps can top 110 degrees F. and just hanging out is a very good idea... sorta like snuggling in for a Fargo January.) I'm currently trying to figure out how to model what I believe. Walk the talk while dealing with a bone weary tiredness. It would be so easy to give up now.
I had the opportunity to host Medea Benjamin when she came through Tucson in May and I was once again struck by her energy and resolve. I can't expect to match such a significant public figure in energy or impact. Such figures seem to tap into reserves of strength and courage allotted to souls with historic paths to walk. But I have to do something. The future of my daughters and generations of women to come rest on the cumulative actions of women living today, including me. The opponents of peace and individual freedom paint us, women peace activists, as such ogres, but when I think of these profound events that are unfolding -- I call up images some very wholesome images. We work from the perspective Frank Kapra put forward in his classic film It's A Wonderful Life
that is a beautiful illustration of the impact one good soul may have, as well as Preston Sturgis' film The Great McGinty(1940) which has two fugitive expatriate American men meeting in a tropical bar both discussing how a single decision in a weak moment changed their lives forever -- one man succumbed to a moment of honesty in a life of lies and crime and the other a man whose life was destroyed by a single moment of weakness and greed. Individuals and small choices have major impact. We have to believe that.I see no reason that we (the people) can't rise up with enough outrage about the abuse of our rights and freedoms that our purported leaders feel they have to pay attention to our demands. The appointment of a lifelong supreme court judge by a president who committed crimes that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people should not be a done deal.
The use of National Guard troops to spy on families who have lost members fighting in Iraq, on old ladies and peaceful women is an outrage that the people would not support if they knew about it. We all just have to keep the information moving through alternative channels until a variety of views on issues are once again easily accessible to the majority of people without having to make special effort to find the information.
So I guess I will keep on blogging and bannering and organizing.
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