Sundays

Being there

Just a quick post to say I hope you got some downtime this week-end after what was another long, consequential, and troubling week.

Given the rhetoric of the Republican candidates during the debate; the bizarre spectacle (created by the media and law enforcement) surrounding Donald’s arrest and booking; and the the mass murder of black Americans in Florida by a racist Nazi whose hatred was fueled by the racist policies being enacted in that state, the extent to which the deck seems to be stacked against us has come more vividly into focus.

It’s pathological how cruel we are to each other, how ungenerous and suspicious we can be—how willing we are to keep each other (and ourselves) at risk. I can’t stop wondering why we keep failing to learn the lessons of the not-too-distant past. How, and why, do so many of us continue to believe that helping people—those less fortunate than we are or those different from us—is seen as a threat to the majority? Why does such a large number of Americans refuse to believe that helping others helps all of us? I understand this failure intellectually—the trend can be traced back through the history of white supremacy in America—but as an empathetic human being sometimes I just don’t get it.

We have fourteen months to make sure that we snatch democracy from the jaws of fascism; fourteen months to drive the fascists back under the rock from which the modern Republican Party rescued them (with the understanding, of course, that the Republican Party is now comprise almost wholly of fascists). It would be extraordinarily helpful if the media, and more Democrats, treated them that way.

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A few days ago, I was about to head out for an appointment when Cap, not a particularly affectionate cat, jumped up onto the couch next to me and grabbed on to my leg. She hasn’t done anything like this since she was a kitten. It felt like a hug and she didn’t let go of me for about fifteen minutes. I was running late, but there was literally nothing on the planet that could have forced me to disturb her. There are few things more powerful than being there for other people (or cats) when they need us. It’s hard sometimes because there are so many demands made on our time and we live in emotionally draining times, but when we make ourselves available in this way, it’s better for us, too.