Complacency is not allowed. Not now. It is time to say what needs to be said.
Charlottesville could be the tipping point where we go, from a nation of people who believe all men and women are created equal and have put laws in place to protect human rights to a nation that allows hatred against everyone who is not an angry white man. I am appalled that neo-Nazis and Klansmen marched through the streets with guns and torches, allowed, once again, to publicly display hate. World War II and the atrocity of concentration camps ended 70 years ago. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act in the early ’60s, our nation moved toward healing the wounds of slavery and inequality.
Germans didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. Our nation was built on the suffering of slaves. Our history includes pushing the native peoples onto reservations and forcing Japanese-Americans into internment camps. They say history repeats itself, but I think we should be looking back at history and learning from it.
I am a white, almost 60-year old woman of European Protestant descent whose family arrived in this land before it was a nation, but I am very afraid for our country and for my fellow Americans who are not like me — blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Jews, Native Americans, recent immigrants, homosexuals, and anyone else who is not a heterosexual WASP.
Barack Obama tweeted Nelson Mandala’s quote that people who learn to hate can learn to love. How do we love these people enough that they no longer hate? As a Christian and a Yogi, I want to show them a better way, but how?
Are you upset? Good. Speak out. Say what needs to be said, and say it loudly, even though you know people, some of whom might be friends and relatives, who say they still support Trump and would vote for him again. It’s easy to be complacent. But that’s what the Germans did. That’s what the white South did. They ignored all the signs that something wasn’t right. They trusted their leaders. They trusted that the soul knows the light. But sometimes people go astray. Sometimes they hate.
People are not hearing support from their government, they’re hearing that the government is against them. Withdrawal from the Paris accord, the building of the wall on Mexico’s border, the construction of pipelines, disdain for Puerto Rico, the transgender military ban, and many other policies are anti-immigration, anti-environment, anti-LGBT and anti-family. Attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and the most recent withdrawal of premium support jeopardize our healthcare system. Women are assaulted by the president’s order to rescind the requirement that health insurance cover contraception when many women can’t afford to pay for it. Some things Trump has done threaten our freedom, like firing those investigating any wrongdoing, condemning our allies, inciting the North Korean dictator and sharing classified information.
I knew I was doing the right thing when I pushed through the crowds to find a spot to stand and watch the speakers at the Women’s March. I marched to protect the rights of women, people of color, the religious faithful, the LGBT community, and the poor and disenfranchised. The Women’s March was meant to unify Americans in a time when many of us believe democracy, religious freedom, freedom of the press, human rights and immigration are under attack. It was the largest single-day demonstration in history, with the worldwide participation believed to be around five million people.
It felt like a movement. My father — minister, Civil Rights activist, anti-war protester, humanist — would have wanted me to go. Dad donned a clerical collar to go to the Wooster Avenue Riots of Akron in 1968, just blocks from our home, to help with peaceful solutions. In the late 1960s, our televisions were filled with footage of bare-teethed dogs nipping at protesting black people and anti-war demonstrators’ heads bleeding after being clubbed, the violence culminating with the shootings at Kent State. We do not want war fought on the streets of America. We do not want hate to be expressed.
And now, months after that day in Washington, the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis are allowed to openly demonstrate and assert the rights of white Americans. Our president claims everyone is right, everyone is wrong. Those who protest against hate are just as bad as those who hate. Those who stand for love and justice and the sanctity of all lives are guilty of stirring things up. White supremacists, emboldened by the president’s support, now believe they have full permission to show what hate looks like.
I believe that prayer heals and that our thoughts make us who we are. I’d love to sit on my yoga mat in my backyard with my legs crossed and chant my mantra “God be with me as I open up my heart.” I want to live my life as a prayer and create a retreat house in the woods where nothing can touch us.
But people will die, and some are already dying.
We can pray, think positive thoughts, meditate, do yoga and find peace in our souls. We all have God or a Higher Power or a spark of light within us that connects us with Spirit, a voice that is a barometer for what is true and good. With our hearts and minds aligned with the light within, we need to speak up and be part of the movement. We can write our congressmen, talk to those who aren’t like us, speak up in social media, talk to our friends and relatives still blind to what’s happening, and join the movement of those who want the hate to stop.
This is not the time for complacency.
The movement continues. The Inaugural Women’s Convention, a three-day event in Detroit, runs October 27-29. Resistance and leadership training and lots of inspiration will mobilize women who care for the politics of 2018. The March leadership has been questioned about the focus on national politics and choice of speakers [Bernie Sanders is the most prominent speaker and many people who were involved in his campaign are on the roster, including Cleveland’s Nina Turner, with little representation from the other side- Ed.] But the programming reflects the grassroots call-to-action that was the genesis of this group — programming includes how to create successful neighborhood groups, demanding better representation, layering for gender equity, interfaith reproductive justice, universal family care, giving voice to women, grassroots advocacy, and sacred organizing principles for transformational change. Find out more at womens-march-convention-coming-detroit-october/566307001/.
Claudia Taller is working on a memoir about growing up during the 1960s while the daughter of an activist minister. She is the author of several books, including two books on wineries, a novel set in Cleveland, and a spiritual book of daily meditations. Find out more at claudiajtaller.com/.