Pittsburgh and the Fight for Our Lives

I've been trying to parse what I'm thinking and feeling about the synagogue massacre for days now. And one of the things I'm most upset by is the failure of otherwise rational people to stand up their peers and say, ENOUGH. This is not a both-sides-are-guilty issue. This is a one-side-condones-hate issue.

If expressing that makes me a radical left wing nut job, then so be it. But I think it just makes me a not very remarkable, baseline decent human. If you work for Trump and aren't publicly quitting and denouncing his agenda, why not? If you're a respected, intelligent journalist and still feeding America FOX poison, what justifies that? What was your thirty pieces of silver? If you're in Congress and you're knee jerk voting Red vs. Blue, why aren't you listening to your constituents, many of whom live in grotesquely gerrymandered areas?

The thing to remember is, political parties die out. When was the last time you voted Whig? When Barack Obama sounds like Ronald Reagan and the new political climate of rampant, hateful paranoia attacks Americans like a cancer (black Americans, trans Americans, queer Americans, female Americans, immigrant Americans, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans) then it's time to grow a pair.

Yes, there are both shitty Democrats and shitty Republicans. Yes, Democrats also take money from the wrong people. Yes, Democrats are guilty of political compromise. No, we do not propose building a farcical wall to keep out the people who pick our fruit, clean our homes, and work in our kitchens, paying taxes all the while. Which is more than I can say for Don Jr. Equivalency in this case is false rhetoric. People have died. More lives are at stake. Do you know how many more trans kids will die by suicide if their identities are legally erased for no reason other than spite and fear? Do you know how many women will die if they can't gain access to proper reproductive care in Texas? Do you know how many more minorities will die if the enabling dog whistles continue?

Hate can't fight hate. But love can, and to love is an active verb. Faith without works is dead.

Don't just vote. Form a voting squad. Don't just argue with people. Listen to them. Don't just respect women. Call out your friends who refuse to. Don't just shake your head and divorce yourself from the world.

Try to save it, in any small way you can.