Sunday, July 10, 2016

Taking A Side



So.

This is a hell of a thing, isn’t it?

I mean… what now?

Who am I supposed to hate this time? Which wrong group is absolutely wrong and needs to pay dearly for their astounding wrongness?

Do I choose the marginalized, those of us who have less and suffer more and feel (rightly or not) unsupported and unloved by those of us who have more?

Do I go with people who have chosen a path of service and protection over their own well-being, and are only trying to do the best with the world they’ve been given?

What support picture do I put on my Facebook page? Blue lines? Rainbows? #blm ? What meme pictures do I share? What hot takes must I post?

I don’t fucking know.

I don’t. Jeez, I can barely keep my head straight, when I think of what’s happened the last month. My heart aches so much and I feel so scared for me and my family, and every other family in this country that some days it’s all I can do to smile at the lady behind the register at the gas station. The world feels like it’s spinning out of control, and we’re teetering on the brink of certain oblivion, and you want me to pick a goddamn side?

Fuck you.

Fuck you, for deciding that one side matters more than the other. Fuck you, for deciding that anger and closed-mindedness is the solution to this mess we’ve put ourselves into, for somehow deciding that your hurt is valid and their hurt is not, for ignoring the cost of this squabble for the nebulous end game you've been told exists. Fuck you for having the temerity to imply that the problem would fix itself if the other side would just _____. I'm happy to tell you now that whatever you think your side has going for it, your side is part of the goddamn problem

No. I won’t do it. I won’t give you the goddamn satisfaction of picking a side. If I pick your side you feel smug and righteous in your absolute correctness and lean back in your chair and say, “See? I knew I was right!” If I pick the other side you’ll still feel smug and righteous in your absolute correctness and say, “See? I knew he was wrong.” I refuse to justify your selfish need for validation in a position that you probably secretly doubt. I deny your claims that you want to come to the table but the other side doesn't and it's all on them. They're not trying. They don't care. They're entitled. They're selfish. You know what? Only selfish people blame others.

I’m not picking a side. I’m done picking sides. Call me wishy-washy if you want. I'm not the one adding to the powder keg, I'm the one trying to figure something out (if only in my own mind and heart). Stand upon Mt. Pious and speak down to me about “stand for something or you’ll fall for anything”. You can take your opinion on your side and shove it straight up north, and I’m not talking about Canada. I’m not the one who has fallen for something. You are.

I’m sick of your bullshit, your closed-minded heel-digging and your insistence that what you think (which, incidentally is only what you think because some group of people told you to think it) is the only way to think. But more than that, I’m sick of your other bullshit (it comes in SO MANY flavors). That bullshit takes the form of your wide-eyed hands-up insistence that you want to work with the other side and find a solution. Because as soon as you’re surrounded by more of your Yes Men you let your real thoughts come out, that the real problem lies in the other side and that they have nothing of value to bring to the table of solution. It’s bullshit and you know it. I know it too.

You want to know my thoughts about Orlando? Baton Rouge? St. Paul? Dallas? My thoughts have shifted like sand in the wind with every new development. Every death has left me re-evaluating my position, struggling to contain my emotion and think clearly so I can even begin to look for a solution. You are the same, perhaps, but if you are you won’t admit it. I don’t know what to think now any more than I did in 2012 when somebody gunned down some children at an elementary school, or when two kids gunned down their classmates in Colorado in 1999. I know what I feel (frightened, powerless) but that doesn’t help here.

For the record that’s what you feel too. Oh, you can cover it up with more cosmopolitan emotions like “outrage” or dress it up with snark and wit, but deep down we all know we’re just afraid. Each event leaves us, grown men and women, feeling like children lost in a supermarket in a blackout. We don’t know who to turn to or how to find them if we did. We feel weak, imperfect, and then some magical fairy in the media comes along to tell us we should actually be angry. They tell us this because when we are angry, we watch the news more and they make more money in ad revenue, but we latch on to it like driftwood in a storm.

And so you’re standing up on Mt. Pious, looking down on all the poor plebs who don’t think like you do, encased in your armor of anger that also does a fair job of hiding those love handles of fear. And you look down upon me. The Undecided. The Uncertain. The Considering. You deign to gaze upon me and ask me which side I’m on.

I say again- FUCK. YOU.

Do not presume to tell me that the other side is wrong. Do not presume to tell me your side is the only right side. Definitely do not add qualifiers to your position like “If they’d only work with us”. Do not embarrass yourself so. You are better than that and so am I, and your actions are only hurting the possibility of resolution. You are so caught up in being right that nothing is changing. Lives are being lost while you point fingers. Nobody was pointing fingers during these events. People were crying, shaking so hard they could barely manage words. People were breathing their last breaths. People were helping others to safety. Nobody was pointing fingers then. So why are you now?

There is only right side: the one that values all life at all costs. The correct side is the one that looks at everything that has happened and says, “Holy shit, human beings are DYING. This has to stop.” The only side worth taking is the one that errs on the side of compassion and understanding. Not compassion*, not understanding**, but real and true compassion and understanding.

One death is all it should have taken. One of our own kind passing violently from this realm against their will is all that should be necessary for all of us to stop short and re-evaluate every position. These are our fellow brethren. They share this mudball in space with us, and they are all we have to make it work (many of you will point out that we also have God, but I’m pretty certain he’s already weighed in on the matter). The untimely death of ONE is all the impetus we should ever need to STOP and rethink things, no matter what our position at the time is. The first response shouldn’t be “I’m definitely right!” It should be “Maybe I’m wrong.”

But that’s not what happens. Instead of looking to our leaders and asking demanding they come to the table and figure this shit out we all pick sides and face off. It’s the worst game of Red Rover ever, and all while we argue amongst ourselves MORE PEOPLE ARE DYING.

I’ve got nothing else. I’m out of breath, and I’m out of energy. I have a job to work, a house to maintain and a family to love. They get first priority. And really, that’s where it starts anyway. Love your family, love them madly and deeply and honorably, and they will take that into the world with them. With all luck they will love their families madly and deeply and honorably, and hopefully a few strangers too.

You have any idea how quick this shit would be solved if we all did that, had that done to us?

Enjoy your side. I can tell you right now I’m not on it.





*Because it will show you I’m right and you’re wrong.
**As long as you understand that I’m right and you’re wrong.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.