Easter weekend. The season generated a conversation about its central meaning: dedicating one’s life to the welfare of others, even being willing to die for it. More recently, this country was founded on the cry “Give me liberty or give me death” and the sober warning “We must indeed all hang together, or we shall most assuredly all hang separately.”
Let’s…
If you think it is OK to grab folks off the street under the assumption that they are gang members or violent offenders, then you are putting your children, your siblings, and yourself at risk. Why? Because without due process, the man with the badge and the gun can assert your wrongdoing and snatch you without proving your wrongdoing. We can do better; we can insist our representatives do better.
Please stop working to prove our fellow Americans are wrong or stupid or both. Some firmly believe that snatching folks off the street without due process, flying them out of the country, and using our tax dollars to pay a foreign government to lock them up is wrong. They do not need to be convinced, and those who do not believe it is wrong will not be convinced. Cut the commentary and do something constructive. Stop talking about what is right and do right.
Get those people off the planes just as Oskar Schindler got the Jews off the trains. If that is too much to ask, then let’s get out our cell phones, stand as witnesses, and record who and how many are being put on planes. Neighbors are being “disappeared,” and the absolute minimum, in a civilized country, is to know who they are. If you cannot go to the airport, that’s OK, then watch on the street, take photos, and let no human being be “disappeared” without a name and a face.
If you are stronger and less afraid, stand to protect neighbors from being snatched off the street in the first place. Stand between ICE and the victims; let’s put our arms around “the other.”
If you think it is melodramatic to decide what is worth dying for, please, on this day if no other, let’s all think again.
Let’s not…
Write minutes of a political meeting that say, “…34 people attended, 32 [members] and 2 Others.” There I was: the other. (I assume my fellow reporter was the second “other.”) During the meeting, I asked if I could speak on behalf of a nominee, a woman with whom I worked when I was president of Thursday Club and later president of Tuesday Club. I was told I could not speak. It was said in a manner that made the room laugh. In addition to being silenced, I was humiliated. I guess we are all learning Trump’s tricks. Let’s not do that.
Recently, there was a headline in The Berkshire Edge: “Tri-Town Boards of Health grill BRPC representative on lack of emergency preparedness.” Why grill the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC)? In fact, why grill anyone? Is the point to humiliate BRPC or to have an Emergency Preparedness Plan (EPP)? I would like a full and effective EPP, wouldn’t you? If we absolutely prove BRPC failed in producing an EPP, so what? At the end of that negative process, what will we have in our hands? Grounds for retribution? Rather, let’s use our energy and intelligence to create an EPP.
We can do it. The talent in South County is unparalleled. Let’s not waste time with Trump tricks. There are 18 towns in the 3rd Berkshire District. No one has all the necessary resources to meet a major emergency, but together we do. Start with each town throwing in $10,000—that is $180,000 total. Let each town send some representatives with a list of assets and needs. As representatives, we have doctors, nurses, and public health officials who can sit down with a clear goal and mutual respect. Hire a professional in the field to coordinate and write the conclusions, and voila! A plan!
At another meeting, the room filled and divided, those for and those against. The motives of each were characterized by the other side as selfish, based in greed, and not to be trusted. When one side spoke, the other side mumbled derision or shouted expletives. One listened to the other, and each felt its position was superior to the other. Trump tricks.
Want to be different than the Trump administration? Instead of throwing brick bats and denigrating your neighbors, work for constructive goals. They talk and tear down; be different—build. Want to differentiate yourself from those who flout the Supreme Court and strip folks of their rights? Hold the law sacrosanct, protect those being abused, and don’t abuse anyone yourself. Stand for your beliefs and act to realize them. Is it dangerous in today’s world? You bet, but if you believe in something, live as if you do.
There is a rumor (nothing more) that ICE will be in Stockbridge on Mercy Sunday (the Sunday after Easter). Stand together and oppose what you believe is wrong. Remember, if you protect their rights, you protect your own rights. Too much? Too scary? “Give me liberty or give me death” is a bridge too far? OK, try the simple things, the ones they taught you in kindergarten: Be nice, share, don’t hit, don’t call people names, don’t fear the other, get to know him, and listen—you already what you are going to say—listen and learn. If you cannot act overtly to protect our country, it is OK, but then do not contribute to destroying it.
This country is protected by the rule of law instead of victims of the whims of bullies.
This country recognizes the rights of all—not just the ones we like and with whom we agree.
This country punishes the wrongdoer without fear or favor.
The bedrock necessities of democracy are truth and transparency—demand both.
Or anyway, this is who we were or were trying to be—let’s try again.
Pesach Sameach on the last day of Passover, and Happy Easter.
