Being the Change...

I am sitting at my kitchen counter reading the New York times, watching The Wizard of Oz and wiping away tears.  In his First Words The Others article, Wesley Morris sums up the history of who the 'we' of 'we the people' are.  "For ages, "we" wasn't more than one gender or race or sexual orientation.  "We" was white, straight and male.  The great moral force of the 20th century and, so far, the 21st, was thee fight to bring greater self-evidence to even more truths: suffrage, civil rights, marriage equality, religious pluralism, laws acknowledging the existence of the disabled.  The euphoria of putting a black man in the White House became who "we" were as much as the clamoring to put him out.  Yes, we could.  But expanding the meaning of "we" is hard; a black president doesn't ease that, and neither would a female one.  And right now, white people tired of the ongoing battle for all manners of equality, of civility, appear to have switched back."

I remember when Barak Obama was elected President, I felt inspired to stay focused and involved in the political process.  I was so proud of this country and felt empowered to help create positive changes for those who are oppressed, victimized, killed in our streets, live in poverty, or otherwise struggle.  But really, I've done very little and that is because I could bask in the apparent 'progress' and pat myself on the back while taking few risks toward more meaningful and stable change.  Sure, I've become more aware of racism, health inequities and the outrageous income imbalance in this country.  I've even begun to speak out and challenge others when I feel safe enough to do so.... Safe enough.  Really, I am nearly always safe enough, warm enough, respected enough and that is the definition of privilege, isn't it?

While I protest against the privileged new age stance that positive thought and good deeds will make everyone rich and healthy, I have thought that somehow we were on the cusp of a new age.  Just by clicking our heels together we could get ourselves to our perfect home where we always had everything we needed....  Time to do some serious reflecting and open hearted questioning.  I'm nowhere near being 'woke,' compassionate or reality based enough to be an effective agent of change.