Together

Beloveds, I believe that we are all in this together – and together, we can shift a culture that is dehumanizing us all –

• A culture that prioritizes paper with imaginary value over oxygen, clean water, livable communities,
• A culture that tells some of us we are better than others, tells some of us we are inferior,
• A dominant culture that sacrifices the many for the few and lays the blame for the destruction squarely upon those who are being destroyed…
• A dominant culture that resists even being named, but which much be named to be changed…

Singer activist Ani DiFranco sang in 1995 (Not a Pretty Girl)

I am not an angry girl
but it seems like I’ve got everyone fooled
every time I say something they find hard to hear
they chalk it up to my anger
and never to their own fear

Sometimes I am an angry white woman. And sometimes, I am afraid. I am angry that children are not eating this week because human beings elected to govern the resources of this nation have decided that ideology is more important than people. I am afraid of how much harm is being done, how many lives without safety nets are crashing to the ground even as I write these words today.

And always, always, I am grateful to be a part of a faith on fire – on fire for love, mercy, and justice, a faith that walks the talk, not perfectly, but with a broken open heart of commitment. A faith that says it is okay to be angry and afraid and keep going, keep going… beloveds, let us turn toward each other in this vulnerable moment in our nation’s history.

Let us change the story together.