Trying to Keep Up Hope

We are broken.  Politically our democracy is hanging on by a sliver of a thread.  The combined impacts of social media, the death of journalism, money in politics, apathy, gerrymandering, and our inability to meet in the middle is destroying the American experiment before our very eyes. 

Our environment is on the brink of a change that we will not be able to turn back.  You can not take things that were in the earth for millions of years, burn them, fill the atmosphere with them, and then not expect consequences. But here we are with a warming planet and that means.

Our rights are under threat. Rest assured the trends to roll-back abortion rights will lead to more roll-backs as well. Gay rights are on the list and in my lifetime I may win the right to marry my partner- and lose it. 

Economically, we are creating an unsustainable bubble that may be worse that 08/09.  Workers are scarce which drives up labor costs. Supply chain issues are also causing scarcity which…drives up costs. With our population barely growing, this pattern is not likely to reverse anytime soon unless we embrace legal immigration and revisit our City on the Hill history to become the destination nation for the 21st Century. 

And in terms of Equity and Equality we are witnessing the creation of laws that make it easier to ban books, ban the discussion of “uncomfortable topics”  and ignore what America’s historical story means for many of its people. 

And, of course, we are dying. Humans right now in Ukraine, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East are dying in political violence that is frequently a form of genocide. In 2022. 

In 2022 we are seeing everything go backwards. Back to the 1800s; back to pre-stonewall, back to pre-Brown v Board, back to pre-Loving, back to… 

I wish I had an intelligent end to this post. I wish I had a solution to offer to make this all better. But I don’t. I don’t know how to shake a planet into awareness or even a country. I don’t know how to get people to turn off the noise and Understand their fellow citizen. Understand how risky a position we are in. Understand why we must start making smarter choices. Now. 

All I can do is pray. All I can do is meditate. All I can do is share my gift and hope maybe someone listens. And in this Easter Week, perhaps thats the best we have any right to expect.