After Bush was "re-elected" in 2004 I was seriously depressed. I listened to lots of Bob Dylan, paralyzed with antipathy and shock. But I knew that something had to be done to change the spiral of anger and depression or else it would put much more at risk. It was the words of Howard Dean that brought me out of it.
These days, I am thinking more about that time and what we can do to re-empower my progressive spirit in the face of this demoralizing process of capitulation to narcissistic conservatives like Joe Lieberman.
I don't even remember where I heard it, but it was Dr. Dean talking about "going back to square one" to reclaim our country. "What was YOUR square one?", he asked. Was it your family, your neighborhood, your school, your block, your city, your county, your state? There are so many places that NEED progressive leadership and participation, that it is easy to forget sometimes that the nation's governance is made up of many, much smaller, more accessible institutions than the Federal Government.
If we were to take back the country, it would have to start with taking back our schools and towns... back to square one.
So what did I do? I started getting more involved in my city government. I started attending those city council meetings that you see on public access television... I started caring about the committees that advise the council about matters too complex or time-consuming for them to directly analyze. And more importantly, I started dealing with the city staff on a more professional and engaged manner. Rather than just rant at them in the newspaper opinion section, I would make appointments to discuss the issues with them and see where there was room for influence and cooperation to make my square one a better place to live.
Now granted, the issues are very different at the local level... tonight we are dealing with opposing the creation of lighted artificial turf fields in a neighborhood park. And while sometimes it feels like we have little say in the process, there are other times where I hear my actual words being used in public to advance a position that I support, like protecting natural trails and native trees.
It has also taught me that there is benefit to working with your neighbors on things that directly impact the quality of life in your community. I don't even KNOW where some of these people fall on the political scale, but I do know that we all want to live in a safe, beautiful neighborhood. Retaining trees, enforcing leash laws, and opposing invasive lights are not partisan issues for the most part. We meet and communicate regularly about how best to advance the issues we care about.
Slowly, through this process of involvement in direct action, I found my square one, a place where I feel I can start to feel like my voice is once again heard. I became active again, without feeling demoralized.
As I read the diaries about how awful the Democrats in Washington are performing these days (and I do agree with some of that!), I remind myself that I am still a part of something that matters.
And lastly, I want to end with a beautiful quote from one of my personal heroes, Daniel Berrigan. I saw him speak at the start of the first Gulf War. A young man asked him if it was right to let someone like Saddam Hussein go unchallenged by our military supremacy, or should we just let him continue to terrorize his citizens. He said that even asking the question that way assumed that there were only two types of people in the world, those that were empowered only be having a weapon in their hands, and those that had no hands.
That remains an inspiration to me to reject binary thinking and to look deep into myself for my own "Square One" as a place of peaceful action, community, tolerance and creative processes.