First of all I would like to express my complete unconditional love and appreciation for my extended family at Daily Kos. I will also say that I empathize with my family members reaching a boiling point that sometimes causes the pasta water to boil over the pot. It is a huge ask that someone endures humiliation and indignity without unleashing that which is a part of human nature.
That rage and rhetorical boiling pasta water is borne out of a lifetime of abuse. Let’s be clear, this is a situation that has been building for a lifetime, not days, not over the course of a nasty thread or two. These are affronts that are very hard, sometimes impossible even, to continuously be faced with without some kind of lashing out.
And yet what I am asking of my family here, is to not lash out. I am asking from the depths of my soul to discover within yourselves the highest character that I know resides inside of you, and be better than those that have dehumanized you.
In 1994, when my first understandings of the internet were forming, I was so hopeful. I thought of all of the communication and knowledge we could exchange, and all of the progress that could be made. 29 years later, most of that dream was dashed. The internet, at least a part of it dedicated to the exchange of ideas, has become a wasteland. There are few exceptions.
Daily Kos is one of those exceptions. This is a site where learned people come together to rationally exchange ideas, and hopes, and yes, frustrations. It is a place where people find catharsis through the shared experiences of fellow members. It has, through strict standards of decorum, maintained its position as not only a center of influence, but an example of humanity’s ability to still exchange viewpoints respectfully.
And make no mistake about it, there are plenty of progressive sites that turned into the kind of wasteland Twitter is becoming and failed. Progressives do not traffic in invectives. Our very nature is to harbor in our hearts acceptance, inclusion, and patience. And in the cases of those that abandon those values, yes I have been witness to a transition to the dark side.
Now this is not to cast aspersions on any of those involved in the current family kerfluffle. This is not to judge. There is no anger, or disappointment for my part, nor is there expectation that anyone was seeking my approval. This is just your friend speaking, now, a friend who cares.
The only emotion I hold at this moment towards the situation is sadness that my family is feeling so beaten down, so marginalized, that they feel their only chance to be heard is through the expression of rage.
This means they hurt deeply. This means they feel lied to. This means We the People, as is so often thrown around like a cudgel, have failed to bring truth to the word “United” as it applies to the States.
When the children of people of color are restricted by systemic racism or murdered by rogue police we have failed.
When the LGBTQIA+ community has to beg society to show empathy in policy because child suicide rates are increasing exponentially, we have failed.
When the planet cooks and viruses reactivate, we have failed.
When income inequality results in more than just homelessness, but people living in the back of the fast food joint they work in for lack of ability to pay for a home, we have failed.
And when our family, here, feels so much pain and can tolerate no more indignities, no more existential threats to their very existence, we as a society have failed.
But none of this confers an permanent impediment to eventual success.
The right wing loves nothing more than to see good people adopt their tactics. The winner of this battle over our nation’s direction, and soul, will be the one that sets the rules of the game, and enforces them.
If we allow each other to cross boundaries that discredit our own dignity, that imperils the inner strength borne of a commitment to humanity and progress, watered by love and grown by the sunlight of hope, they will have still won even if we possess some sort of nominal power.
It hurts me to my core to see so many of those I have worked most of my life for in pain.
Because that is what this is-a reaction to real tangible pain.
You see, I will for the duration of my life, be at your side. If you hurt, talk to me, or reach out to others that also love you. I am Claw, or Todd, whichever you prefer, and I am your human, your friend. And as your friend, I will tell you something, a secret, that not everyone knows..
They can’t beat us.
Darkness can’t defeat light. A nation founded upon principles of self-evolution is destined to move forward. Their only hope for the power they thirst for is to entice us to destroy ourselves, by being less than the best we can be.
Similarly, a nation endowed with the audacity to call out to the world’s forgotten to forge a better union, is bound by its own DNA to succeed only when the best version of itself, in its goals, and its methods, are implemented. We can’t win being like them.
The nation can’t win being like them.
If you hurt, express it. If you feel tears need to flow, let them raise the tides. If voices must be raised make sure to remember that only a few words might be absorbed, and ask yourself one question.
“If this were to be my only moment to be heard, to be known, and to be remembered, what are the words and actions imprinted into history I most want to be associated with my legacy?
I vow that your fight is my fight.
And so I promise to make clear to the world with every keystroke I type these three indelible truths:
You are a priceless, irreplaceable human being and that is not to be questioned and not up for debate.
Your thoughts, expressions, hopes, and ideas have purpose and importance.
You are loved and deserving of love.
In the final accounting of work we have done, it may not be President Abraham Lincoln’s vision of victory, that we make friends out of our enemies, that carries the day.
It doesn’t need to be.
We just need to avoid making enemies out of ourselves.
-ROC
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Love,
-ROC