Those who boast about their freedoms and their right to defend same, are sometimes the same people who proclaim their right to deny freedom to folks who work to write words that introduce us to other places and people and times. People who take our writers’ books away from us, from our classrooms and libraries, are attempting to render our writers’ words unheard, and the perspective and experience of our teachers, irrelevant.
Journalism is a more deadly occupation than ever before. Censorship is a trend in governments around the world. And it’s a trend right here in South Carolina, where our legislature has hit another one for the fascists wearing masks of righteous indignity. They call themselves custodians of liberty, but they silence anything that doesn’t reflect, like a mirror, their experience of reality. They would have us believe that dissent is sinful, that difference is the work of the devil, that human communication should be as limited as they are in their expression of discontent.
It’s important for us all to remember that everything is here and there at the same time, from Palestine to the reservations on Turtle Island. My feeling is that there is an immediate need for women to rise up worldwide to defend our liberty and Mother Earth. She who hosts us all grows weary, I think, of our lack of gratitude for everything that she continues to provide, even as she is daily disrespected.
The blessing and the curse of modern media is that we feel the pain of our neighbors here and everywhere, as soon as we get the news, which is right away. We feel helpless sometimes to help people on the other side of the world. We feel helpless at home when one person, or an angry crowd can cancel us at any moment for any perceived misstep that may or may not have happened as we each walk our path of resilience.
We know the tyrants have the upper hand. It seems that they always do, but one day, the whole structure of elitism and extraction will fall, because it is unsustainable, short sighted, based on hubris and mass marketing, so it’s pointless to get caught up in arguing over who is the worst tyrant, in my humble opinion.
I feel the need to stand up for the freedom to speak where I am. I was not granted that liberty as a child, and I was denied that same liberty in my marriage until I stood my ground and claimed my right to think and speak freely. I assure you, that when each of us faces the tyrant in our life who minimizes our needs and denies our reality, it doesn’t take long to understand who stands for what in the neighborhood, who wants to cancel who because of how they look or what they say they are experiencing.
These are my thoughts, finding their expression in the form of a letter this evening as I contemplate what I want to share in a more refined form, called poetry, at the open mic this Wednesday, July 3rd, the eve of boisterous nation celebration around here. I’m looking forward to listening, and being heard. Please come out and/or share your thoughts below.