NO ROOM FOR INDOLENCE
Compassion is key to Democracy
Pieta- The Bombed Child, by Georg Ehrlich, Chelmsford Cathedral, Essex, England, image by Poliphilo, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.1
Most of us oppose the POTUS fascist regime, yet some support it. It is troubling that some dismiss what is going on. A recent exchange with someone close sent me away with the following phrases:
“You are reading too much— I don’t follow the news.”
“We have differing opinions.”
“As long as the government does not touch my wealth, I am OK with the POTUS.”
“Kamala would have been worse.”
“Politics have always been like this.”
“Those getting assaulted by ICE should have stayed home.”
I did not cede one inch, since the documented facts of the assaults and murders of Renée Good, Alex Pretti and others go beyond “opinions”. My acquaintance does not want the peace of his existence bothered by unsavory realities. I believe that our duty is to point out oppression and abuse and speak truth to power.
Indolence by the comfortable is particularly disgusting. Some people say Jesus did not come to bring discomfort to the afflicted, but to afflict the comfortable. I lean towards that school of thought on social issues.
The last few days commemorated some of the many people who opposed oppression in their lives. We can follow their example in facing POTUS’ fascist actions today.
Simone Weil, born on February 3rd, has left us profound thinking on philosophy, religion, spirituality and politics. Despite her poor health she assisted in the trade union movement in France and even restricted her food intake in solidarity with the inhabitants of Nazi-occupied France. Weakened by her diet, she died in Kent, England in 1943 at age 34. Simone Weil had accompanied her family to safety in the US and gone back to Europe in the hope of joining the French Resistance.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran Pastor, was born on February 4th, 1906. Bonhoeffer was an anti-Nazi dissident staunchly resisting the Nazi dictatorship. Arrested by the Gestapo, imprisoned at Tegel Prison, interned at Flossenbürg concentration camp, he was accused of being part of the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler, was tried along with others, and was hanged on 9 April 1945.
Jarm Loguen was born in Tennessee to an enslaved woman named Cherry, and her owner, a white man named David Logue, on February 5th, 1813. Cherry had been born free in Ohio but was kidnapped and sold into slavery. At age 21, Jarm successfully escaped, declining to ensure his safety by purchasing his freedom, or to allow others to purchase it for him, as this would compromise his manhood and his “God-given gift of freedom”. Later, Jarm and his wife Caroline ran a major depot (stop) on the Underground Railroad. They did not hide that they were helping runaway slaves; they published an invitation to fugitives, with their address, in the local newspaper. They would provide them with meals, a bath, and a sense of security. Jarm Loguen was known as “‘King of the Underground Railroad.’ Caroline was his queen.” Due in part to Loguen’s labors, Syracuse, NY, became known as the most abolitionist city in the nation. He became a popular abolitionist speaker and authored an autobiography, The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman, a Narrative of Real Life (1859).
Considering the trying conditions under which those human beings worked to help others, can we be indolent to those suffering under POTUS’ fascists?
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For more on these outstanding activists see the links below:
Those quotes are like little daggers to the heart, Manuel.
Long an admirer of the strength of Simone Weil, thanks for introducing me to other heroes.
Much as the daggers are painful, they are reminders that what you are doing matters, enough to upset those who think differently. Stay strong.