The clock is ticking...In the old game of hide and seek, we had a specific amount of time to hide, perhaps when we were asked to count to one hundred, it would keep us there a minute or so, just enough time to find a closet to hide in, or to get situated under a bed. If we were lucky enough to be outside, perhaps climb a tree or wiggle under a pile of leaves. We had a variety of options really, but they were all based around getting further away from the seeker that other players and trying not to make too much noise tucking yourself away, out of sight. Looking for places that would be less likely to be searched figured into the calculation, but the overarching requirement was to be hidden by the time the counting stopped.
The countdown clock is set today for January 20, 2017. That is the day that we will be thrust into a new sort of game. There is already discussion about branding some people with various labels and in this current world, the ways to parse data will assure that some of us will be easier to spot than others. some will not be able to keep their heads down at all, or find curtains big enough to hide behind. There will be no tree trunks large enough to hide behind if you are, for instance, black, Hispanic or Muslim. There will be no hiding the fact that you are a scientist, or activist, community leader or outspoken on womyn's issues. Perhaps the rules of the game need to change.
We must be prepared to be thrust back in time, even further than Marty McFly was in Back to the Future, Perhaps twice as far. The crazies are currently out in force, emboldened by the rhetoric of The Donald. If what we are seeing already is any indication of things to come, not only will there be nowhere to hide, but multiple seekers as well. There are self-righteous vigilante types, who want to be judge, jury and executioner, there are simple racist bullies and scores of people who are silent, but tacitly approve of racial profiling and still believe that X-tian America was made solely by whites and for whites only. On the face of it, we know that this cannot be happening, however, it seems to be. At the exact moment in time that we need unity, there are forces at play that want to fracture our nation further. Wearing safety pins, we are about to find, will not be enough.
People on the short list for cabinet level appointments, or who will be occupying the highest posts in our land, include folks who have said that being gay can be "deprogrammed" out of you, or by just praying hard enough, a belief that has been proven to be fiction thousands of times over Some believe that there will be a "list" of Muslims and that somehow will make us all safer. The seriously believe that America is a X-tian nation, that womyn belong in the home, taking care of babies and getting supper ready instead of competing with men in the job market. People who detest abortion so vehemently and who feel that what other people do somehow reaches out across space and time to hurt them in their tiny lives. They believe that rapists need to have visitation with their offspring, that parents of babies who are born dead, or who have abortions must be required to hold funerals for them, and among some of the most important decision makers in our nation, we will have climate deniers who want to destroy planet Earth, privatize all water resources and deregulate the spreading of toxic compounds on the soils of our nation.
How and why they come looking for people and/or their methods may be as yet uncertain, but the one thing you can count on is that some of us will be labeled domestic terrorists, even if we have never advocated violence of any type. Some of us will be labeled subversive, even if we only seek truth and justice, some are already losing their jobs for speaking truth to power and some will be killed either for who they are perceived to be or what they supposedly believe in. Unlike the typical game of hide and seek, you don't just get to be the seeker for the next round, you may actually be sacrificed in the name of ethnic cleansing, "jobs", "Murica!" or some other xenophobic or misogynistic whim.
The countdown clock is set today for January 20, 2017. That is the day that we will be thrust into a new sort of game. There is already discussion about branding some people with various labels and in this current world, the ways to parse data will assure that some of us will be easier to spot than others. some will not be able to keep their heads down at all, or find curtains big enough to hide behind. There will be no tree trunks large enough to hide behind if you are, for instance, black, Hispanic or Muslim. There will be no hiding the fact that you are a scientist, or activist, community leader or outspoken on womyn's issues. Perhaps the rules of the game need to change.
We must be prepared to be thrust back in time, even further than Marty McFly was in Back to the Future, Perhaps twice as far. The crazies are currently out in force, emboldened by the rhetoric of The Donald. If what we are seeing already is any indication of things to come, not only will there be nowhere to hide, but multiple seekers as well. There are self-righteous vigilante types, who want to be judge, jury and executioner, there are simple racist bullies and scores of people who are silent, but tacitly approve of racial profiling and still believe that X-tian America was made solely by whites and for whites only. On the face of it, we know that this cannot be happening, however, it seems to be. At the exact moment in time that we need unity, there are forces at play that want to fracture our nation further. Wearing safety pins, we are about to find, will not be enough.
People on the short list for cabinet level appointments, or who will be occupying the highest posts in our land, include folks who have said that being gay can be "deprogrammed" out of you, or by just praying hard enough, a belief that has been proven to be fiction thousands of times over Some believe that there will be a "list" of Muslims and that somehow will make us all safer. The seriously believe that America is a X-tian nation, that womyn belong in the home, taking care of babies and getting supper ready instead of competing with men in the job market. People who detest abortion so vehemently and who feel that what other people do somehow reaches out across space and time to hurt them in their tiny lives. They believe that rapists need to have visitation with their offspring, that parents of babies who are born dead, or who have abortions must be required to hold funerals for them, and among some of the most important decision makers in our nation, we will have climate deniers who want to destroy planet Earth, privatize all water resources and deregulate the spreading of toxic compounds on the soils of our nation.
How and why they come looking for people and/or their methods may be as yet uncertain, but the one thing you can count on is that some of us will be labeled domestic terrorists, even if we have never advocated violence of any type. Some of us will be labeled subversive, even if we only seek truth and justice, some are already losing their jobs for speaking truth to power and some will be killed either for who they are perceived to be or what they supposedly believe in. Unlike the typical game of hide and seek, you don't just get to be the seeker for the next round, you may actually be sacrificed in the name of ethnic cleansing, "jobs", "Murica!" or some other xenophobic or misogynistic whim.
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