Protests today, in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere: it’s the Mueller Protection Rapid Response. You can use the website to find an event near you.
I’m always of two minds about these events. On the one mind, I think that participating accomplishes little, if anything. In my small town, the usual small crowd will show up and feel better for doing so. On the other mind, I think that opting out is a form of complicity. To not participate is to go on with daily life as if all is well when it’s not.
When I think about the importance or insignificance of individual choice, I think about this account of how a world was lost. And I think about the categorical imperative, something I believe in. (I really do.) So I’ll be part of the usual small crowd, as I almost always am.
[Giving money, writing persuasively, casting a vote: I think that these all count for much more.]
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Mueller Protection Rapid Response
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Right under your blog in my list came this from Whiskey River:
http://whiskeyriver.blogspot.com/2018/11/to-be-hopeful-in-bad-times-is-not-just.html
I'm going to find some way to act to protect Mueller - and the rest of us - even though my action probably will be small. It won't be inconsequential. Neither will yours, friend.
That’s terrific. I saved it in a note and added the blog to my reader. Those words remind me of what I have in my sidebar from Eleanor Roosevelt: “Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.”
My small town is hosting a rally in December; I've signed up. There is one scheduled at 5pm today over in York, but I can't make that one.
This Trump madness has to stop!
I often say the significance of individual actions may only ("only"?) be personal insurance for the future:
If/when cruelty & injustice prevail, at least I can say to myself, I did not agree to this, and I said as much, in public.
Not to be selfish (or, not only), but because I don't want to join that list of people in history who said,
"I should have said or done something, anything. Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference, but I will never know."
Another strong reason to stand out in the cold is that it encourages others. "You can do this too."
Yes to each paragraph.
There’s a story Pete Seeger told that goes something like this: Someone asks a solitary protester, “Do you think you’re going to change the world?” And the answer: “No, but I don’t want it to change me.”
Shivers.
I just realized it's the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacth.
Were there demonstrations of concerned citizens protesting it afterward?
Not that I've heard... (though I'm no expert! Still, they're not famous, if even small ones happened.)
Love the Pete Seeger!
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