To Obey or Not to Obey

That is the question

Watching the news and social media in recent days we see repetitious images that are intended to tell us we are safe. That’s not how I interpret the images of soldiers armed with assault weapons. Protectors? From what? I see peaceful gatherings of citizens who are resisting the overreach of government by communicating they are upset about living in places where masked invaders are snatching people from homes, schools, farms and immigration offices. Workers who keep our economy buzzing. Heartbreaking stories of families ripped apart.

If we accommodate the unacceptable and unbearable sides of life we begin to obey in advance. Habits of pretending not to notice, intimidation, shaming and blaming are the ways we become captive of powerful forces who proclaim to have our answers. We become subjugated citizens who lose their constitutional rights.

I was a naïve young mother in the 1960s who did not pay attention— lived in a bubble until I noticed. It was horrifying. Pulling my head out of the sand was the key to finding out what was important to me and what was only portrayed as important.

Where we place our attention or inattention becomes the fuel to give our individual powers to others or claim it for ourselves. Absorbing negative information, misinformation and gaslighting tactics on social media feeds fires of deception. It’s like drinking from a firehose without the care or skill to discern what is true or false. Forced fed water or poison?

Is the rule of law useful? Do updates need to be made? Or do we want to live behind the walls of a police state nation? I choose to stand with others who care about all of us, not some of us.

It is our turn to delve into what’s really going on. Even after hundreds of years, we are an imperfect democracy. Our choice point has arrived to make individual and collective decisions about whether to keep and improve what democracy can become or let it die. To obey in advance is a pathway I choose not to take

.