The Real and the Ugly: Your A** Needs to Participate

     Within the last 15 years, the world that I knew growing up changed dramatically.  I guess that's a bit of an understatement. We went from being little isolated islands of one to little interconnected fiefdoms thanks to the ever increasing expanse of the Internet.  You'd think connection would bring unity, a commonality, but there's no evidence of that.  Warm campfires do that.  They bring people together on a level because they make people silently acknowledge that we all have basic needs, the need to have warmth, the need to be a community fighting the darkness.

     But our interconnected world didn't do that.  Instead, we've taken building blocks of the campfire and used them to hurt one another.  We're literally chasing one another around  with torches and burning embers because we find some sick pleasure hurting people at a place where we all meet.  Everyone stays silent because the harm isn't happening to us or maybe the prey is a low-value victim (wrong look, wrong skin, wrong social status).  Instead, we turn to ourselves and decide that we can only control the little bit of Hell we've been given; that's where our attention should focus.  

    Where the heck am I going with this?  Quite truthfully, I am sick and tired of people acting surprised when bad sh*t happens.  People are content to react to once instance of social injustice with violence and protests, while taking a posture of indifference to all the other crap that allowed the injustice to take a seat in their living rooms.  

     Systemic injustice doesn't just come out of nowhere.  It is the direct result of corrupt politicians and officials who slid into office because the people who love to protest don't vote or participate in the political process in a meaningful or impactful way.

Your participation in the processes is not only important; it is Constitutionally guaranteed.  But folks just want to let someone else do the heavy lifting.  Let someone else serve on a petit jury; remove yor voice completely from the process.  Let someone else elect the school board (and make policies that impact your children). Stay home during the school referendum which could mean the difference between large classes or smaller classes.

Look at what happened in November.  Folks stayed home from the polls, and the current administration includes an attorney general whose past was too shrouded in racist overtones to be a judge. Now folks wanna be mad.  Now folks wanna talk about 2018.  Now folks think that the soul of this country might be saved with impeachment.