I’m thinking today that thoughts and prayers might not be enough to stop racial violence and hate crimes against humanity. Today, there were 50 people gunned down in a mosque while praying, so there you go, so much for praying. You can’t pray away racial hatred and automatic weapons. It’s insane to send thoughts and prayers without taking action.
I suppose the children of the world will have to step up again since we adults won’t. The thoughts and prayers are helpless against mass shooters, helpless against nature, helpless against pure evil. It takes actual action. People can write letters, people can call reps in Washington, people can take it to the gun factories and shut them down.
Take direct action to stop the violence. Peaceful demonstrations with whatever media you can find is the first step. Protests can work if done correctly. The worst thing that can happen in a culture is when the leaders that supposedly lead are villains themselves, villains filled with racial hatred, villains who encourage racial hatred, villains who won’t go quietly away even when it’s clear their evil is incomprehensible.
When that level of evil breaks through, the dams all crumble and it pours over everyone like in WWII. The good people stand by and decide everything’s okay, everything passes. Well, evil doesn’t rest for a minute. It’s not okay. After all, not just this country has it, others do, too.
It isn’t just the US with the groundswell of evil, it’s worldwide and only our direct action will stop it. I’m so impressed by what the hippies did during the Vietnam war. Now there aren’t even any peace marches at all because the government has cracked down on those taking down organizers, threatening their families, putting them in jail, leaving them to fight among themselves over what label they are.
Non-violent revolution is called for. I remember seeing that film of an anti-war demonstrator once a long time ago, putting a single flower in the muzzle of a soldier’s gun. That is what we need to do now. Put a great big flower in the gun muzzle. If you stuff your thoughts and prayers in there, you’ll get shot, so get up and freaking do something in the name of peace. The final curtain is falling on the last gun in the center stage. That’s when I’ll throw flowers. That’s when we will know we are worth the wonders of this planet, only then.
art by Genevieve Freeman
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