Being people fit for these times

And I am not sure what else to do, so I blog.

That was my concluding line two weeks ago. It is discouraging how little the blogging does to help.

To the extent that my writing helps me have my own head on straight, I believe in the value of that because I believe that individuals matter and that includes me.

If it occasionally helps someone else too, that person is worth helping.

Setting that against the backdrop of genocide and hate... that does not change the value of any individual, but there is a lot of room for discouragement.

I believe what is coming up for future posts is additional repudiation of dominator culture and affirmation of my faith.

For now, there are two things that discourage me the most. Any subsiding on those fronts would be good.

One is a lack of honesty. 

That includes both people calling a pro-Palestine rally a pro-Hamas rally and people saying that their chant is not calling for the destruction of Israel.

It may be worth noting that those people would not say that they are lying; they mean it, they are sincere, and they have lots of proof to justify what they are saying.

They are not being honest with themselves, and therefore they cannot be completely honest regardless of the audience.

One thing that we need to commit to is absolute honesty.

That means facing things that are complicated and uncomfortable head-on. It means looking for additional information when we don't have enough. 

The press is largely failing, which makes that part harder, but that should not affect our commitment to truth.

The other thing we need is growing charity.

That's harder than the honesty, I know, but it is part of it too.

If you can just decide that Israel is bad, then you can just condemn them, and maybe you could be pro-Hamas.

You definitely get to hate the president and various senators and celebrities. Maybe none of them deserved that much praise, but is the hate fair? Is it helpful?

If you can just decide that Palestine is evil and has no right to exist and neither do Palestinians, well that makes things really easy too, but is wrong, and that one will actually require hardening your heart much more quickly.

We need to wish each other well, have sympathy for the fears and angers that get in the way of that, and yet still always choose protection and harm reduction and healing first.

It is a position that will hurt a lot -- the opposite of a hard heart is often a broken one -- but it is what is needed, now and eternally.