“There is a comfort in saying nothing will change. In saying the game is rigged, that the system is too broken to fix, that fighting back is futile. There is a comfort in rolling your eyes, in the knowing shrug, in the certainty that the worst will happen no matter what you do. Cynicism is a kind of self-protection, a way of shielding ourselves from disappointment. But it is also a tool of the powerful.”
This is such an ingrained American characteristic and, as you say, one that serves the Massa classes. They not only create the circumstances of our despondencies, they are counting on them to keep us from doing anything that pushes back against their nefarious plans and deeds. James Baldwin had an idea for a counteroffensive though: Noncooperation. It’s the most accessible means of fighting back. I’m at a loss for why we haven’t done it on a large scale yet.
Here’s to having the courage of our convictions. 🙏🏾
“There is a comfort in saying nothing will change. In saying the game is rigged, that the system is too broken to fix, that fighting back is futile. There is a comfort in rolling your eyes, in the knowing shrug, in the certainty that the worst will happen no matter what you do. Cynicism is a kind of self-protection, a way of shielding ourselves from disappointment. But it is also a tool of the powerful.”
So true! I get so angry when I see friends and others just going about their daily lives like the world is not turning topsy turvy around them! But I have to quell my anger and disappointment ... so that, eventually, hopefully, they will dig themselves from beneath all the comfy blankets under which they hide, and wake up, and take action.
Thank you a million times for this beautiful, brilliant, urgent piece. Every word here a tool to fight our exhaustion and doubt, to waste no more time in building potent communities hellbent on achieving, and never again forsaking, mutual support based in freedom for all.
“exhaustion is not an excuse for inaction. It is a reason to move faster, to push harder, to refuse the comfort of detachment. Because the people who benefit from our exhaustion are not tired. They are relentless.
“Apathy will whisper that it’s too late. Exhaustion will try to convince you that fighting is futile. They are both lying.”
I’ve been searching for permission to allow my exhaustion to take control of me, and people are quick to give it, to offer excuses why I needn’t do more than what I need to to survive. I appreciate that in some ways, people care for me and my heart and are trying to help. But it’s enabling me to do nothing and feel like I’m doing something. And then there are people like you. Who remind us that we cannot take a moment for granted. That survival requires our continued efforts for a better life for all. As you said, every right we have was fought for. And so, we follow in the footsteps of those who came before us, and we fight. Exhausted, we fight. And with hope, we fight.
“Apathy will whisper that it’s too late. Exhaustion will try to convince you that fighting is futile. They are both lying.” - Your innate ability to articulate feelings that I struggle to clearly define, is nothing short of a monumental gift. You harness that gift to share and teach. To spread awareness and inspire resistance. I’ll admit I’ve had this weight in my soul that feels like the weight of a concrete mold of my now unrecognizable spirit. I’ve been sinking deeper under the rising tides of fascism. I haven’t been strong enough to free myself and rise to the surface to breathe again. And then I sit and read and reread your newsletters and poetry and books that have become a sanctuary that I can drag my shattered soul inside and find precious moments of self reflection. Those moments reignite my yearning to not be weighed down by my apathy. Thank you for guarding that spark that so many wish to extinguish. For guarding it and sharing it for heavy souls like mine that are still desperately reaching for a hand to pull us from those depths so we might breathe again. That breath is sacred and becomes a life force so many need in order to stand firm and not surrender. I won’t surrender. I will continue to break free from that concrete mold so I too can hold out a hand and bring others to the surface with me.
Reading the comments of those young people is heartbreaking. I’m convinced even more that my fight to give people control over their minds so that they take actions that are coherent with life goals is urgently needed. Mindshift first.
You spoke directly to my feelings that my obstinance and stubbornness to not give up are valid and what we need. But I've been in that place mentally of wanting to give up when I was a teen many years ago. It is hard with the hormones and changes in their bodies. If they do not feel safe in their lives and around the adults in their lives, how hard it is for them to feel this hope. They must see it in the adults around them, it has to be modeled. This future is for our children. Every time I look at my young boys, I have more resolve to fight for them and all children.
"Hope is work. Resistance. A decision, every day, to see beyond the chaos and insist on something better." This is deep truth, and a daily reminder. Thank you.
Phenomenal essay. I was riveted--and inspired to act. To keep acting. I just became a paid subscriber. Your essay last week on natural places and the threat to them resonated with me all week--and this call to action. Thank you.
Phenomenal essay. I was riveted--and inspired to act. To keep acting. I just became a paid subscriber. Your essay last week on natural places and the threat to them resonated with me all week--and this call to action. Thank you.
I loved this. I struggled during January and February, feeling lost, drifting, hopeless, and powerless. Could I do anything to make a difference; to hold the country to its ideals of justice, freedom, and care for its people, including the immigrants who add so much to the U.S.?
As I processed this with my therapist, I wrestled with the protest recently I attended. Did it even matter? She asked me some questions.
"Do you think there were immigrants and newcomers there who were fearing what would happen?"
"Yes, I'm sure there were," I said.
"What do you think they felt when they saw you and hundreds of others stand with them?"
That was powerful. I paused. "They probably felt less alone, maybe a little safer, more connected."
That was an aha moment for me. Maybe showing up didn’t change how I felt, but it wasn’t about my feelings.
I know that in all the times in my life when I have felt attacked, invisible, sidelined, or discarded, a small act of connection from someone else has kept me going—sometimes even saved my life.
I’m still pissed. I’m still angry and frustrated. But I am not hopeless, and I WILL NOT FUCKING GIVE UP. I want to be like Jesus (brown Jesus, not white Jesus), and that means I am called to act, to serve, to give, and to hope.
I will not let tyrants attack my neighbor. I will use my voice, my dollars, and my energy in the spaces where I am able. And, God willing, I will stand in the line of fire for my brothers and sisters.
Today is the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. May we never forget the brave heroes of the past, and may we have the same courage.
Christ, have mercy.
.....
From the Equil Justice Initiative:
Bloody Sunday: Civil Rights Activists Brutally Attacked in Selma
On March 7, 1965, state and local police used billy clubs, whips, and tear gas to attack hundreds of civil rights activists beginning a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery. The activists were protesting the denial of voting rights to African Americans as well as the murder of 26-year-old activist Jimmie Lee Jackson, who had been fatally shot in the stomach by police during a peaceful protest just days before.
The march was led by John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Reverend Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge and found themselves facing a line of state and county officers poised to attack. When demonstrators did not promptly obey the officers' order to disband and turn back, troopers brutally attacked them on horseback, wielding weapons and chasing down fleeing men, women, and children. Dozens of civil rights activists were later hospitalized with severe injuries.
Horrifying images of the violence were broadcast on national television, shocking many viewers and helping to rouse support for the civil rights cause. Activists organized another march two days later, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. urged supporters from throughout the country to come to Selma to join. Many heeded his call, and the events helped spur passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 three months later.
Thank you for your truth and brilliant writing. You capture the soul of what this country really is to most people. I'm getting back in the streets, to fight to keep pushing these oligarchs back - out of existence if possible.
Someone once said to me how fear is our enemy, it stops us in our tracks, and I wholly agree. But that's not easy to tske on. It doesn't take into consideration what came before. That people have been driven to helplessness, learned helplessness - it's the plan of the rich. I want to help surround people in my arms and talk and listen.
When I taught my goal was to help kids learn to think. To help them gain confidence that they could solve problems, rethink, redo, laugh at their mistakes and still move forward, thst failure was instructive. Our youth have been told what to think not how to think. It's also part of the plan of the rich, and the school regime fought me. We have so much work to do.
“There is a comfort in saying nothing will change. In saying the game is rigged, that the system is too broken to fix, that fighting back is futile. There is a comfort in rolling your eyes, in the knowing shrug, in the certainty that the worst will happen no matter what you do. Cynicism is a kind of self-protection, a way of shielding ourselves from disappointment. But it is also a tool of the powerful.”
This is such an ingrained American characteristic and, as you say, one that serves the Massa classes. They not only create the circumstances of our despondencies, they are counting on them to keep us from doing anything that pushes back against their nefarious plans and deeds. James Baldwin had an idea for a counteroffensive though: Noncooperation. It’s the most accessible means of fighting back. I’m at a loss for why we haven’t done it on a large scale yet.
Here’s to having the courage of our convictions. 🙏🏾
Yes, brother! Courage.
“There is a comfort in saying nothing will change. In saying the game is rigged, that the system is too broken to fix, that fighting back is futile. There is a comfort in rolling your eyes, in the knowing shrug, in the certainty that the worst will happen no matter what you do. Cynicism is a kind of self-protection, a way of shielding ourselves from disappointment. But it is also a tool of the powerful.”
So true! I get so angry when I see friends and others just going about their daily lives like the world is not turning topsy turvy around them! But I have to quell my anger and disappointment ... so that, eventually, hopefully, they will dig themselves from beneath all the comfy blankets under which they hide, and wake up, and take action.
Thank you a million times for this beautiful, brilliant, urgent piece. Every word here a tool to fight our exhaustion and doubt, to waste no more time in building potent communities hellbent on achieving, and never again forsaking, mutual support based in freedom for all.
“exhaustion is not an excuse for inaction. It is a reason to move faster, to push harder, to refuse the comfort of detachment. Because the people who benefit from our exhaustion are not tired. They are relentless.
“Apathy will whisper that it’s too late. Exhaustion will try to convince you that fighting is futile. They are both lying.”
I’ve been searching for permission to allow my exhaustion to take control of me, and people are quick to give it, to offer excuses why I needn’t do more than what I need to to survive. I appreciate that in some ways, people care for me and my heart and are trying to help. But it’s enabling me to do nothing and feel like I’m doing something. And then there are people like you. Who remind us that we cannot take a moment for granted. That survival requires our continued efforts for a better life for all. As you said, every right we have was fought for. And so, we follow in the footsteps of those who came before us, and we fight. Exhausted, we fight. And with hope, we fight.
“Apathy will whisper that it’s too late. Exhaustion will try to convince you that fighting is futile. They are both lying.” - Your innate ability to articulate feelings that I struggle to clearly define, is nothing short of a monumental gift. You harness that gift to share and teach. To spread awareness and inspire resistance. I’ll admit I’ve had this weight in my soul that feels like the weight of a concrete mold of my now unrecognizable spirit. I’ve been sinking deeper under the rising tides of fascism. I haven’t been strong enough to free myself and rise to the surface to breathe again. And then I sit and read and reread your newsletters and poetry and books that have become a sanctuary that I can drag my shattered soul inside and find precious moments of self reflection. Those moments reignite my yearning to not be weighed down by my apathy. Thank you for guarding that spark that so many wish to extinguish. For guarding it and sharing it for heavy souls like mine that are still desperately reaching for a hand to pull us from those depths so we might breathe again. That breath is sacred and becomes a life force so many need in order to stand firm and not surrender. I won’t surrender. I will continue to break free from that concrete mold so I too can hold out a hand and bring others to the surface with me.
Reading the comments of those young people is heartbreaking. I’m convinced even more that my fight to give people control over their minds so that they take actions that are coherent with life goals is urgently needed. Mindshift first.
thank you <3
Powerful and true words. Thanks, Frederick!
Such a beautiful piece. Thank you.
You spoke directly to my feelings that my obstinance and stubbornness to not give up are valid and what we need. But I've been in that place mentally of wanting to give up when I was a teen many years ago. It is hard with the hormones and changes in their bodies. If they do not feel safe in their lives and around the adults in their lives, how hard it is for them to feel this hope. They must see it in the adults around them, it has to be modeled. This future is for our children. Every time I look at my young boys, I have more resolve to fight for them and all children.
"Hope is work. Resistance. A decision, every day, to see beyond the chaos and insist on something better." This is deep truth, and a daily reminder. Thank you.
Phenomenal essay. I was riveted--and inspired to act. To keep acting. I just became a paid subscriber. Your essay last week on natural places and the threat to them resonated with me all week--and this call to action. Thank you.
Phenomenal essay. I was riveted--and inspired to act. To keep acting. I just became a paid subscriber. Your essay last week on natural places and the threat to them resonated with me all week--and this call to action. Thank you.
I loved this. I struggled during January and February, feeling lost, drifting, hopeless, and powerless. Could I do anything to make a difference; to hold the country to its ideals of justice, freedom, and care for its people, including the immigrants who add so much to the U.S.?
As I processed this with my therapist, I wrestled with the protest recently I attended. Did it even matter? She asked me some questions.
"Do you think there were immigrants and newcomers there who were fearing what would happen?"
"Yes, I'm sure there were," I said.
"What do you think they felt when they saw you and hundreds of others stand with them?"
That was powerful. I paused. "They probably felt less alone, maybe a little safer, more connected."
That was an aha moment for me. Maybe showing up didn’t change how I felt, but it wasn’t about my feelings.
I know that in all the times in my life when I have felt attacked, invisible, sidelined, or discarded, a small act of connection from someone else has kept me going—sometimes even saved my life.
I’m still pissed. I’m still angry and frustrated. But I am not hopeless, and I WILL NOT FUCKING GIVE UP. I want to be like Jesus (brown Jesus, not white Jesus), and that means I am called to act, to serve, to give, and to hope.
I will not let tyrants attack my neighbor. I will use my voice, my dollars, and my energy in the spaces where I am able. And, God willing, I will stand in the line of fire for my brothers and sisters.
Today is the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. May we never forget the brave heroes of the past, and may we have the same courage.
Christ, have mercy.
.....
From the Equil Justice Initiative:
Bloody Sunday: Civil Rights Activists Brutally Attacked in Selma
On March 7, 1965, state and local police used billy clubs, whips, and tear gas to attack hundreds of civil rights activists beginning a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery. The activists were protesting the denial of voting rights to African Americans as well as the murder of 26-year-old activist Jimmie Lee Jackson, who had been fatally shot in the stomach by police during a peaceful protest just days before.
The march was led by John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Reverend Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge and found themselves facing a line of state and county officers poised to attack. When demonstrators did not promptly obey the officers' order to disband and turn back, troopers brutally attacked them on horseback, wielding weapons and chasing down fleeing men, women, and children. Dozens of civil rights activists were later hospitalized with severe injuries.
Horrifying images of the violence were broadcast on national television, shocking many viewers and helping to rouse support for the civil rights cause. Activists organized another march two days later, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. urged supporters from throughout the country to come to Selma to join. Many heeded his call, and the events helped spur passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 three months later.
You are brilliant and it's a privilege to read your words. Heart wrenching and yet deeply inspiring.
Thank you for your truth and brilliant writing. You capture the soul of what this country really is to most people. I'm getting back in the streets, to fight to keep pushing these oligarchs back - out of existence if possible.
Someone once said to me how fear is our enemy, it stops us in our tracks, and I wholly agree. But that's not easy to tske on. It doesn't take into consideration what came before. That people have been driven to helplessness, learned helplessness - it's the plan of the rich. I want to help surround people in my arms and talk and listen.
When I taught my goal was to help kids learn to think. To help them gain confidence that they could solve problems, rethink, redo, laugh at their mistakes and still move forward, thst failure was instructive. Our youth have been told what to think not how to think. It's also part of the plan of the rich, and the school regime fought me. We have so much work to do.
"Recognize that silence itself is a language, and it is rarely neutral."
So beautiful and important. Thank you for writing this.