we can all do something

we can't do nothing

my friends.

I know you’re doing what you can, you’re upstanding and disrupting and protesting when you can. you’re donating and educating and somehow still driving your kids to their sports and their music lessons and caring for your parents and feeding your cats and taking your medication and applying for jobs and paying your bills and considering if you should get bangs and you should not.

I know you’re quiet because you’re tired I know you’re tired because you care I know you’re reading little poems or even tea leaves and trying to find hope but maybe right now isn’t the time for that. maybe now is the to remember that even though you were the good girl that you are now an angry woman and anger has energy and energy has velocity and velocity calculates momentum, which we sorely need.

I do not care if you share reels or memes or wear protest slogans on your clothes. do that or do don’t that but I also want you to feed your neighbors, real food or soul food or food for thought. I want you to see your privilege and discard it despite the fear of losing proximity to it. they aren’t going to protect you even on your best behavior even with the constitution in your pocket even with the truth in your mouth.

I want you to be honest with yourself I want you to take risks and push me to take risks too. I want you to see the danger around us not just in the suppression and oppression that has always existed and has come out to play these days. I want us to look back and then look around and then look ahead because we didn’t just arrive here, we’ve been here for a long time.

I want us to see the danger in raising children who hand their authority to others who are praised for complying who are coerced into spending more time on standardized tests than critical thought practices. imagine emphasizing perfect attendance and straight As in this world in this moment. why focus on such banal bullshit in a world where showing up and shutting things down and trying new things and being open to learning is all that can save us. is all that ever could.

we can’t all use the same tools we can’t all take the same risks we can’t all do the same things but we can all do something and we can’t do nothing.