Gate Keeping the resistance

Please for the love of Freedom, Slow down! Think before you act!

Personal story, I recently posted some things relating to voting, I had a mistake in the timing, definitely my mistake. I was notified by someone that it was misleading, and I should delete it IMMEDIATELY. I was pretty anxious, I had not seen the mistake when I proof read and was rather disappointed in myself for not catching it. I was trying to communicate with this individual, I was not offended or upset in the least. I messed up (not with my words) in responding to this person, and instead of being understanding or asking probing questions this person amped up the hostile tone, actually calling it election interference. I responded rather apologetically but also asked them to tone down the aggressive threatening. They further responded poorly, more or less stating “fine I won’t be the nice person and I will just report you and get you banned”. It actually shook me a little, the last thing I want to do is spread misinformation and lies! In that moment, I might have honestly shied away from speaking out anymore, out of fear.

There’s also folks trying to silence others because they are uncomfortable with how they are expressing themselves. Now, I am not talking about violence of any kind, no I mean the words they use to express the rage, grief and fear they are dealing with. If the word fuck offends you so be it, but seriously! If you think we should worry about how people speak or the signs they make I think you are focusing on the wrong problem.

I understand many of us in these times are working to find ways to fight back non-violently but with results. This is a learning experience for a lot of us. What worked 80 years ago or just 2 , it’s going to look different, we can most definitely learn from those resistance movements but it’s not the same. Your way might not be my way, you may have different motivations, different ideas and that is what makes it great and… not so great. I might think screaming and pot banging is awesome, you may think a silent sit in works better. Guess what, both can work! Language is the same, You may want to sing songs to the children in Dilley, maybe you want to blast “Fuck ICE” songs. Perhaps you want to do a mural for all those suffering these types of actions around the world or dress up as fairies and dance in front of a Concentration Camp…or throw rubber “dicks” at ICE. It all can have an impact!

So are we hurting or helping? Ask yourself, when you see a mistake like in the previous example, are we hearing the other person out, are we asking questions, do we know the facts before we accuse some one being guilty of something.

Are we hurting or helping when we “over-police” how folks are speaking out? We have enough we have to be careful about without our fellow humans making us silent. Too many are in a rush to be “right”, or seen as the “Good Guys”. I think we all feel a sense of urgency these days but one thing I am learning each and every day, Slow Down. Take time to listen, ask good questions, and ask yourself if what’s making you uncomfortable really matters in the fight against Fascism. Are the actions you are calling out going to put you or someone else in real danger? Are the words and actions in anyway true “hate” speech? I’ll say it again, Slow down, THINK before you jump to conclusions about the persons motivations. I do not want the morality police scaring real honest folks away. Real folks that want to support our communities and fight for a better world as a whole! So help others, with grace and kindness, when they mess up. Forgive others, including yourself, when mistakes happen. Try to understand we are all different, fighting the same fight, so we are all going to be different in how we do it.