What Do We Do?

A Reflection on a World That Feels Hopeless

Photo by Bradley Andrews on Unsplash

What do we do?

It is a completely honest question that I do not have the answer to.

In the last couple of weeks, two people who posed no active threat have been murdered by the masked secret police of our own United States government. Children have been arrested and detained and separated from their parents who were legal asylum applicants. These events happened in front of cameras that captured the events on video from multiple angles, and the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and the President’s bootlicking cronies and voter base want to tell us that what we are seeing plainly with our eyes on video is not really what we are seeing.

And the darkness is not contained within the borders of the United States. Around the world, innocent people are being tortured, starved, and killed as collateral damage while their governments fight over land and resources which are cleverly being pillaged and burned amidst the warfare. Religions that insist that they are the only correct religion initiated and perpetuate the bloodshed, with adherents to those religions insisting that they have some sort of holy justification for their inflammation of ongoing human and planetary suffering.

Earth’s warm-water coral reefs recently hit a major. tipping point, indicating an irreversible planetary shift as global temperatures warm beyond what the Planet can naturally regulate. More and more side effects of this degradation will manifest in the coming years as we approach other significant and irreversible ecological tipping points on Earth.

So seriously - what the hell do we do?

Pray? Sure, I guess. But praying doesn’t magically solve problems, it inspires and motivates action in the mind and heart of the prayer. Which brings us back to - what do we do?

Fight? Of course, we must. But it seems that fighting only further desensitizes the oppressors to the consequences of their evils. It seems that resistance spurs on the heinous crimes of those who hold political and religious power. We’re dealing with a government in the United States that simply doesn’t care that the people dissent - in fact, our dissent fuels them.

Vote for better leaders? Wouldn’t that be nice. First of all, I hope that we make it to the next time we get to vote for new leadership. And even if we do, Christians are the largest and strongest voting arm in the U.S. and they continue to support our current leadership and will no doubt support his successor just as fervently, and while someone from the other major party may win the next election and be able to clean up a little bit of this mess, American Democrats still largely fund and support the ongoing devastation in Palestine, still find reasons to participate in other wars for resources around the world, and still care more about economic and technological growth more than the protection and restoration of Earth.

Hold our loved ones a little closer? Any chance we get. The world gets more and more dangerous every day. And our bodies desperately need the oxytocin and serotonin we create when we give and receive loving touch. Hugging literally heals.

It is exhausting to feel powerless. And frankly, none of us are as angry as we ought to be about the things that are happening, or as scared.

We can’t let fear or anger stop our resistance. But we also can’t resist if we don’t care for ourselves. But caring for ourselves feels impossible when we are so angry, stressed, and scared. It is truly a vicious cycle.

I don’t know what we do. After the events of today, I really don’t know. I do know that we need each other, and we won’t figure out what to do on our own. So the best I can suggest this evening is to not isolate. Call a friend. Meet in person if possible. Listen, and talk.

Hug. Heal. Rest. Prepare.

Abolish ICE.

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