Dear Reader, Hello!
I missed you! How are you doing with this new once a week thing? I feel like I have so much more time, since I’m not writing these every day. I have been doing more reading, and more writing of things that need to be revised more before sharing/publishing (like poems). How are you spending the time that you used to spend reading these posts?
This week I wrote down things that I wonder about every single day, and it has been great. I am wondering a lot about the monarch butterflies in my backyard, and I moved my desk so it looks out the window and now I just stare at them and wonder about things like how do they know the difference between milkweed and other plants, and how do they find their way home, and how many caterpillars are in my backyard right now? This brought a really welcome relief to my week, because no matter what was happening, the butterflies were always in the backyard. The practice of observing them and wondering about them really grounded me.
Another thing that happened this week was I went to another virtual city council meeting, this time about approving funding for officers for a drug task force. This meeting was only 5 hours long (only!!!), but it was still almost as hard as the 9 hour one I went to last week, because this time there were so many cops and people supporting cops on the call, and it felt like a losing battle from the very beginning because so many people were speaking in support of the drug task force.
It’s harder to keep going for hours when you pretty much know from the beginning that you will be overpowered, whereas at the meeting last week I could feel the momentum moving against the school resource officers, and felt like at least we had a chance of stopping them, so I had something to keep pushing toward.
How do we keep fighting things when it seems hopeless? How do we find the energy to speak out against something even when so many voices are speaking for it?
I think part of the answer is patience. We have to think about how to build momentum slowly. We have to remember that saying something, even against all odds, will always be the right thing to do and might inspire someone else to say something. They vote on funding for the drug task force officers every year. So, even though the city council approved the funding this year, which felt like a huge loss to me, I’m trying to remember to plan for next year. To keep building the movement so more people speak against the drug task force next year.
I’m thinking again about those monarch butterflies… in some ways the fight to protect their habitat feels very hopeless. But I know lots of environmentalists would do anything for these butterflies. Environmental activists in Mexico have been murdered trying to protect their habitat. Many people I know (white people) speak out against destroying butterfly habitat, but don’t say anything about destruction of Black neighborhoods (gentrification), let alone other threats to Black well-being. Why do you think that is? Why do white people (collectively) care more about the environment and plants and animals than about Black, Indigenous, and people of color? How do we shift thinking to value their lives more?
Does this have anything to do with patience? Maybe. Patience with ourselves when we get things wrong. Patience with our family members when they get things wrong. Not letting those things slide, but also not giving up on our/their ability to change. Patience to have difficult conversations. Patience to not push our agendas forward, but to listen instead to what Black leaders are saying. Patience to build relationships and trust. Patience to slow down and look for wonder every day. Patience with ourselves when we are trying to learn new ideas. Patience to keep building momentum toward something that seems hopeless. I have been impatient for much of my life, and I’m working every day on patience now.
Prompt: What are things that make you impatient? What makes you lose hope in environmental or racial justice movements? How do you think patience/impatience are related to whiteness? How do you think patience/impatience can help dismantle whiteness?
Action: Donate to street medics in Kenosha, WI. Donate to the Milwaukee Freedom Fund, supporting protestors in Kenosha. Or, if you don’t have the money right now, call and email the numbers in the tweet below to demand justice.
Thanks for reading and listening and thinking! Thanks for your patience waiting for this post. I’ll write again next week!
Until then,
Gwen