Inaction
Leaders are supposed to lead, and sadly, these days, that too rarely translates into doing the right thing. Apparently it’s much more important to ensure their own re-election or not inflame their constituencies. I’m so disheartened by their inaction on things that are clear and compelling and egregious or just plain wrong. I wonder if these folks have children and, if they do, if they’re proud to tell their kids about what they are not doing, what they are not fixing?
I have generally been a “go along to get along” kind of guy, which does have its plus side. By nature I’m not an activist. My instinct is to keep my views to myself. Writing this post is itself a bit of a stretch for me. But, given how strongly I feel about all this inaction stuff, maybe I should be doing more, maybe more than just writing a song — which I did last year. To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, is writing a song anything?
Anyway, sorry to have gotten all preachy. I already shared the following video for that song in a few channels a while back, so you may very well have seen it. Nonetheless, here we are, still awash in events that move me to post it again:
BTW, the correct answer is NOW.
I promoted this video on Facebook back during the run-up to the election. When you pay Facebook to promote something, you essentially loft it way way up and out of your own bubble, and then it plummets down down down - splat! - into a bunch of other bubbles, many of them populated by folks whose views differ from yours. I’ve already written at length on this site about how, when I promoted the Broken Promise Land video, I got a ton of really negative, sometimes nasty, comments, which bummed me out quite a bit at the time. Not a comfortable place for a “go along to get along” kind of guy.
The reaction to the WHEN video was, encouragingly I guess, a bit less one-sided. Along with a healthy majority of “Trump 2020!” and related comments were some more supportive ones: “This song makes perfect sense in todays world, especially the US.”, “Great message”, “Love it give it a listen”. Lofting a point of view into some other bubbles. Maybe a little progress, maybe not much.
In the aftermath of the recent killings in Atlanta, I attended a couple of vigils for victims of Asian-American hate crimes. In one of them a very good Asian-American friend talked about how she had been subjected to comments and “looks” and inappropriate behavior for her entire life and about how she had just let it happen — how she had done her best to ignore it and just let it go. Then she talked about how her young daughter was experiencing the very same things. My friend was crystal clear when she said that this was no longer ok. NOT OK to just let it go. I’ve known her daughter since she was two years old, and I’m embarrassed to say that I never even thought about this possible treatment, having made the lazy assumption that her daughter’s experience was probably pretty much like that of my daughters. How stupid and naive. I feel sad and angry and discouraged. Should I have been doing something? What can I do now?
Inaction by so-called leaders continues (what is wrong with people?), and every day I find myself asking, if not now, then when? And … what about my own inaction? What should I do? Write another song? Is writing a song anything?
Please send me your thoughts about anything, either in the comments on this page or by emailing me directly at guy@storytownband.com. And go ahead and share this post with a friend who might enjoy it - do it!
Until next week….