Inaction Revisited

A while ago I wrote a post about Inaction:

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.

Momentarily forgetting that I had posted that, I wanted to title this new post Inaction, but about a different, newer song. I suppose this suggests that I’m stuck thinking I should have and should be doing more than nothing about issues that I care about (notwithstanding a YES answer to the question I posed in the earlier post: “Is writing a song anything?”

Those of you who know me know that I grew up in the segregated South, where a lot of intensity and controversy and catclysmic events and badness were swirling around. I mostly just watched from a privileged distance. I certainly do feel like I should have done something, said something – something –  back then.

This new release is a song that I recorded in a more stripped-down version a couple of years ago. I posted a video for it on YouTube so you may recognize the song. For no clear reason I felt the song deserved a fuller treatment, so here it is. (I’ve also added a bridge, FWIW.)

I’m sensitive to a view that I am “centering” myself in all this, so let me clarify that, when I say “What would have happened if I’d sat down next to Rosa…”, I really mean if someone had sat down next to Rosa.

How can a single person’s actions make much of a difference when the problems are pervasive and entrenched and where the forces that resist change are so powerful and stubborn? Does my one vote really count? I mean, realistically, the likelihood that my one vote will actually sway an election, say, is, you know, not too likely. I mean, vanishly small.

On the other hand, the chances of my winning the lottery are really really really small as well. But, however small, they are greater than zero, which is my chance of winning the lottery if I don’t buy a ticket. So … should I become an activist and start buying lottery tickets? YES! Am I speaking nonsense?

I guess one important difference in these two scenarios is that, if we all buy lottery tickets, then we likely decrease any of our individual chances of winning. On the other hand, if we all vote (for the right candidate/position/initiative, of course), we might actually make it happen. So there you go: we all need to be doing the right thing. Forget about get-rich-quick schemes like lotteries, and do something to make the world a better place.

I’m very glad I took the time to figure that out. Aren’t you?

I hope I haven’t come across as too flip about all this. I do care about it all.

And so, now that it’s so very clear, what do we do? What should I do? Hmmm. Well, while we all work on our plans of action, please keep listening.

AND LIKE US ON SPOTIFY PLEASE. ;-)  Thank you.