Circles, violent circles, and systems.

original aritcle taken from: http://upandrise.tumblr.com/post/48133452039

We experience terrible things, unimaginable things, things that are a slice of something larger. The terrible things are sliced out of other things, more violent things, more corrupt things carried out by entire institutions, by people who are voted into power, by people who have power, by people who need to feel power every single day. These slices press against other slices, slice of things that aren’t spoken. They rest next to the invisible ones; they are sliced away from the ones that don’t matter to us because we don’t think the experience could also be ours.

…and so, what does one do? And what are the things I am talking about? What does one do with blood, with words, with systems, with weapons of war (blood, words, systems)?

What do the people look like, the ones you offer to help? To whom you offer your sadness? How do we deal with violence and ugliness when the violence and ugliness interrupt our lives, or when they don’t interrupt our lives at all?

I have always made sense of life by finding circles, by feeling rhythms, and by sensing the overarching energy that connects my senselessness to the senselessness of others. I write today not because I want to silence anyone. I write because we all are hurting, and because those hurts get closer and closer to us, and because it seems as if the pain we inflict on each other is ceaseless. It is time, as it always has been, to ask WHY? And to not stop at the question but to reach for an answer.

I read an opinion piece in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle today that said “the bombing in Boston made me realize that no one is safe in America anymore” and immediately I felt the string in my gut cinch tightly. It is such a special (and rare) place to speak from if you can feel that privilege at a time where people kill other people every day.  It is a special place to speak from if you feel safe by simply locking your door at night. United States weapons and policies kill families at wedding celebrations, in their homes, at their schools. U.S. weapons and policies kill people every day as those individuals are living lives, perhaps living one of the best days of their lives. United States citizens kill each other every day. The systems that are meant to help us are the ones that tend to hurt us. The systems meant to help us are where many awful acts originate. They happen before people even put a thought into action.

I say this not to belittle or make smaller anything that happens in our homes or across the globe. I say this because the violent events we experience, and those that others experience, are all connected in larger ways than we imagine or accept. I say this because there is something, something that has been building since I don’t know when or how or where, that says it is okay to be violent. There is something that says it is okay to hurt other people if you want power or if you feel powerless or you can’t deal with the way other people live. Let us not allow tragedy to make our thinking simple. Our lives are complicated and we are pieces of a sometimes indistinguishable image.  Let us feel grief, but let it not distract us too long.

One of the hardest parts of activism and social consciousness is trying to make real change somewhere. We do not know where or how to start. I have heard the following advice in several ways from wise people who I respect: start where you are. Start. Where. You. Are. Stop those small but violent interruptions that happen daily. Stop the ones that happen around you. Stop the ones that start in yourself every time you feel them bubble up (and learn how to recognize them). Start by helping other people up. You can speak up when you hear even the most subtle xenophobic, racist, bigoted, misogynistic, hateful words. You can teach other people how to understand and how to be open and how to be good to others.

The small aggressions build. Tornadoes don’t start as tornadoes.