Choosing, Over and Over Again
After watching the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale, I was left with one big takeaway: a single choice will not define you; rather, it’s about the many choices you make. Throughout the series, we saw that those resisting and fighting facism had to keep choosing to fight back in both open and hidden ways, and to take time to rest, find joy, and grow that which was most important: love. In the end, some individuals were clearly making choices over and over again to fight facism, while others were benefiting and perpetuating the oppression regime. And there were those who chose silence over and over again and allowed facism to continue. That is the group I found most concerning watching the series, and it is the group that I continue to be most concerned about today. There are way too many people who self-identify as left, progressive, and liberal who are choosing silence and inaction in the world.
On Friday evening, I went out to dinner with a friend to catch up on our lives. Admittedly, it’s been quite a while since I’ve gone to a restaurant on a Friday evening and the whole experience was surreal to me. I do go out to eat at times these days, but I opt to meet folks at quieter times. We met early so it was easy to grab a table, but by the time we finished our meal and conversation, both the indoor and outdoor areas were overflowing with people. At the same time, there were brave resistors in Los Angeles fighting back against ICE snatching people off the streets. People had had enough and were standing up for those most vulnerable, our immigrants. The irony also did not escape me that it was the anniversary of D Day, an important turning point in fighting nazism during World World II.
Since then, I cannot shake the fact that I know too many who seem to be moving along in their day-to-day lives as if nothing has changed. It’s like watching those who were eating out on a Friday night act like nothing else was happening. At the restaurant, I kept thinking about how people in other countries must think about America, especially if they saw this restaurant filled with people seemingly just going about their lives as if facism was not here or even a threat. Although people are passively posting thoughts on social media, at the end of the day, it’s just words – especially when posting to those who already agree with you.
We are 140 days into the current presidential administration. There have been 140 days of making choices. 140 days to take actions to resist authoritarianism. 140 days to volunteer for a community organization. 140 days to show up for actions, rallies, protests. 140 days to contact those representing you in government and voice how you want to be represented. 140 days to acknowledge how much immigrants contribute to our communities. 140 days to tell trans folks they make the world more beautiful. 140 days of choosing, over and over again.
Margaret Atwood said it best with “A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.” Over the last month, one of my biggest observations is that those who speak of feeling despair or question the effectiveness of protests and actions like calling Members of Congress are the ones choosing day after day to stay silent and be inactive. I don’t deny how horrible things are and how much people are suffering, but I also see and know how much people are coming together because I’m in it. Those of us making choices over and over again to be in the streets fighting for who and what we love are cultivating hope and resilience for the times ahead.
There are many more days of choices ahead. At what point have enough days gone by that silence and inaction become complicity with facism? I don’t have the answer, but if we haven’t yet arrived at that threshold, I sure think we’re getting close. May more and more of us choose the path of speaking out, showing up, and choosing hope.