How? The Empty Bottle

 “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.”

~Edmund Burke~ 

 "Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim."

~Elie Wiesel~ 

 

 If you're anything like me, you've been asking yourself how we got where we are now. How could this have happened? How could we be so divided? How could there be so much racism, misogyny, bigotry, and hatred?  The even larger question is, "How do we fix it?" 

Some people would say my career in the fire service has made me a cynic. Some would say I'm a cynical pessimist. I would say, I'm more of an optimistic realist. Stay with me, here.

My wife, this amazing, beautiful woman, sees the good in everyone. She sees love as the answer. And she is absolutely right. It is the answer. But for me, the answer to the question, "How did we get here?" has become painfully obvious. It isn't how we arrived. It's where we started in the first place.

If you take our little piece of the world as a micro-economic example, and if you really take off your blinders (careful, once they're off, you'll never get them back on), it will become painfully obvious, greed and cruelty was on the docket from the second Columbus got lost and landed on the eastern shore. 

I get it. It was happening everywhere. But that doesn't make any of it "right." Indigenous populations were being wiped out. Slaves were being taken, land was being stolen, and the oligarchy of the rich and powerful was already taking shape. And it's only gotten worse.

We still teach the fairy tale about Columbus in our schools. We continue to pat ourselves on the back about how we've eradicated slavery, helped get the few natives left back on their feet, restored civil rights, and on and on and on. Oh yes, I forgot, we destroyed the Nazi's. 

Wake up folks, and do it fast. The civil war didn't eradicate slavery and neither did the Emancipation Proclamation. It merely drove it underground. You still working for minimum wage and and can't afford your rent? You're a slave. Working 80 hours a week just to feed a family you never see and pay for a house you're never in? You're a slave.

WWII, while it certainly stopped advancement of a tyrant and saved the lives of millions of non-white peoples across Europe, it didn't end the Nazi party. It simply drove it underground. You think slave owners suddenly decided slavery was wrong at the end of the Civil War? Did Nazi's take off their patch and repent of their sins of hatred? Of course not. They went underground to regroup.

And now we have a "man" sitting in the chair of the most powerful position in the world, and the slave-owners, Nazi's, bigots, and haters are coming up like Godzilla out of the ocean. They have permission again, and it's up to us to stop them. And by stop them, I mean, drive them underground again, because they aren't going away.

So, do we remain silent or do we take the risk, speak out, act out and do our part to end this fascist regime? The real question isn't, "Can we?" but, "Will we?" Up until about two weeks ago I was holding out hope we will, but my hope is wavering. This is why.

My wife and I were standing on the bank of the Rio Grande in a beautiful little turnoff from the main scenic road. Enormous cliffs rose above our heads and we marveled at the beauty. Then, I looked down to see a single empty water bottle lying in the grass...ten feet from a trash receptacle. Whoever left it, couldn't be bothered.

And that, my comrades, is why we'll fall to a fascist regime. We can't be bothered. We're too comfortable. We're too set in our ways. It isn't affecting us, yet. We're too lazy. "Someone else will do it." We'll keep throwing our bottles on the ground assuming the job to pick it up belongs to someone else. It doesn't. That responsibility lies with each of us. 

We can protest in front of the capitol, we can write our representatives, and we can scream and stomp our feet on Facebook (I do that a lot), but if it isn't painfully obvious by now, it should be. They don't care. Our government is broken and regardless of what happens over the next few months, our government is never going to look the same. Nor should it. If you look deeply enough, it was a grand experiment that was broken in the first place. We were just lulled in to letting it happen.

Look, I want to have hope. I truly do. I want us to tear it down and rebuild something new and wonderful where everyone thrives. And yes...we can afford to do that. Don't let the oligarchs fool you. 

We won't imprison a convicted felon and child-rapist, so you're going to have to do better to convince me it's going to be ok; that this isn't the kind of world we'll tolerate.  I'll do my best to keep my chin up and do my part, even though I know there's more I can do. But what can you do to give me hope?

Pick up your damn water bottle.