It's never enough
Guns, toxic individualism and going from comfort to courage
I, like so many of you, am deeply enraged and heartbroken. But I cannot bring myself to say “enough is enough”.
The consistent message we get from dominant culture is that there is no such thing as “enough death”. That the million+ lives lost to the pandemic wasn’t enough to transform our healthcare system. That the many millions of children suffering in poverty wasn’t enough to justify the child tax credit. And that the many thousands of people murdered in schools, grocery stores, movie theaters, churches, yoga studios, etc aren’t enough to convince lawmakers to regulate guns. The message is clear - pro-lifers don’t actually care about life. They care about keeping the machine going at all costs.
Prentis Hemphill reflected on social media that “the root is a culture that worships violence because it is afraid to feel. We do not love living, we love control….Every inch of progress, every ounce of love, every truly meaningful action from here on out will happen through courage not comfort.”
We are gonna need to dig deep for this next phase of our work. Fair weather politics and reactionary activism isn’t going to cut it. We need to learn how to stay in our bodies, to keep going beyond the news cycle, to resist the temptation to get back to “normal” and to risk our comfort to build the future that we all deserve. Practice is how we organize ourselves, our resources and our actions around what matters most: life.
Let’s do this.
Kerri (she/her)
We do nothing about gun violence at schools, we let the child tax credit expire, and we demand women have babies with no help at all.. The Texas school shooting is more proof the U.S. hates its own children. [click to tweet]
The rules of American democracy provide a veto over public interest and national policy to a minority of the states. Why gun control (and everything else) in America is so hard. [click to tweet]
Republicans have twisted the 2nd Amendment to suit their extremist purposes, blocking sensible checks on gun ownership and enabling the unceasing procession of mass shootings. It is a lie that is killing our children. [click to tweet]
The U.S. is languishing because many of our policies are designed for scarcity. We’ve already invented the world we need. Now we just need to build it. [click to tweet]
Confronted with mass shootings, Texas Republicans talk a good game but have repeatedly loosened gun laws. [click to tweet]
I’m relieved to see so many people called to action in this moment. But it can feel overwhelming to choose how to respond and where to put your energy. All the small and incremental actions add up: texting support, calling your senators, giving money.But we must also understand the deeper political practice that is needed if we are really serious about changing things. Especially given the increasing erosion of our democratic structures which are making it harder and harder to influence change. Our activism must be an everyday practice, a relentless and constant resistance that doesn’t let up until people are protected and have what they need to survive. Here’s a place to start:
RESTORE DEMOCRACY: What limited influence we have to affect change is being threatened by sweeping disenfranchisement through voting restrictions, gerrymandering, money in politics and a fucked up filibuster. Get educated about how governance works and what’s in the way of progress.
VOTE THEM OUT: This fall critical local, state and federal races are happening around the country as a part of the midterm elections. At the national level, all 435 house seats AND 35 critical senate seats are up for grabs which will determine who has the power to govern and pass legislation. At the state level, what’s at stake is governor’s races and state legislatures. And locally, essential school board positions and district attorneys races will determine which books get banned at your schools and whether people will be prosecuted for protecting trans youth and abortion providers. The stakes in this election are very high, y’all. Meanwhile, on average 40% of eligible voters turn out for midterm elections….so its on all of us to turn out the vote.
ACCOUNTABILITY: But voting is not enough. We must hold our politicians accountable for representing and fighting for the public will. And if they won’t move with the people, we will remove them. You can start by asking which senators have taken the most NRA money (and then campaign against them).
MUTUAL AID: In the absence of laws and systems that protect us, we protect us. Here’s how you can support the families impacted by the Uvalde massacre.
Art by Everytown Research
In American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal I write about our all-American obsession with individual freedom that many define as the right to own a gun or the right to pay no or low taxes or the right to not wear a mask. Wellness is just more of the same. Here’s an excerpt.
“To understand American culture’s fixation on the self is to understand how we have been shaped by history and culture to seek, nurture, develop, and manifest the self at all costs. It is the mythology of the American Dream that you can be anything you want to be. It is the “rags to riches” fairy tales that promise anyone can overcome impossible hardship. It is the rewards we are promised for pursuing perfection and achievement. It is the lesson of meritocracy: hard work always pays off. It is the psychology of self-esteem: if we believe in ourselves, anything is possible. It is the blame and shame that come with failure, and the belief that you could have done better. And it is the idea that personal freedom trumps everything else—including science, facts, safety, even human lives.
But this is not only about history. It’s about all of us, all of us who have been indoctrinated to varying degrees in the all-American belief in self-reliance and independence. We value, above all other things, our individual freedom and the opportunity to live our best life—which many Americans define as paying low or no taxes and the right to carry a gun, or in the instance of the coronavirus, the right to not wear a mask. It’s not just MAGA hat–wearing, gun-waving so-called patriots defending their right to personal liberty despite the collective consequences. Wellness’s self-help message is especially susceptible to conspiracy theories that exploit people’s fears, promote pseudoscience and disinformation, and prop up unproven cures and miracle potions. Spiritual and wellness enthusiasts insist on their right to live outside the system, to pursue self-care over public health, to refuse vaccines, to escape to private homesteads, to opt out of politics, and construct alternatives to reality. All of which is leading us straight into extinction.”
We’ll be unpacking the myth of wellness and what it’s gonna take to truly heal in the American Detox Bookclub starting on June 14th (free with book purchase). You can save your seat here!
Art by @kkellyyoga
The grief the is real and cumulative. Take care of your hearts and each other y’all. We’ll be meeting up THIS THURSDAY at 4PST in mutual support with Hala Khouri, trauma specialist and author of Peace from Anxiety. You can register here!
Art by @atmos
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