Spinning Wheels

Better late than never

My first week of being an engaged citizen, DONE! There were detours, roadblocks, and a few eternal yield signs. Will this traffic metaphor ever end? This second installment of the blog is a little late due to a horrendous cold which knocked me out for two days, but now I am trucking along…. Dang it.

Last week started with a bit of a hiccup. Tuesday would have been the first class of a program I was registered for with ACLU Texas. The program is for learning ways to engage and fight for reproductive rights for Texas women. Turns out I forgot what day of the week it was after staying home with a sick teenager (obviously catching it myself) and ended up going out for Happy Hour at a local seafood place Tuesday night. This was a very much needed night of laughter and good vibes, so I won’t beat myself up too much. I have decided that I need to focus my energy if I am going to be as effective as I can and be where I am most needed. Bearing that in mind, I cancelled my registration with the ACLU program for the current session, but plan on signing up again in the summer.

My second to-do item went a lot smoother. The Galveston Island Democrats held a brainstorming session on Wednesday for anyone to bring ideas, issues, or possible solutions to the table. This was the first political event/gathering I had been to since Election Day, needing those months to practice some radical acceptance and be with family. The meeting was a good start. I think local Democrat party organizations will play a pivotal role in the next four years, but not just for the candidates. I believe these organizations should be performing actual functions in their communities, such as: civic education, real time feedback gathering (for both representatives and citizens), and the hub of engagement for people who cannot be very active in local, state, or national politics.

Writing this on the Tuesday after the event-that-shall-not-be-named, I took the advice of many smart people and spent most of yesterday with the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. Quoted here from his letter written in a jail in Birmingham to his fellow clergymen, are a few excerpts which spoke to me in this current time.

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. 

Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.

I encourage you to read the entire letter

Let us be co workers with God and each other, and know that the time to do right is always now. May God bless and strengthen you, my fellow Americans.