Peace Be Still

America today is a sad and dangerous place.

It feels like tragedy and disaster lurk around every corner.

We protest, rebel, and reject the cruelty that has been forced upon us.

And all the while, we must find, maintain, and protect a semblance of peace.

For those of us who are already well acquainted with oppression, this is our fulltime job, and in our spare time, it is our hobby.

The fervent acquisition of peace may be a new struggle for those who are newly feeling oppressed.

The world may suddenly seem to be a scary, treacherous place.

Things that provided hope and security in the past – your leaders, your churches, your finances – may not provide the security they did in previous days.

Those of us who live our entire lives feeling oppressed understand how you feel except for the newness of your situation.

We have come to understand that passage of civil rights laws and constitutional amendments are fine in theory but are often countermanded and discarded in practice.

We were happy in 1964 and 1965 when the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were passed, but as Dr. King pointed out, America has a difficult time being true to what it puts down on paper.

The last few years have seen the erosion of progress, spurred on by a racist system that intends to oppress some, but eventually oppress all.

The bigot fails to see that while he or she plots and schemes to deny certain groups rights and liberties, they are building for themselves the same kind of cages that they are building those they wish to oppress.

Bigotry and prejudice are forms of self-oppression.

The oppressor thinks that they are in control, but there is no rest in their labors.

Being hateful is a full-time job. There is no time off.

Those of you who were born into free and just spaces, who took these things for granted, now realize you are not as free as you were seven months ago.

If you are a woman, you live in a nation run by men who want to subjugate you.

If you are poor, your means of maintaining a decent lifestyle have been compromised. No tariff will save you. Your local hospital may have to shut down. Your benefits, which are now called entitlements, are going to be cut to the bone or cut altogether.

If you run a business, and you have been paying minimum wage to your employees, your employees may be deported, and their replacements will not work for minimum wage.

Many of you voted for this regime.

You wanted the “swamp to be drained.”

You wanted to follow someone who had the same prejudices and bigotry that you possess.

You wanted certain people to suffer, and you voted for the candidate you thought would make those people suffer.

But now, the horrible realization has taken place.

You realize that you’re also going to suffer.

For the first time, you’re seeing through the lies and manipulations.

You know that Putin isn’t being controlled but is controlling.

You know that the Gaza situation is not ending but is getting worse.

You know that the Epstein files aren’t being released, and you know why.

You feel lied to, cheated, and misled.

You are feeling in a small way what we have felt our entire lives.

You will have to resist and fight, not in the same way, not as long and not as hard as we have had to resist and fight.

You will learn how to fight the oppression and the indignities.

You will learn to rest.

You will learn to laugh despite everything.

You will learn to make peace with the struggle and the fact that you are struggling.

And you will do the same tomorrow.

And the day after that.

And the day after that.

You will learn to take hold of as much peace as you can find every day and cherish it. You will learn to love it like it was a long-lost lover.

You will hold on to it like it has become ingrafted to your flesh.

You will treat it like it is a precious jewel.

You will savor it, nurture it, and protect it.

That’s why we’re still here, after all that has been done to us.

We pursue peace at all costs.

And when we find it, we treasure it.