For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for your people will arise from another place, but you and your family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your position for such a time as this? (The Book of Esther)
I watched the Democratic national convention Monday night. I heard the prophet’s voice: Come on up for the rising. Come on up, lay your hands in mine. (Bruce Springsteen, The Rising)
Can’t see nothin’ in front of me
Can’t see nothin’ coming up behind
I make my way through this darkness
Hell has broken lose. But heaven is before us like a catfish dancin’ on the end of the line. Within reach. But it just might get away.
America is on fire. The towers of freedom and justice have been struck. Not from above. But from below. A cabal of torch-wielding swamp creatures have struck the pillars of our nation.
It’s late. But not too late.
Still, many don’t see the fire. Or pretend not to. Some put on blinders. Some turn on HBO. Some fiddle. Some play golf.
But others have seen the fire, heard the bell, and answered the call to save our nation before it’s consumed.
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. (Thomas Paine, The Crisis, December 23, 1776)
We can’t see the light. We make our way through the darkness.
We don’t know the end. We walk by faith.
We take another’s hand. We hang on to hope.
There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because conscience says it is right. (Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope)
Ours is not the musket.
Ours is not the firehose.
Ours is the ballot.
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Paula’s impressionistic photograph on the home page.
Amen, brother.
Vote, and vote early. Let’s not drag this thing out.
This post is especially moving.
“And who knows but that you have come to your position for such a time as this?” Esther was the right person at the right time because she was not afraid to rely on the two most powerful tools she possessed: Love (of her father) and trust in her intuition. Trust in one’s intuition is trust in one’s deepest inner knowing, trust that it is the light that will guide one through the unfamiliar darkness. Today, we are each called to bring this invaluable essence of who we are — and our Love — to action in whatever ways we believe will help deliver our neighborhoods, towns, states, and country from the fire that rages. Yes, vote. Vote AND… what does your deep inner knowing also ask of you? You will not fail if you choose to act accordingly.
And this coming week we will hear the voice of Darkness. Like the devil, it will speak in flowering dialogue and the joys of submission. It will praise its accomplishments, and speak of the Glory to come for its people, its TRUE people. Do not be lured by the voice of the Sirens.
I came across an excellent warning someone posted on Facebook. They warned not to look for some single, outrageous act that will wake up those who are sleeping in ignorance. Instead, we will see a constant shifting of the goal post. Everyday (as we have already seen over the course of these past 4 years) we will see a new normal, a new acceptance of ever increasing shades of darkness until it is too late and we have wait for the Darkness to consume itself.
Stand up, Stand up
you boys and girls
Stand up, stand up
and use your Voice
(Sugarland – Stand Up).
Amen, Randy , for both COVID and the threat to our democracy!! If we don’t “stand up” to the truly “fake news” for both things we are doomed to Continue to Fail!!
Thank you Randy and Michael. My normally optimistic self is struggling.
Wow. Just wow.
Moving, beautiful, and true.
We’ve got a ways to go…
Amen! We have have to move on our faith and get the vote out early! Thanks!
The eloquent quotes from our past speak to me, yet it is a reminder that we often repeat our past. Hope, and voting, are our allies.
Make Good Trouble in the spirit of John Robert Lewis.
Silence is not golden but beholden in such times as ours.