“we are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. we are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. in this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. procrastination is still the thief of time. life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. the 'tide in the affairs of men' does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. we may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: 'too late.'”
― martin luther king jr.***********
it's been 50 years.
fifty fucking years since dr. king spoke with desperate power against the outrages of his day. and somehow, 50 years later, his words still describe our current, very strange circumstance.
that's some progress, isn't it?
the approaching inauguration (if by "inauguration" you mean "desecration of everything good you ever believed about america") reads like a pilot for an insultingly lowbrow pseudo-documentary.
it's amateur-hour here, people.
and, regrettably, it's situations like these in which lots (and lots) of real people get hurt and die.
as noted by boston globe writer michael cohen...
"We have a president-elect fully prepared to violate the Constitution. We have allegations that his advisers might have worked directly with a foreign government to win the presidential election and who could also, potentially, be blackmailed by that same government. We have a Congress indifferent to these potential crises and focused instead on repealing legislation that will literally cause the premature deaths of thousands of Americans. It’s a disorienting and surreal moment in our history..."
standing here today, the urge is strong to run out and to stop this disaster before it's too late. apparently, though, we've exhausted the constitutional remedies that might have headed this off.
apparently we're obliged to strap in and ride this thing down.
***********
"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." ― MLK
i used to believe this. but today, what feels true is that an indifferent universe sits back and watches the pendulum swing from one extreme to another, with only fleeting moments of equilibrium.
what feels true is newton's first law, which sums up to "a body in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force."
it may very well be time to help bend that arc.
***********
"O God, rather than rest on speeches and letters, instead may they serve as energy for the work still to be done. May they be fuel for the inner fire needed for us to help dreams be realized." ― jeffrey nelson
