I just saw a post on Facebook that was an apology for a previous post that the person had written bashing millennials. In the post they talked about divisiveness and compared protests now to the protests of the 60’s.
In the late 60’s- early 70’s I was what my husband would call a hippie, even though I really wasn’t, compared to many. There are probably those (including said husband) who still think of me as a “hippie” and I am not mad about that.
I can remember wearing political buttons and fighting for equal rights in school. I especially remember trying to save the planet through an organization called GASP and the Sierra Club and more. I protested to save a place called the Sipsey Wilderness Area. I sat in a cage at the Birmingham Zoo primate building for a week to show how trash piles up when left unchecked. I had my moments.
It is sad to me that people still have to protest for the same damn things 40 years later. That victories won so long ago get overturned or ignored as time passes. It wears me down to see women having to fight for equal pay, equal protection and just some respect after we did that so long ago. To know that when we pulled the “whites only” signs down in the zoo it didn’t make as big of an impact as we thought it would.
Does that mean we give up, knowing that what we do won’t necessarily change hearts and minds? Do we lay out, exhausted by the thought of all who have gone before with little change for their efforts? Do we decide that the very kids WE raised are lazy or crazy or whatever, when we are the ones who raised them to be that way?? (And by the way, they aren’t! I know too many young people who are amazing people that I hope do way more than I ever could!!)
For all of my parents’ faults, and there were many, they taught me to think and act and care about the world I live in. They didn’t have the prejudices of their generation and they guided me to stand up for my beliefs and to do something when I could. They grew to be old, complacent and to care less about the world and more about themselves.
I have to fight the inclination to throw in the towel. To just fit the norm and give up fighting. To care more about me than others. I have seen the lack of progress and it is discouraging. I see where people just quit trying when it seems you put so much effort out for little advancement. But I have to think that 2 steps forward and 1 step back still nets you that one step. That eventually we will see progress. That our world won’t be destroyed by the powers that be, because we will keep standing in their way.
Even if it is only long enough to slow them down, but not stop them. Even if it is only only a small step at a time. Even if we have done it all before to no avail, we have to keep working, trying, protesting, and hoping.
Hoping that we are doing the best we can for the people of the world. Hoping that we are being fair and just and loving, even when we feel we are beating our heads against the wall, pissing off people we care about and standing in harm’s way.
I have to be tougher and do what I think is right, even if it costs me. I have to quit being so complacent about how easy it is to just go along, to just stay in my safe home and to live a life free of controversy and effort. I have to find that inner hippie who did this once before and although it seems frustrating, do it all again.
