Liberty facing weakness.
Since I was a child, I was either neglected or bullied. My superpower as a child was not asking questions, but watching everything unfold.
There’s too much editing going on in my head. Where to give voice to the silenced child. Where to unleash the angry adult.
When I watched the nightmare of the so-called discussion between what going in were leaders of the free world, going out were shameful bullies who had destroyed in a very short period of time the entire western alliance, and one man, heroic in his calm, who knew how to respond, how not to be baited by playground cruelty that a 4th grader would recognize in the worst of his classmates.
Historians of high caliber have noted the similarities between a certain meeting in March 1938 and this fateful few minutes at the end of February 2025. There are leaders who have a predilection for dates and anniversaries. The current president and vp of this benighted land are not clever enough for these abstract alliances. What, or who, does set things into motion? It’s an interesting question.
But no one who has been bullied would not feel the painful recognition from the scene that unfolded, or the pain and anger on behalf of someone attacked. I also felt an instant desire to help, to fight back.
To fight back.
This may come to mean small acts, or large. The larger point is to not hide, to stop being frightened, and to stand up for humanity – the way Volodymyr Zelenskyy did. He demonstrated courage under fire, restraint when faced with threats.
There have been many times where I’ve despaired of America and Americans, have wished them to be more aware of the rest of the world, to be less loud, less demanding, less insistent that they were the best in the world.
While shouting in a cafe in English, or thinking that customs and habits in another country are less advanced than those that prevail in the USA are unfortunate traits of the average American tourist, reflecting a lack of reflection or education, these are mere nothings compared to the outright brutality and criminality displayed in what used to be the highest office in this land. The “this will be great television” horror was the UN vote made physical. In that moment, everything changed. The bit of theatre that the Ukrainian president was obliged to participate in, with its physical gestures of attempted domination, and its verbal displays of coercion and abuse were disgusting. As Zelenskyy said, “this is not a card game.”
Bullying is the tactic of an uneducated, unfortunate thing that sees others advancing, while it clings to propaganda and threats. Bullying is the Viagra of true power – a moment of perceived potency, with the reality of weakness hovering close by.
After watching that display of nasty thuggery, on behalf of a dictator, I despair of this country. Now that I live in MAGA territory, I’ve seen how a population who has been trained to accept propaganda of all kinds has devolved into a nasty, brutish people, whose lack of understanding and inability to question has made them an easy target for weaponizing their quick hatreds, racism, insecurities, and arrogance.
I work with a MAGA person. The other day she said to me, “‘musking’ is when you do a good job. A ‘Kamala’ is when you really lose.” I refuted these, politely, and said that she couldn’t say that.
When I am next in the office, I don’t think I’ll be so mild. I’ll think of a man who had the nastiest of people pointing a finger in his face, and his sidekick who tried to make him cower, and their accomplice who tried to insult his social standing – because insulting someone’s clothes and hinting they couldn’t afford anything else is nothing other than trying to shame someone.
Well, people. Go to your children’s lunchroom. Listen to the children being bullied. Take the fight where you can. But don’t go preaching your fake righteousness about Christ, because you know nothing of spirit.
When I was a teacher of English, Media, and Drama I focused on the aspects of each discipline. For English, I tried to encourage expression and start with the idea and then find the words. With Media, I tried to show how the advertisers were not on the side of the viewer, that messages needed to be taken apart and questioned rather than swallowed. In Drama, I tried to teach that movement and voice work together and if you were frightened of performance, you could look at life. Because any action that seemed normal, like wearing a suit, or speaking in a certain accent was nothing but performance. And following Freire, if enough people could break the wall, then all voices could be heard.
I will be making it clear always what side I am on. Always.
