Second Gear

There is a small immobile pick up truck parked in front of our office this week. The owner was really happy to remove it from storage, having paid off the back debt.  Then he tried to move it and he couldn't get it to go into second gear. So there she sits. I see it every day when I pull in and pull out, and it bugs me. I don't care about the fact there is an immobile truck parked by mine.  I'm annoyed by the fact a nice tenant thought he had some forward momentum going and instead, there she sits.

I've been in reruns this week, painting furniture & watching the documentaries "The 60s" and 'The 70s' on Netflix.  

And they remind me of that damn truck.

I was born in 1962 and I've always been fascinated with the movements for social change that were born in the same decade and the one that followed.  Civil rights, women's rights, LGBT rights all made amazing strides in that twenty year period. Humanity was scaling some steep slopes rather spryly… And then we couldn't get it out of first gear.  

It really isn't surprising when you're making giant forward strides on so many fronts that progress slows.  Sometimes it even halts while adjustments are made. But eventually we must resume the climb. The events of the last few months have me convinced that we are not just stuck in second. Watching all that was achieved in that 20 year span, I feel shame and helplessness when I view the events of the past few months. Forward progress has not only slowed or even stopped, we appear to have jammed it into reverse.

There is strength in passive resistance.  There is humanity in passive resistance. I have to believe both these premises, as much as I believe that the acts of madmen, in the end, will not overwhelm either. Institutionalized divisiveness, the blame game & calls to violence leave us in reverse. Please consider that elected voices spouting the rhetoric of hate, no matter how subtly, are not motivated, as they claim by concern for the greater good. Please stop. Breathe. See the whole picture. And VOTE.