Silence is Golden

 

Things are feeling very chaotic and upside down these days. The internet is choosing to heavily censor people and groups. This makes me sad and anxious for so many reasons. 

There is a lot of finger pointing online. People insisting you conform to their version of reality. There is a lot of unwillingness to listen and understand the other side. A lot of hypocrisy. You must condemn the recent violence at the Capitol. You must not point out that there has been ongoing violence around our country for a year where cities have been literally on fire, even DC. Nothing to see there, folks. It’s all been peaceful. There is a lot of Newspeak. People figuratively insisting that 2+2=5. It makes me sad for the future of our country. For the future of my kids. 

The boys and I started a book about the start of the Civil War yesterday. It’s called Two Miserable Presidents. I learned that there is nothing new under the sun... in the time leading up to the civil war, people were so divided that guns were actually drawn in the Capitol. Imagine people being so angry with each other they resorted to violence. My kids can’t comprehend that a nation could be torn in two. I told them they will grow up and realize it is easier than they might imagine.

If you are someone in my life who needs me to condemn violence. I do. I condemn all of it that has happened repeatedly all last year, as well as recent violence people participated in by storming the Capitol. Much of these demonstrations were organized online and encouraged by so many in media as well as political figures (Cuomo, Pelosi, AOC, as well as conspiracy theorists). I am not calling for any voices to be silenced, even the ones I disagree with. Without all voices we live in an echo chamber of our own thoughts. If you can’t see how dangerous that is, I can’t help you. 

Anyways, I need a little peace in my headspace. For a minute I found it at the lake when I went to pick up Daniel at the dam so we could run an errand together. The clouds over the lake were beautiful. For a moment the silence was golden.