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No, We Don’t Have to “Get Over” Anything

I’m not okay with this.
I’m not getting over it.
I’m not going to accept it.
I’m not going to move on.

I’m not going to shut up.

I’m not going to make nice or give the benefit of the doubt or hold my tongue or fake unity or pretend that my eyes don’t see what they see. They see clearly, and that of course is the source of my burden. I don’t want to see this, but I do.

And so it really doesn’t matter how condescending the bullies become or the insults they hurl or how loudly they attempt to shout me down or the violence they generate against me. I am fully secure in my pissed-offness and they will have to contend with it for as long as it is required—for four years if necessary.

That is how valuable the really beautiful things of this country and its people really are. This is the fitting price tag for preserving the brilliant diversity that has always made America great. It is the fair cost of nurturing a Liberty that should be available to everyone. The sleeplessness, the wounds, the things and the people that we will lose are all worth it.

There are times when outrage is the most precious virtue the human heart can house, and this is such a time. This anger is a sacred alarm in the center of our chests telling us to respond. These are not days to shrink back or to cling to decorum or to look away and hope that it will all be okay.

Yes, it will all be okay—because we will make it okay. 

We will do the messy, painful, exhausting work of waking up and pushing back the daily Cancer that seeks to metastasize around us. We will find other like-hearted people and we will craft an opposing reply to all that is unloving or ignorant or fearful. We will be the steady, strong resistance to that which we cannot and should not get over.

This is what humanity does when it is at its best; it protects its most vulnerable, it stands firmly in the face of the bullies, it raises a defiant middle finger to tyrannical power and declares that Love is the far greater weapon.

The tactic of the bully is to try and make you feel ashamed for your decency, to become apologetic for the goodness in you. The bully depends upon your silence. He tries to isolate you and make you believe that you are alone and that no one feels the way you feel.

To Hell with that. We know better.

We know that numbers don’t bear it out. We know that we are not in the minority. In fact the bullies know that too. That’s why they’re so loud and so persistent and so desperately flailing now—because despite “winning” and despite seeming advantage they are still so afraid, so worried that it all will come tumbling down—which of course is true. Any victory of darkness is only temporary. Love always has the last word.

And so no, getting over anything isn’t necessary or even advisable in these days. Getting over this would be consenting to it, agreeing with it, making peace with it—and that would be defeat; acquiescing to the darkness.

So embrace every bit of sickness in your stomach, every ounce of heaviness in your heart, every tear that clouds your vision, and allow them all to move you toward other good people who are equally burdened and begin fighting. 

Light does its best work in the darkest places and so this is exactly where we need to be. 

Brothers and sisters, we shall not get over—we shall overcome.

Order John’s book, ‘A Bigger Table’ here.

 

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