Who’s Fenced In? – Photo: L. Weikel
Smackdown
Well, so much for all the good feelings I was experiencing last night when I wrote about being an Olympics geek. Yeah, I do enjoy watching them and welcome the inspiring stories as a distraction from the utter insanity that’s unfolding all around us. But wow, I don’t know about you, but tonight I felt like a pro-wrestler on the receiving end of a smackdown – and no amount of distraction can help.
Of course I’m talking about the testimony that was given by the four police officers present and defending the Capitol on Insurrection Day. I’m not going to discuss that testimony nor am I going to link to any clips.
Suffice it to say, it’s heartrending to hear their first-hand accounts of the despicable behavior heaped upon them by their fellow Americans.
Appalled
And while I did watch the Olympics tonight, there was a sadness in the air, which made it much harder to use them as the distraction I’d hoped. I’ll probably write a separate post on the maturity, wisdom, and grace exhibited by Simone Biles. The lessons on our humanity just keep on coming.
But I’m sad to say I’m sitting here trying to write this post and my heart is fluttering a mile a minute. I just made the mistake of looking at Twitter, which had a clip of one of the officers who testified today, Michael Fanone, appearing with Don Lemon on CNN just this evening.
The clip contained an unredacted telephone message that was left for Fanone while he was testifying. And it is horrific. I’m linking to it here because we need to know that this is the type of stuff that’s happening in our country now. We need to face this head-on. This is how a police officer who testified to his personal experience of being brutalized, tased, and threatened with his own gun, all while defending our elected representatives, is being treated. And know this: this behavior is being actively stoked by Fox, among others.
It’s appalling.
A Gentle Reminder
I’m literally feeling short of breath as I write this. Never would I ever have believed people would feel comfortable doing what they did on January 6th, and worse, feel even more emboldened six months later. These home-grown terrorists feel so self-righteously empowered that they feel free to to heap this threatening and unhinged diatribe on an officer. For testifying to the truth as he experienced it.
Where do we go from here? I’m not sure.
But as simple-minded as it may seem, I keep seeing in my mind’s eye a photo I took just the other day of a deer standing right beside me as I walked along the road. It was probably the fifth or sixth deer I’d seen that day – two earlier had literally been ‘young bucks,’ with gorgeous furry antlers budding from their crowns.
Perhaps I keep seeing that deer in my mind’s eye because I need to bring gentleness to myself. I need to breath into my pain at witnessing such shocking hatred and ask for the wisdom of calmness in the face of abject fear. Not my fear. Their fear. The fear being stoked every day by right wing media and morally bankrupt politicians who will do anything for power.
Gentleness. Wisdom. Oh – and maybe I (we) should also call to mind the Protection offered in the card I chose for us the other day.
(T-122)