Category: Being the Change

(Or, If It Feels Good, Do It)

Hate and oppression depend on fear to inhibit and discourage communities from fully enjoying our liberties and living our lives to their self-fulling fullest. But we must bear in mind that being too afraid to take positive action will not eliminate the source of the fear. Allowing fear to prevent us from enjoying life only emboldens the agents of fear to oppress even more.

In other words, there is more to be feared by allowing ourselves to be intimidated than in finding our courage in the face of evil.

The insufficiency of advocating freedom in the abstract

The United States has wallowed in ritualized, ceremonial proclamations of allegiance to freedom and liberty for an entire century. Every Fourth of July, we celebrate “liberty.” From coast to coast, our Pledge of Allegiance promises “liberty and justice for all” — even as the reality on the street is moving further and further away from these ideals.

If repetitious proclamations of “liberty” actually made one damn bit of difference, our nation would not be on the verge of the total loss of its freedom and liberty at this very moment.

Freedom must be practiced to be meaningful

Freedoms tend to fade out of existence when they are never used. When a person, group, or society never exercises their freedoms, then no emotional attachment to those freedoms ever forms. When people or a society has no emotional investment in their liberties, there is little to no motivation to fight for them or preserve them.

Freedom benefits most when we practice it in view of others

For freedom to really take off like wildfire, let the world see you living it! Courage is contagious, and the more people who dare to be themselves and “do their own thing” as we said during the Counterculture, the faster it will spread — and more importantly, the sooner it will be valued on a personal, emotional level.

Hate and oppression depend on fear to inhibit and deter communities away from taking positive, corrective, or constructive action. But we must bear in mind that being afraid to take positive action does not eliminate the source of the fear. Allowing ourselves to be intimidated only emboldens the agents of fear, resulting in even more fear.

In other words, there is more to be feared by allowing ourselves to be intimidated than from finding our courage in the face of evil.

Love can drive out hate. So can beauty.

Have you ever noticed how hateful people try to destroy all things that are beautiful and uplifting? Hate movements would outlaw pleasant, sunny days if they could.

So, start creating beauty. It can take the form of 1960s Flower Power art, Pride imagery, cheerful, uplifting, energizing movement music, or any other creation that lifts the spirits of those around it.

Not creative? Then buy and gift beauty.

One significant way that I spread beauty around my community and across the nation is to buy books for schools and classrooms here, there, and everywhere. I buy LGBTQ+ books for any teacher who requests them. I buy and gift Black History and Racial and Cultural Representation books, and I have funded LGBTQ+ Dances and Wellness Rooms for schools nationwide.

Not only does this spread beauty in its more conventional guises, but it spreads beauty in a form that enrages hate movements the most:

It spreads the beauty of human diversity far and wide, in a form that will have a lasting impact on the future: the eyes and minds of the next generation of adults who are today growing and learning about the diversity of the people around them in public schools everywhere.

The beauty of human individuality can keep the garden of humanity healthy, well nourished and diversified.