Sometimes there are no words. Sometimes you just sit at the computer, or facing an empty notebook, and no words come to you. You sit, you struggle, you worry, and yet – you are voiceless. You read the news, and it all seems impossible. Fires rage across the world. People are shot every day, and no one questions why anymore.
And people lie, lie, lie. You watch the news, watch the trial go on, and on, and on. No matter what truths are brought to light, no matter what crimes or corruption are uncovered, no matter how much you scream at the TV, in the streets, on the Internet, you worry the liars and the cowards just might win.
And all this worry, all this corruption, all this pain has been going on “officially” for three long years. You have watched the world you thought you knew crumble, to reveal that it was always a facade, that pain and hatred and greed were really the walls that built the house around you.
You watch as spineless politicians eat their words, contort their minds, sell their souls, to fall in line with a party that has been hijacked by a deranged megalomaniac. And you watch as they stop thinking about their people, they stop thinking about their integrity and their oath, and all they think about is the win, and the fear.
You grow tired. You stop skimming the headlines. You ignore the news online. You can’t take the pain, the despair, of watching so much hypocrisy warp the minds of the people. You can’t take the pain, the despair, of watching so many people be hurt by so few in power.
And when you get tired, when you stop caring, when it all seems lost, that is when you lose.
But maybe we have been lost for quite some time.
(Or…)
We can wade through all that ugliness, holding our heads high. We remember that we can be better than this, that we can be a better example to the world that truth, honor, care, and integrity can win against the cowardly, the hateful, the corrupt.
We can learn from history, we can look back and recognize the signs of fascism rising. We can see that if the people don’t step up and stop the encroaching horrors, we will be swept away and become unrecognizable to ourselves.
(But…)
I really wanted to end this by soaring high, by being hopeful, by believing that there is good and kindness and a positive future. That if the people rise up, if the people care, if the people demand justice, then maybe there is a chance for us all.
But I just don’t have the words.
© The Lightning Tower, 2020