Do Something. Please.

Robert Reich had a very moving newsletter this morning, for me, anyway.  https://robertreich.substack.com/p/empathy-and-activism?s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web He wrote about the different types of empathy and its opposite, indifference or numbness.  The article meant a great deal to me because I am an empathic soul with an inner warrior that comes to the surface when there is injustice.

The slaughter of the elderly black citizens in Buffalo, the 19 children and 2 teachers in Alverde, TX has awakened that inner warrior.  The massacre of these innocent people is a gross injustice.  They deserved to live out their lives in whatever path they were led.  In addition to all those people killed with yet another AR-15, seventeen were wounded at the elementary school.  It makes my blood boil.  I can’t even begin to imagine the devastation and grief the families feel.

I saw a post listing all of the mass shootings, all of them carried out by an AK-15, an automatic weapon that fires many rounds within seconds.  They kill people because of the devastating and mutilating wounds they cause.  Citizens do not need automatic weapons, which were designed for the military.  The primary and only purpose is to kill a lot of people which makes it appropriate for soldiers but surely not for 18 year old disturbed or supremacist kids.  Hunters don't need automatic weapons.  They wouldn't be able to use the meat from an animal blown to pieces.   Access to those weapons has to be changed and it's up to people with empathy to bring that change about.

Robert Reich wrote that some people are so empathic, they feel as if these tragedies are happening to them.  They so strongly identify with the victims it becomes almost debilitating.  They are unable to act because they are so devastated.

There’s empaths more like me.  We grieve deeply but then are moved to act and try to do something to make things better.  I’m disabled so marching and carrying signs aren’t for me now although I once did participate in a sit in at the formerly called Health, Education & Welfare (HEW) building in Washington, DC.  It was 1976 and the law to protect people with disabilities had been passed in 1973, but the HEW secretary never signed them. 

I was 21 and volunteered to go in with a group of Deaf, blind, and wheel chair bound protesters.  I would be one of the interpreters there for the Deaf.  The police were reluctant to move in and remove us because it would have looked really bad in the press.  Instead, they did their best to drive us out, denying us food and phones, ratcheting up the AC although it was April and cold, and making us remove our shoes before going down the hall to the bathrooms.  I slept on the floor with everyone else, my purse as a pillow. 

We left the next morning because many protestors needed medication and other necessities that were denied by the police.  We weren’t angry about that; we were trespassing so we knew we wouldn’t be coddled.  Similar protests went on at HEW offices around the country.  Secretary Califano signed the regulations.  I totally value that experience.  I felt I was doing something positive about correcting an injustice. 

I can’t do that but there’s a lot I can do from home and have already contacted organizations to volunteer my time.  I can write letters, send emails, join a phonebank, address envelopes – whatever it takes.  It’s not much but when people get involved and do the same thing, it’s amazing what we can do.

On the other end of the spectrum, Reich wrote about the people who either don’t care because they’re narcissists (like the “illustrious” 45), because they’re too focused on what’s going on in their lives, or because they feel nothing they do will make a difference.  I can’t say a thing to change a narcissist and some people really have very overwhelming issues already, but I can say to the people who think what they do doesn’t matter:  yes, it does.  Doing one small thing matters.  Stepping up and. Like Howard Beale from Network, proclaiming: “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

Harry Chapin was a singer/philanthropist and his cause was hunger.  He would say, “When in doubt, do something.”  Well, that applies here too.

Please.

Step up and do something too.