This is from Sufey Chen, on Facebook, who seems to be both brutally honest and brutally optimistic. We need so much of both now:
this morning, at the park. two young girls, maybe 7 or 8, one pushing the other on the swings. i look over in surprise. they climbed over the tape. i feel my heart surge, yes! they did it.
a park ranger pulls over. on his microphone. ‘the playground is closed. you are trespassing.’ his drone dull and robotic. ‘leave the premise immediately.’ my heart sinks. is this really what i’m witnessing?
the ranger stays put. parks his vehicle beside the playground. watches for any other ‘dangerous citizens’ dissenting.
the children leave.
i want to shout out to them.
i am sorry.
i am sorry this is happening.
maybe one day my heart will be big enough to tenderly hold all the fear and sorrow of the world. but right now? i’m not there yet. i am angry. furious. that this is reality.
seeing the new school regulations popping up makes me sick. even if we are unschooling and will never participate in that system - why is it that ANY child should be subject to such insanity?
desks six feet apart.
constant sanitizing.
no sharing of supplies.
plastic barriers installed.
no communal lunch halls.
masks covering their face.
no hugs, no holding of hands, no touching.
does any of this sound physically or psychologically healthy to you?
or does it sound like the kids of this generation have become guinea pigs in a seriously fucked up experiment?
how much do we have to see before we rise up and say ‘no fucking WAY’ - this doesn’t cut it for me. instead of complying and regurgitating the crap we are fed: ‘what’s the big deal? it’s a minor inconvenience.’
after all, we’re ‘saving lives’.
how many have to die or live their life in tatters before enough lives have been saved?
who gets to decide who lives and who dies as a result of these ‘responsible’ ‘selfless’ ‘life saving’ policies?
the things i’ve seen and heard over the past two months are gut-wrenching - far more horrifying than a virus to me.
***
a mother, posting on facebook: ‘how do i get my 4-year-old to wear a mask?’
one response: ‘say that if she doesn’t wear a mask an evil virus will come kill her grandparents in their sleep.’
oh, holy hell.
***
i see parents freaking out about their children social distancing and losing their shit on a kid, being a kid.
so many confessionals of hitting children coming out in the mom groups i am privy to.
i don’t blame the parents but i do see the hellhole (ahem *new normal*) so many are accepting.
while everyone is out here ‘saving lives’ ...
can you see what else is crumbling?
can we take off our blinders?
can we put away the politics?
can you come off your high ‘health hero’ horse to see?
what this is doing to our children.
and by that, i mean collectively.
what our children around the world are facing.
some, that have actually been locked in isolation, nary another child to play with in months.
others, in famine.
260 million worldwide.
‘marching towards starvation.’
can we open our eyes?
whether death of body or death of spirit it is alarmingly clear that this is unacceptable.
***
i see some parents reassuring each other.
from all day screen time to child abuse to whatever behavioral issue they’re going through.
‘we’re all in this together.’
as if sacrificing them was actually worth it.
‘they’ll be fine - we all turned out fine’
... but did you really?
or is that just what you tell yourself so you don’t have to sit with the enormity of your grief?
we don’t have to pass our chains down onto our children. they don’t have to carry the burdens we bore. we do not need to make them as small as we were once made to be.
we have a choice in the matter.
there is a chorus of voices.
the mothers, we care.
the future - we are raising.
no one will rob the freedom of our children.
to touch, to be kissed by the warmth of skin
to connect, to feel and be felt by the world
to breathe, to receive Her vital life force
the mothers, we are weeping.
the mothers, we are gathering.
the mothers, we are awakening - to all of it now.
we are standing up - speaking up - rising up now.