I have spent the last few weeks in a combination of fear, uncertainty, and auto-pilot getting done the things I need to do.

Laundry, grocery, get together with friends, church, tasks at home, hobbies, Repeat.

I started this blog and posted for a few days about why I wanted to blog, what was going on, where my head was at, where my heart was at.

It seems time to get to the point of creating the record I wanted to create.

I’ve been doing a lot of watching and listening the last eight years; my level of alarm has gotten increasingly higher in that time, to the point that I can imagine burrowing into a cocoon and saying “see you later.”

I’ve taken very little action beyond voting. And thinking and remembering.

Remembering my visit to the United States Holocaust Museum, I think nineteen years ago. The first exhibit floor was a lot of me thinking “it could get worse” and all of a sudden it was worse.

Remembering a miniseries I watched during COVID “Un Village Francaise” about a small French village (fictional) on the border with Switzerland that was occupied during World War II. Seven seasons, subtitled, quite an investment of time but well worth it.

The characters in the miniseries either chose or got forced into a path through the war. They didn’t always choose wisely if they even had a choice. Making a choice under pressure wasn’t always viewed positively in hindsight.

Today looking back on the last couple of years there are people who made choices, some not so good. There are people who were forced into situations and are now being punished for things beyond their control. There are people who I think want to do the right thing but are afraid of spoken or unspoken threats on their safety.

When I hear people say “That’s not who we are” I kind of cringe, because that is who we are. It’s going on around us. Many, many people’s livelihoods and careers are threatened because of a situation that we can’t see through to the other side (yet.)

Nobody is writing and signing a new Declaration of Independence, but people are making use of the Constitution that came after, and their right of assembly and speaking freely.

I have no plans to do anything that would get a road named after me in the future. But – I can take advantage of the rights that were given to me by some very brave individuals in my past.

Time to start.