Tag Archives: activism

When People Try to Tell Me What I Believe

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Here’s one of the things that really toasts my cookies: When other people want to tell ME what I believe and why I do what I do.

Classic example: Several years ago, I was trying to share my spiritual beliefs with someone else, and instead of listening and learning more about what I believed right from the source (me), this person actually told me that he’d gone to Wikipedia to find out what I believed, and that I should go there, too, to find out what I believed. Which. What?!! Here I am, right in front of you, sharing my thoughts and feelings and beliefs, and you’re telling me to find out what I REALLY believe in Wikipedia?!! Sheesh.

And lately, I’ve experienced a lot of this nonsense when it comes to politics, too. There are folks out there eager to let me know why I stand on street corners with my TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS sign, rather than actually listening to what I have to say about it. In fact, they’re not really interested in what I have to say. Maybe what I have to say would make them uncomfortable. They’d rather affix motivations and motives to me that have nothing to do with me, than try to understand where I’m coming from.

If you’re actually interested in why I stand with my sign, here it is, right from the “horse’s mouth”: I’m heartbroken by what I see happening to my country – the bullying, bigotry, and hate, the violence and corruption, that seem to be running rampant and unchecked. What I witnessed on my television on January 6, 2021, was shocking and inexcusable. What I’ve witnessed since then continues to run counter to everything I believe in: Victims of sex trafficking being brushed aside by government officials as if they don’t matter so that rapists with political clout can walk free; the hate and divisiveness that has led to the assassinations of Charlie Kirk, Rep. Hortman, and her husband, and violent attacks on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and Sen. John Hoffman and his wife; our nation’s participation in wars that have killed thousands of innocent children; the government knowingly detaining citizens and people who are in this country LEGALLY because they happen to have the “wrong” last name or skin color; and government agents ignoring the laws set down in our Constitution that protect ALL people (both those here legally, and those not) from being beaten, slammed against walls, thrown to the ground, shot in the back, shot in the face, sent to facilities where their medical needs are ignored, and deported to prisons of torture in foreign countries without any due process or a public trial.

Are you okay with all of this? Because I am not. And I believe we need to let the world know that we are not okay with this. Hence, my TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS sign and my time spent with friends on street corners. Holding a sign on a street corner isn’t the ONLY way to stand up for what’s right, but it’s one way. I appreciate anyone who takes the time to participate in non-violent resistance against cruelty, racism, sexism, and bullying – even if it just means holding a sign for an hour.

I am not standing on a corner holding my sign because some gazillionaire is paying me to do it. I’m doing it because I couldn’t live with myself if I did nothing.

Power to the People!

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There was a good turnout at the rally in Sedro-Woolley this morning.

Xavier and Eduardo, in the green safety vests, helped organize the event, and acted as crosswalk guards to get us safely from one side of the roundabout to the other. (And see? We even had our own chicken to help us answer the question: Why did the chicken cross the road?)

I ran into some of my old colleagues who taught with me years ago when I was a teacher in Concrete – it was so good to see Mary and Paul, John, and Larry again!

Germaine was there, too! And Chris – who I met at a rally in MV in January, and who is one of my “old friends” now.

I met some new friends, too – Calisa, who talked about the importance of showing up at the rallies in our small hometowns, and Jonathan, who shared his experiences as a soldier deployed to Iraq after 9-11.

Jonathan said that when he’d signed up for the service, the U.S. wasn’t involved in any wars and he hadn’t expected to ever find himself fighting in the middle of one. But when he was in boot camp, 9-11 happened, and everything changed. During his time in Iraq, the command car got blown up and his commanding officer lost a leg, and his First Sergeant lost half her face. Soldiers he served with in Iraq lost their lives. Jon’s experiences in Iraq have informed the way he looks at our current war in Iran, and I am so grateful to him for his willingness to share his thoughts and experiences with me.

I left the rally feeling inspired by the people I met there, and the positive response we got from the cars passing through.

Power to the people!

Nobody Paid Me or Handed Me a Sign

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I know there’s a meme going around that FOX News busted out the “truth” about the NO KINGS rallies – that it was put together by nefarious organizations hell-bent on some diabolical plot to destroy the United States. This is fake news.

I learned about the rallies through my friends, mostly, and through a local chapter of the Indivisible organization. https://indivisible.org/

And no, nobody paid me to protest yesterday, and nobody handed me a sign. I’ve been carrying around my own hand-made TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS sign since 2020. You’d think TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS would be universal values EVERYone could agree with. But weirdly, some people actually give the thumbs down to TRUTH JUSTICE and KINDNESS. (So I made a flip side that says SEAHAWKS on it – and when I get the thumbs down for TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS, I flip it to the SEAHAWKS side and usually get a thumbs up and a grin from those people who just thumbs downed the other side.)

Human beings crack me up.

(Below: Evolution of my sign from 2020 to 2026.)

Bless the Thumbs-Down Man

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Yesterday, as I was standing on the corner in front of the courthouse with my TRUTH JUSTICE KINDNESS sign, a man who was stopped in his car at the stoplight, honked and gave me a “thumbs down.” I pointed to each word on my sign, smiling and with my eyebrows raised in question. Truth? Thumbs down. Justice? Thumbs down. Kindness? Thumbs down. And now I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. What the heck?! Seriously?! What the heck?! The man holding a sign next to me started laughing, too. It was just too classic, you know? And we stood there, together, laughing at the sad ridiculousness of it all. I haven’t had such a good laugh in days. “Bless his heart,” I said, and we laughed some more.

But the thing is, I really meant that: Bless his heart. I found I wanted nothing but good for the thumbs-down-man. Bless his heart. Help him find himself as God’s innocent, loving child again – the child, expression, manifestation, idea, image and likeness of his Creator – Love and Truth – never separated for a moment from all that’s good.

Bless us ALL. Each and every beautiful one of us. Heal our hardened hearts. Help us to know ourselves as the precious children of our Father-Mother God – as the reflections of Love.

Amen.

(Still laughing.) 😀

Standing with the Peacenik People

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Every Friday at noon, for 30 years or more, a dedicated little band of peace people have stood on the corner outside the local courthouse holding signs of peace and justice. Today I decided joining them would be a fine way to spend my “Black Friday.” So I scribbled a “LOVE RULES” sign and headed out for the courthouse.

I actually got there before the rest of the group and for a few minutes I stood there on the corner alone, holding my “LOVE RULES” sign – I felt very brave and pleased with myself. I started waving at people as they stopped at the light, and giving the thumbs up. “Love rules! Hate drools!” I yelled, grinning. People gave the thumbs up back to me, and laughed. One man in a truck, stopped at the light, shook his head no. I nodded my head yes. He grimly shook his head no. Laughing, I nodded my head yes. He shook his head no. I nodded yes – totally cracking up now. I mean… how can anyone disagree with Love? Aren’t people funny? 🙂

I was soon joined by the regulars: Jim Johnson – a former teaching colleague of mine – and his wife, Marilyn;  John “Peace Wizard” Bromet, a retired science and math professor; John, a former OB/GYN; Ginny, a woman I’d met when I’d been the guest speaker at the local Unitarian Universalist fellowship (her late husband had been mountaineering buddies with my dad); and Jerry Sommerseth, musician and human being extraordinaire – a man I hadn’t seen for years – and whom I was so excited to find again.

There was something really re-energizing about standing on that street corner with my peacenik friends. And there was something really inspiring and encouraging about the response we got from the people who drove by us. The vast majority of people responded positively to my “LOVE RULES” sign – gave me the  thumbs up, waved, gave the peace sign, honked. “Peace on!” I yelled to a couple of young guys in a rental moving van – and they both grinned at me and nodded their heads and gave me the peace sign. When the light changed, they gave one final honk to us as they moved through the intersection. White people, ethnic minorities, old, young, people in trucks, people in sports cars, people driving econo-cars and hybrids – it was like a little microcosm of the United States – and they were all honking for peace!

Isn’t that AWESOME?!

“At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you.”
– Mary Baker Eddy

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