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 dong it because I couldn’t live with myself if I did nothing.