A Strange Wind

Last night, the rain blew onto a draft of my current story. I had expected the hardcopy to be still legible and the hand-inked revisions to smudge. The reverse happened; the ink for the inkjet printer proved soluble, while the fountain pen ink did not change. 

Reality contradicts expectations often enough that we should never count on them; on the other hand, we should always plan to some degree. I expect my story to be inaccrochable. The story contains no naughty bits but will be unacceptable on different grounds. The events in the story really happened, more than once; however, they expose a patch of the hatred beneath many people who call themselves disciples of love. I did not write it with the requisite glitter in the style, preferring a stark narration of ugly events.

We'll see.

Safety Pins and Lies

"Civil disobedience is a powerful weapon. But for employing it, we must fulfil the thirteen-point constructive programme which I have outlined. Till then this weapon cannot be effective." (Sarvodaya, November 1941)

Following the 2016 US election, people who followed the politics of violence increased their beatings of people in the groups that they hate. The Southern Poverty Law Center recently reported 701 cases of hate and harassment:

"Incidents by type ranked by number of reports include: Anti-immigrant (206), anti-Black (151), anti-LGBT (80), swastika vandalism (60), anti-Muslim (51), and anti-woman (36). We are keeping track of anti-Trump incidents as well, which rose from our last report from 20 to 27." Fortunately, the rate seems to be decaying exponentially. Unfortunately, it happened and happens.

In reaction to the violence, many people took to wearing safety pins on their clothing in order to suggest that they are safe people. Before Trump, you didn't need to indicate that you were a safe person, not likely to spew out hate or violence; this was the norm. Now, some of the people wearing the pins appear to be congratulating themselves on adhering to the previous norm. Wearing a safety pin does not rise to the level of civil disobedience. Also, as Gandhiji states above, civil disobedience is not effective until it joins with an anti-poverty program--and safety pins join fabrics, not actions.

So, wear a safety pin if you wish, but do not count on it to do much more than annoy people.

We are just getting started--but never forget:

"[A]ll through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.”