Powder Keg

It’s hard not to feel in the past few years that society has become a powder keg. We are seeing racism slink out of the shadows, bigotry be embraced by political candidates, and hate is being used as a battering ram against those that call for equality. More people are turning to violence as a way to prove their points and to show they mean business. We are seeing a needless war devastate a nation and seem to shrug and change the channel. 

It’s hard to keep hope alive in these times. 

How can you dare to hope when we are working to dumb down and white wash history for children.
When we refuse to let them learn about their bodies, about their cultures, about the nation, and about the world. 

When we tell kids that they don’t know who they are, that we adults do, and they don’t get to make that decision for themselves. 

You can hear a fuzz slowly burning away and it seems like we’re powerless to stop it. 

Here’s the thing though, those of us that fear those things, that fear the rise of hate and fear and prejudice, need to remember that there is more than one powder keg in play here and the other one is ready to blow. 

It’s easy to see the angry, the violent, and the hateful, because they make sure you see them. 

They make sure you give them a wide berth because they are bullies and bullies like little more than to get seen and acknowledged. 

They are powerless if we ignore them. 

Sure, they are still dangerous if we ignore them but they wouldn’t wear guns on their hips or carry them if they were secure in who they were and what they believed. 

They wouldn’t feel the need to intimidate if they felt they were going to win this culture war. 

As awful as society is, the fact is that generally, they’re pretty reliable at being in the middle ground. Not too far left, not too far right, but sorta safe.
It’s aggravating because there come times when we need to stand for SOMETHING and people just don’t want to commit in case they upset someone. 

And lord knows we’re all anxious to be offended these days. 

HOW DARE YOU!

But while the middle is frustrating, it is also a place that finds level. It may not stand when it should but it also doesn’t tend to embrace hate outright. 

Society as a whole isn’t stupid. 

Despite what we may think. 

People of color and people in the LGBTQIA+ community are not new. 

Trans people are not new. 

At this point if you don’t know someone of color or someone in the LGBTQIA+ community then you are working hard to keep them out of your life, and that’s, well, that’s something. 

But people aren’t as shocked with interracial love or intergender love or even the idea of transsexuals anymore. They may not agree with those things, and they may not understand them, but they also tend to sorta keep to themselves about it. 

Society has been coming to terms that there is no one way for a while now. 

And while society isn’t always great, it also isn’t all bad. 

All of this is to say that the marginalized people of this country who have been told for time unfathomable that they don’t count and don’t matter, are being seen.
They are being heard.
They have had enough of being told to sit down and shut up. 

The rage that poured out onto the streets during Covid was a long time coming. 

It was an eruption years in the making. 

The more restrictions are put on people of color, LGBTQIA+, and anyone else the more they will stand their ground and fight back.
The more they will refuse to step aside and sit down.
The more they will say NO. 

This powder keg is larger, and its fuse is getting shorter and shorter and shorter. 

The actions of the Right and those that dwell in homes of hate are doing what they are – forcing nonsense legislation and restrictions on things that have nothing to do with how a government should operate – they show their fear. 

They know that they are running out of ways to stop ‘THEM’! 

So they rile up their base (perfect term, too, isn’t it?) and point them in the direction of any who stand against them. 

These people are scary, and dangerous, especially because they are being wound up and pushed towards imaginary enemies and these people are all dying to fight. They want to feel like heroes in a made up war. They are the byproducts of jingoism and extremism and think they are living in an action movie and they are going to save the day. 

Small people with big guns don’t change the world though. 

People who refuse to back down against them do. 

And the world is changing. 

Slowly, more slowly than it should, but it is changing. 

And American society is changing with it and the fact is that if it comes between picking sides, people will choose love, even if it’s passive and sedentary, as opposed to hate.

There are no flowers grown in the ground of hate, only rocks that weigh down the spirit.

We want our loved ones to be happy. 

We want them to feel seen. 

We want them safe. 

And our loved ones are not just White cis people, they are from the rainbow that is humanity and they are everyone. 

So why would we support hate when we love people who are hated?

It’s easy to hate the stranger but when they are in your circle…how can you?

How dare you?

And I am afraid of the powder keg of violent Americans who are willing to kill so that they can feel comfortable and pretend they are right, but they should fear the larger powder keg that is ready to blow. 

The one that represents the unseen, unheard, and unbroken. 

The people who are standing together, even if their views are apart, so that they can be seen. 

This nation is changing, and while we may see some explosions in the ranks of the hateful, we will see a larger, more seismic explosion when the unseen finally say ENOUGH and rise together to blot out the sky and demand to be seen. 

…c…

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