Upful

By way of Professor Zero: I am posting this video because it's funky, fun,and upful, and because my mama is for Obama, too!


I am also meditating today on how our very real and legitimate fears in this time of uncertainty, violence, and change can both paralyze us or galvanize us into action. It is tempting to react with suspicion, resignation, cynicism and despair. But I choose not to do so. I am going to have to get over my dislike of door-knocking, find a door-knocking buddy, and get out there.


I watched Ousmane Sembene's film Moolaade on Friday. It's a gorgeous, beautiful, luminous, great film about a community which confronts a deep-rooted tradition that is a source of suffering, and how somehow it becomes possible to think of changing that tradition when the youngest, the most vulnerable, the little girls of the village say no, when they are inspired by the only other woman in the village who has also said no, alone at first, and how their example is met with repression, with brutality, but how their example of resistance inspires others to stand with them and insist that there WILL be change. The film is a powerful work of humanistic art. It is not reductive--it loves all its characters-- but it is also committed to a vision of a better world.

Cultures change; they can change, and they do change. But they change when people stand up and stand together. Our country is confronting, not for the first time, deeply rooted beliefs and practices that cause great suffering: racism, sexism, the corruption inherent in savage capitalism. Our history includes many stories of people who said no, who suffered, but who also inspired and created community, solidarity, and change.

We have to say YES to hope in ourselves before we can say NO to oppression.