Would You?

I had a dream last night about moving stones being a sign of a miracle of sorts. But the end game looked really horrific from the outside looking in.

Let me try to explain the dream, then where my head was when I went to sleep, and then what I think about it all.

There was an historical site. A stone path that had been set down during a war (?) or just a time in history when there was fascist rule. It wasn't Nazism and the reason I know this is because it was accepting of homosexuals. And the Nazis executed anyone who was homosexual. But it was definitely fascism of some sort. But anyway, each stone represented groups that were included in the reign. If you didn't have a stone in the path you weren't a part of it.

Over the years that it had been out of power the stones had been shattered. In the dream those bits of stone were on the move.

The stones are moving.

This was the almost religious chant that you would hear places. "The stones are moving."

And they were. Seemingly on their own the stones were moving away from the others to reform and make a new path and patterns.

A miracle in action.

Now there was a lot of arguing, remember these stones were originally put there by fascist who killed people who didn't agree with them.  So as groups started to coalesce around the moving stones there were other groups who said, no. This is not okay. Because as the stones were seen as a miracle the old philosophy behind who put them there was reviving with it.

And as I was waking up I thought, What would you do to belong? To be special?

Because I see that a lot. The longing for belonging. I think a lot of extremist groups feed that and nurture that. What would you ignore? What would you dismiss? What would you accept just to belong to a group that promoted you as special?

Yesterday afternoon a friend had posted a meme. It was incorrect and me being me posted a link to what was wrong with it. Which led to another friend of theirs saying I shouldn't selectively point out truth because it's more complicated than that. After a little bit of back and forth I just posted Okay and left the discussion. Okay from me very rarely means I think you are right. It generally just means I'm done with this discussion. Depending on how heated the discussion got it translates to "there is no real discussion happening here so I am out" or "Fuck you." People who know me know which one they just got.

But anyway, it was, to me, a ridiculous point to make. Facts always matter. Even when you agree with tone of the message, the point they were making, the facts have to matter. If they don't then lying doesn't matter. And if lying doesn't matter then we are all lost. And yes I say that knowing full well that we have a Liar in Chief right now and I still think it matters.

So there was that part.

And then there was the shooting in New Zealand. As it started to unfold I thought, if that were here it would be an angry young white man who had been radicalized by the far right. Well it wasn't here but that's who it was. And he left a manifesto so we know that's what happened. American Terrorism export.

There were details that really bothered me. He live streamed it. So there are recordings out there of him slaughtering people in their house of worship. And those videos will be watched and shared and he will be lionized in a part of the world. He will be a hero to them.

It also bothers me when it's a house of worship. Schools and churches bother me more than any other place. Because we are our most vulnerable or send our most vulnerable to those places. I'm an atheistically leaning agnostic and it still hits me hard when it's a place of worship. But this is where people who you hate can be found. For the confederate wanna be it was an historical black church, for anti-semites it's temples, for radicalized alt-right it's mosques. You know you are going to find gatherings of people you hate in these places. At their most vulnerable.

And again, why do people join religions? To belong. We all are just looking for a place to belong.

So as I went to bed last night I was thinking about terrorism, I was thinking about the world we live in. I was thinking about how it's all so messed up.

And in my dreams the stones moved. And I asked what would you do to feel like you belonged? And what would you do if there were others telling you that you are special, that you are better than, that you are more important? Would you follow? Would you take your place in line? Would you be so glad that you are part of the #blessed that you ignored what was happening to everyone else?

This morning watching my friends react to the news I am heartened that they aren't falling in line. That they are horrified. That hearts are breaking. Even if it's not "us" because it is us. We are all us. And we need to make sure we understand that. Because there are others out there that are okay with what happened. I saw a comment today from someone with hash tag I stand with the shooter. Because "they" are the enemy. This was a comment on a friends post:

 The outrage?

What do people expect?

People being murdered all over Europe by them, children being murdered at concerts by them, they did nothing to stop it, hiding their criminals at their mosques.

I’m not saying I condone it, I am saying it was coming.

I told him he was an asshole. And that I might not condone the language but that he had it coming. (And we all know that the language I would have condoned would have had the work fuck in there. You are a fucking asshole, so I was truthful)

We need to be US now more than ever. All of us. People want a sense of belonging and if we let the factions pick off and radicalize the vulnerable these things will still happen.

I could get into the whole cycle of terrorism and what I believe the US has done to perpetuate it and now play both sides of it. But what I really would like to see is those of us who aren't in the government band together, to say no more. To not put up with people we know saying shitty generalized things about other religions. To push back when the "special" talk comes up. And to listen to people who need listened to so they don't go find those fringes.

We all just want a sense of belonging. Let's stop radicalizing people and start to heal.

Please.