I long for peace and ease as stress and anxiety take me over. How can I be an active part of the resistance against the fascist regime bludgeoning my people and still hope for some comfort along the way?
Many of us elders who are seasoned activists are halted at a rocky crossroad: do we again put on our marching boots, our protective masks, and join the protests flooding the streets of our towns and cities? We’re not those sure-footed, fearless, feisty determined warriors we once were. We have osteoporosis, bronchitis, vestibular imbalance, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis…. We’re vulnerable and afraid. We can’t run from the cops, withstand menacing counter-protesters, march at a quick pace or stand in the rain and cold.
Or, do we hang back in a safe place (we still have some), boost our egos with memories of our courageous pasts and then accept miserable despair? No! We must continue to use our minds and imaginations to craft alternate methods to expose, resist and overthrow the billionaire oligarchy wantonly smashing at our carefully-wrought structures, our educational programs, our histories, our bodies, our struggles for equal rights to health, education, jobs, homes, family, love, choice, happiness, joy, the rights belonging to all peoples. We must join this class struggle in whatever ways we can to defeat those demons once and for all.
We elders must honor ourselves and be honored, whatever our choice at this crossroads. We are part of the People Power, the Empath Power that will incinerate those papery, flimsy, false, flawed, trumped-up, musky-murky, money-powered mythomaniacs, desperately clinging to their failing capitalist system with schemes to undermine our Incredible Collective Humanity.
Jeri Hilderley 