Tag: home; choice

WELCOME: SHALOM: AHLAN WA SAHLAN: DUMELA:

GOEIE DAG

This is heavy.

This is serious.

This is long.

This is challenging.

This is a conversation that roars in my head so so often.

(See “Home” below written in 2016.)

But I notice, I only raise with very very selective friends.  

Fearful of the backlash. 🤐

It seems to me we live now in a world where the fear of ‘saying something someone may not like’ means we say nothing, about anything that isn’t mundane and ‘safe’ 

Long gone are the days of my youth in South Africa where politics

(and the other taboos of sex and religion🤣) was a constant topic. 

 A debate round dinner tables, in the street, everywhere.   

We talked, shouted, railed,

but we also listened.

I remember clearly Desmond Tutu talking, cajoling and shouting out for us to hear, reminding us; 

to remain silent in the face of injustice is to take the side of the oppressors 

(See “Cry My Beloved Country” below)

Hiding behind ‘what if I offend’ is to compromise who I am and makes me feel like a sheep being led to the proverbial.  😏

So I Lean on the courage of a remarkable woman, Claire Thomas,

whom I am lucky enough to call a friend; and share one of her posts.  

It is long; it will take commitment and time to absorb,

perhaps shared with a coffee or stronger.   

It may challenge a perspective, or not.  

 That’s okay.  

It may open a conversation.  

That’s great.

It may highlight how we condemn and condone.  

That’s good. 

It may make your eyes glaze as you pass by it.   

That’s sad.

Regardless, I am sharing.  

Acknowledging that my bravery is only partly mine,

I ride on Claire’s shoulders

(I was going to post this to a global privacy setting,

and at the last minute, didn’t.)   

Not THAT brave 🙄 – anticipating a backlash.

So in a safer space, I share it with my friends,

who know me,

in the hopes it helps us all with perspective.    🙏

P S, And of course if you don’t open the link

this will mean nothing,

so thank you Claire Thomas

and to my friends – have a read. 🙏

SILENCE AND BIAS IN THE FOG OF WAR

Silence and Bias in the Fog of War

 

Cry My Beloved Country

“Home”