Hello Earth #12
Hello dear Earth
Here I am, giving myself permission to break rules if I need to. (Today we are encouraged to do so in our earthellos if we need to.)
Earth, many people have been breaking rules about social distance to protest that Black Lives Matter. I didn’t, because of specific health conditions. I don’t take part in any protests in that way any more – my marching days are past. In the past, I did my share, and would again, if…. Not much of a rule-breaker, I break them when it’s important.
Leaning in, let me tell you that breaking the rules for writing an earthello is not important to me. I like the form as it is; it allows me room to say what I need within the (few) constraints. As there are many ways for me to affirm that Black Lives Matter. Really it is necessary to take every opportunity. My friend Jennie couldn’t go either, in her town, so she painted the slogan in big black letters on her wire-mesh fence. I don’t have a front fence, and I live in a quiet cul-de-sac devoid of passers-by. So I shall hold it like a question I live inside: How can I live and be in such a way as to stand for the fact that black lives matter? What can I do to further the action so all our behaviours come to reflect that truth? (OK, two questions.)
Listing gratitudes: I am grateful for the strong and beautiful indigenous people I’m blessed to call friends: 13-year-old performance poet Jasmine; activist, poet, matriarch, and grand-daughter of another activist poet, Kaiyu; local elder Deirdre. I’m grateful for powerful indigenous writers: Bruce Pascoe, Jack Davis, Maureen Watson, Oodgeroo Noonuccal; Anita Heiss; Kevin Gilbert; Kerri Shying; Lionel Fogarty; Ruby Langford Ginibi; Sally Morgan and many others (naming the ones I’ve read). I'm grateful that nowadays many white Australians, too, are outraged at the desecration of sacred sites. We have far to go, but we have come a little way.
Offering my commitment to continue living in those questions; to breaking those rules that need to be broken; to giving my words even to uncomfortable truths.
Sharing this at Poets and Storytellers United's Writers' Pantry #24, as a 369-word piece of prose.
Sharing this at Poets and Storytellers United's Writers' Pantry #24, as a 369-word piece of prose.
I think anyone who knows you and reads you can hear your "Black Lives Matter" all the way from your house. Those of us of a delicate disposition, need to stay home. We would only add to the problem, since we'd likely get sick and then spread the infectious wealth to anyone taking care of us. By taking care of you, you protect others (at least, that is what my crappy immune system and I tell each other every time I feel the pull of the latest protest or caravan).
ReplyDeleteWell, we shall 'live to fight another day' – and in another way.
DeleteI love your Earthello series. And thank you for amplifying the voices of the BLM protests. World over, it is unbelievable that these battles over race, religion, caste still need to be fought. What really is the progress we have made as humans? Appalling. We've seen it in India with white colonialism and further divisions based on religion and caste and how horrific those consequences are and it's a battle - one step forward, two steps back - but those fighting keep fighting anyway. They must. We must.
ReplyDeleteYes we must. I see it as positive that George Floyd's murder was a catalyst for this movement to erupt instantaneously all over the world. My dreadful fear is that things might go back to the same old horrors as before. But if so, yes, we keep fighting.
Deleteyeah it's quite sad We had today several marches for Black lives matter with people from Maori, Polynesian and Somalian community. It's so sad that there is so much injustice, racism inequality in this day and time. It feels sometimes that things are getting worse instead of getting better.
ReplyDeleteIt does sometimes feel like that, yes. But we are in the moment and cannot always see the big picture. I hope that it adds up to getting better. We can only try to make it better where we are.
DeleteI am so enjoying your Hello Earth series, Rosemary, and that the theme for this one is breaking the rules. I am the same, with specific health conditions., and I haven’t taken part physically in protests for a long time. We make out voices heard in our writing; as you say, there are many ways to affirm that Black Lives Matter.
ReplyDeleteI am also about to start writing letters to politicians re the urgent reform of our police forces.
DeleteBravo.
ReplyDeleteAustralia is one of the most culturally diverse nations on Earth but sadly there is often little respect for our first nation people (aboriginees who want to live in their own traditional way). Even their land if it has oil, gas, coal or minerals to mine can be taken from them.
ReplyDeleteAnd there's even more to it than that. I do hope you saw the latest Q&A. If not, please do look on iView. It really gets to the guts of the issue and is revelatory.
DeleteI haven't been able to go to any of the protests at all because of my stomach issues. Now that I'm better, I'd still have to be very careful if I go because my husband is diabetic. I think the frustration of being cooped up didn't help my health either. But there is more than one way to be active in this fight. I can donate money. I can keep annoying my representatives with emails and texts. I can keep reading, and buy some of my books from black-owned stores. Everyone can do a little, and it all adds up. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, and none of us can do it alone – but each of us can do what we can where we are, and as you say it all adds up.
DeleteI admire your fortitude and courage to live in the questions, and not sidestep them.
ReplyDeleteThank you – and it is as nothing compared with the fortitude and courage with which huge numbers of people live daily, knowing that at any moment they can be harassed, terrorised and even killed because of the colour of their skin
DeleteBrava, Rosemary, brava.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Helen.
DeleteI follow the news with a heavy heart. It seems that things are becoming worse and worse as the days go by. But I am glad that the death of George Floyd (tragic and heartbreaking as it is) has served to be a spark plug for the movement. May there be change and may there be justice!
ReplyDeleteWow! i loved your post here. i have always admired people who stood up for their beliefs that humanity may benefit from. i wish much more health to you for you to do as you please.
ReplyDeleteThank you, that is such a great wish!
DeleteThank you for writing this. Thank you for lending your voice. It often feels as if no one hears us screaming as the bodies pile. I appreciate your passion for discarding some literary rules along with the rules of our reality that sometimes, and often never serve humanity as a whole.
ReplyDeleteIt shouldn't be this way, and your words give me solace and hope that it won't always be.
It shouldn't be but is a bit of a step from hearing to acting. I'm sorry it has taken me so long. Oh, I have spoken and acted in the past, but it has not been with me as an every-moment issue as it is with those who don't have the privilege and choices that come with fair skin. It's taken the recent events, the world-wide outcry, and what is happening close to home, to bring me fully awake. 'Better late than never'. I'm sorry it's late, but all I can do is go forward now, with awareness and action.
DeleteI am enjoying your earthello series. It is reflective and gets the reader thinking as well.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to acknowledge those difficult truths. I like it that you are giving yourself the space to do what you can for the causes that you believe in.
Thank you. It's amazing what the mindfulness of being in the present moment can pull out of one.
DeleteI would like to march in the streets, but I must protect my daughter who has an autoimmune disease. I too can hear you loud and clear through your poetry the strength of your commitment to speak up for others.
ReplyDeleteObviously you must protect your daughter. And you too have a strong, clear voice in your poetry. I think our voices will be needed ongoingly, even when people are no longer protesting in the streets.
DeleteYour paragraph acrostic is ingenious
ReplyDeleteVery insightful dialogue
Happy Sunday
Much💖love
Thank you, Gillena. I felt I had to tell it truthfully.
DeleteI like this, Rosemary, especially your questions: "How can I live and be in such a way as to stand for the fact that black lives matter? What can I do to further the action so that all our behaviours come to reflect that truth?"
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to keep the questions open and alive – not to find one answer and then shut down, but to find all possible useful answers.
DeleteA thoughtful and compelling piece. If everyone gave as much examination and reflection as you have, Rosemary, and contemplated:
ReplyDelete1. the totality and depth of the Black Lives Matter Movement
2. what their role is in achieving change
3. what they want to see come from this worldwide tidal wave against injustice
we would see change that much faster. Sadly, many do not seem to feel that they bear any responsibility to champion empathy and equality simply by virtue of the shared humanity of mankind. It's sad, really, just how many 'do not get it'.
Thank you, Wendy.
ReplyDeleteIndigenous representatives here have made it very clear what they want: 'Stop killing us!'
Standing up for what you believe in and speaking your truth is what creates change. Finally, the voices of the oppressed have broken through. Love this!
ReplyDeleteYes, I haven't always called people out on unconsciously racist remarks because of thinking it wouldn't do any good. Now I have started to do that, on the chance that it might.
DeleteAnd also on the realisation that silence is condoning.
DeleteThis is a transformative year for many, fueled by hate and the fires stoked by those with their own agendas. The fear-mongers of the media continue to gin up the public. I only ask for truth.
ReplyDeleteWe all speak in our own way and we act in our own time. I hope that the truth will win soon.
I'm liking your Earthello series. You say much in those 369 words.
Thank you. (They're not all 369 words, only the ones I want to share at P&SU.)
DeleteYes, truth would be good.