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A Good Week For Progress, and the Power of “What’s Next”

A Good Week For Progress, and the Power of “What’s Next”

Last updated on: June 26, 2015 at 8:50 am by Erin Wathen

A Good Week For Progress, and the Power of “What’s Next” 2015-06-26T08:50:44-07:00 Erin Wathen

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Can we just take a moment and count the ways in which this has been a week of good news?

Especially since it followed a week of such heartbreak and tragedy…

Sometimes the good news wins the newsfeed, and you just want to savor it. So let’s talk about how the Supreme Court said “Yes” to Affordable Care . After years of legislators acting like 2-year-olds in a fight over the last cookie, the right to access medical care when you are sick, without having to sell your house and declare bankruptcy, is now the law; a basic human right in America.

And then let’s talk about how the state of South Carolina is finally making a move to remove symbols of hate and violence from state property. Before some folks start whining about free speech, let’s just remember that nobody is saying YOU, your own backward self, cannot hang the flag from your front porch if you want to. But leaders on both sides of a deeply divided aisle agree–this is not a part of our collective history to be celebrated. And anything that hurts so many people, so deeply, should not be proudly displayed by government entities.

And THEN–as though the Supreme Court said, ‘Hey, this country needs a break from all the NRA/Sam Brownback/Donald-Trump-Mightbeournextpresident moments of despair. So let’s go ahead and throw them a bone and legalize Marriage Equality. ‘

And there was much rejoicing.

It seems as though we’ve been hacking away at this for several years now… Small victories and signs of hope here and there until finally, this ruling should seem anti-climactic. But it doesn’t. It very much feels like a very big day that we will celebrate for a long dang time. For those who have been writing/preaching/marching/teaching equality for years, this feels like permission to rest for a brief moment… Before we start planning all the FABULOUS WEDDINGS.

Still–I can’t help but think ‘what’s next?” In the wake of all this progress and that which, for most of us, seems like a season of tremendous hope–what is the next horrible thing we can expect for those who DON’T see this as good news?

Klan rallies in public squares? Continued refusal by states to expand medicaid?

A thousand subtle ways of legalizing discrimination of LGBT folks, in the name of ‘freedom of relgion?’

We know it’s coming. The last, violent death cries of those who want to see certain groups of people ‘kept in their place,’ and will fight to the death for the sanctification of their own privilege…

The truth is, those people will do what they will do, and maybe we can’t stop it. But as we celebrate good news today, maybe the better/more productive question might be, “what’s next, FOR US?” For the self-proclaimed voices of progress and equity? Where is the next space for forward-motion, the next invitation making the world look a little more like the kingdom of God?

So yes, we take a moment–maybe a big long moment, maybe all weekend–to celebrate today. (EVEN THOUGH the vote passed so narrowly, I want to go write a STRONGLY WORDED EMAIL to some entitled dudes in robes). But then, we will take all this new freedom and harness it for the next fight, the next hopeful word, the next big discussion on the human interest scene.

What is your next frontier? For me, it is time to finally find the chink in the armor of the NRA. It is time to recognize that guns DO kill people–and in our country they kill appalling masses of people. Time to say that ‘freedom’ does not feel like freedom when we are teaching lock-down, live shooter drills to 1st graders.

The next big thing is dialogue about race, privilege and violence. Matters that cannot be legislated or ‘fixed’ with yes and no votes… but can be transformed through honest and faithful discourse, all the same.

Or how about taking a swing at issues of economic injustice; frozen minimum wages, zero taxation on corporations, and the gross acquisition that we celebrate as gospel in this country. Are we finally ready to place some boundaries on the systems that supposedly amount to prosperity…but only at the expense of the most vulnerable?

We have to ask these questions in a rare moment when we witness that progress is not just possible…it’s inevitable. The only thing slowing it down is apprehensive silence.

When you think about your ‘what’s next’–whether it is guns or the economy or something that is near and dear to your own heart–remember this day. Remember this day when you get tired, or frustrated, and you are tempted to wallow in the smallness of your voice. Remember this week when you think it is hopeless. Good news is coming. Keep saying what’s true, keep pushing boundaries, keep speaking for the least of these, and we will have more days like this. We will have more good weeks in the newsfeed.

Remember that a few decades ago, black children could not go to school with white children. Nobody thought they could talk about that.

Remember that a few weeks ago, that symbol of “southern pride” in the ownership of other humans flew over government buildings.

Remember the run-up to the election years when talking about healthcare got you laughed off the stage.

Remember how just yesterday–just yesterday–gay people could not marry who they loved.

Do you remember that? It was not so long ago.

We’ll remember, so we don’t forget. We’ll remember, so we don’t tread that dark path backwards into our own history. But then we’ll look ahead, because that’s what progress is. We will look up the road, and we will keep moving. Because sometimes, when we feel our voice is small–‘what’s’ and ‘next’ are the most powerful words in our lexicon.

#lovewins #always #hallelujah

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