Y'all
Added 2016-11-14 19:57:40 +0000 UTCHey y'all,
I just wanted to write and tell you about my recent travels and learnings. Last Sunday I flew from Missoula to South Carolina (via two layovers) and arrived in Charleston in time to get my mom situated at the hospital for hip surgery. The first days of the trip were about her recovery: making sure she was comfortable, medicated, safe... This was not always an easy task but nonetheless an important one.
At the same time she and I were navigating our relations with hospital staff and each other, the country was experiencing a traumatic break-up. Large and small I was inundated with grief. So I set to work on a plan. How could we get help to victims of hate crimes?
I'm still sorting through all the solutions. I wear my safety pins, I talk with people of color and other minorities about what they need, mostly I hold space and listen. Today I spent half an hour with a man from the Middle East who lives in Fort Worth (where I am now). I asked him what he likes most about living here and he described the southern hospitality. "People are so kind," he reported.
I followed up with questions about education and climate and how I should spend the few hours here before speaking at TCU then asked about prejudice. He told me that it's an issue of literacy. The hatred he's experienced is driven by lack of media literacy, social literary, cultural literacy etc. "They're like English horses," he noted. They're able to be led because their eyes are covered with patches.
He told me how he refused to get angry. That when haters protested outside his mosque, he invited them in, and they not only came in, they came back, peacefully.
I know there are mixed feelings about how we all respond to hate, even how we respond to love. But from my travels across the south and my wanderings in and out of communities I can tell you that staying curious is unquestionably the most important thing we teach.
I hope you're on board with that. Staying curious, I mean.
Warmly,
Lindsey
