Below you'll find a cover of the song from the post elections Women's March that went viral. This group of high school students includes my daughter. I completely supported her and was thrilled when she decided to organize a group of friends to audition for the school concert with this song. Lately I've noticed that I myself can't seem to keep quiet. This refrain repeats in my head. "I Can't Keep Quiet." Over and over. Keeping quiet is exactly what let's violence thrive. These are the words of Kurt Tucholsky, a German essayist of Jewish origin: “A country is not just what it does—it is also what it tolerates.” Staying self contained in your own little world is nice, but it doesn't do much to correct the many wrongs millions of people all over the world have to deal with every single day. Over and over I 'speak up' to voice my thoughts, in groups, one on one, on social media in comments, you name it. On occasion I have even written letters to the editor of a local newspaper. And other than following a sense of what's right, trying to become educated in effective strategies of change, I rarely get much positive feedback. What drives me the most are thoughts of people suffering because of violence, because our institutions and our systems are not just, because we invest more in war than in peace, because people are too separated into religious groups, social classes, ethnic groups and races in ways that divide us. And I have this dream that we will find new ways to be people together celebrating diversity by learning how to be inclusive, and drop unnecessary fears. Many days it feels like swimming upstream, or trying to fit my square self into a round hole, or screaming into a void. But I cannot seem to keep quiet. My friends call it 'Pushing Buttons'. My Rabbi avoids talking to me, but the Cantor hugs me. My daughters have surpassed me in activism for social justice in ways I couldn't even imagine when I was young. So that's a kind of achievement I guess. In the meantime I am looking forward to the Unity Walk in Boulder in mid September and to the Celebration of World Singing Day (Oct 21) and the sing a long in Boulder.
Enjoy the song.
And as always,
Peace.
If you can't keep quiet it's good to find songs to sing with others. @stillgideon, hoping you'll link to at least one good song in the comments :)
You can find more great ecoTrain posts:
@eco-alex/what-s-trending-on-the-ecotrain-today-read-the-most-popular-inspirational-and-original-posts-from-14-passengers