Do something

“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”

 Albert Einstein

 “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”                                                                       Edmund Burke

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We don’t like to think it could be true

That we could possibly be those who collude with evil

And yet I suspect, even the bests of us do

From time to time

I’m not saying we DO evil

As much as I am saying we collude with evil

We enable it

Mostly by our silence and inaction

We see young black me shot down,

When a young white man would be taken alive

And we shrug

We see children torn from their families

And we are silent

We watch as a solider

Who, endowed with the power and authority of our county

Brutally murdered a man already proven innocent

Be pardoned

And we accept

We hear the lies

We wallow in misinformation

We cheer bully tactics

We tolerate the marginalization of people born LGBTQI

And the minimization of women

We support radicals on the left

Who demean

And radicals on the right

Who perpetuate hate and racism

and we do not speak up

we do not challenge

we do not insist that

this is not just

this is not right

this is not love

perhaps it because those engaged in the evil are on “our side”

Perhaps it is because we benefit

Perhaps it is because our hearts line up with the hate

Perhaps the bullying somehow makes us feel stronger or safer

Perhaps we are comfortable with the racism

Perhaps we are just too timid

Perhaps we don’t want to make enemies

We can have so many reasons

But the result is the same

Evil goes unchecked

It grows

It gains ascendance

And sometime the way back

Is full of peril

And death

Sometimes the way back

Is immeasurably costly

Paul once said, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”

This is not so much about hating hate, as it is about loving love

This is about overcoming evil with good

This is about speaking love in the face of hate

Shouting for people when there are rumors of war

Crying for generosity in a world of greed

We cannot afford

To do

Any

Thing

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