Just Call Me Scarlett

This morning, I was inspired by a post about racism by a fellow blogger.  My intention was to make it the subject of today’s blog, but soon realized that without benefit of a good night’s sleep, I wouldn’t give it the justice that it deserves.

There’s always tomorrow, right Scarlett?  If I close eyes, poof, problem will go away.  What problem?  Is there a problem?

No, it won’t.  It just hides out for a century or two, and explodes in a fury when provoked.

Benjamin Franklin said, “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”

On the surface, I appear to be one of the unaffected ones, all snug and cozy in my white world of privilege, yet appearances deceive.  There is not a human on the planet who is not affected one way or another, because beneath the appearance of separation, we are all one.  When one suffers, we all suffer.

We have brought the past with us into the present, because we have carried our old attitudes of racial intolerance with us into today, yesterday’s future.  Here we are, living right here on Planet Earth, plantation Tara divided up into different rent districts, yet still enmeshed in our old ways nonetheless.  I feel as if part of me is living in Scarlett O’Hara’s skin, spoiled, white, rich, incognizant of the suffering around me.

Injustice, racism, hatred, and intolerance will not be welcome residents of the new fuure.

We need to open our eyes, wake up, and make a conscious decision to create a better way.  It really is up to us to decide what our future will be, because truly, our history is burning to the ground and there will be neither a past to return to, nor a roadmap to the future.  We’ll be living in a do-it-yourself society created by the imagining our own minds.    It will behoove us to pay close attention to what we are creating.  Just as there will be no return to normal, there will be no return to yesterday.

Like Scarlett, we don’t know what’s coming our way in the days ahead, but whatever it is, we can gird out loins, face the future with fierce determination, and swear that history will not repeat itself.  Our familiar foundation may burn to the ground, but once the embers cool, we will rebuild.  I am outraged.  Today, I am putting on my activist hat and marching forward to join the crusade to create to a new and better future.

Scarlett O’Hara’s personality embodies a mind-boggling array of qualities and characteristics.  She is strong, belligerent, self-centered, courageous, insecure, intelligent, self-serving, vain, resilient, strong willed, manipulative opportunistic, and is fueled by a fierce determination to thrive and survive.

I am going to give my activist self a name befitting all of the characteristics an activist should have.  If I were to create a list of those qualities, they would paint a portrait of Scarlett.  The lesson that she teaches is that we can learn to never give up. We can always find a way to survive because tomorrow is another day.

I have reached the boiling point of outrage.  For all her human flaws, Scarlett has what it takes to gird her loins, gather her resources and build anew.  She’ll never give up.  For all her human flaws and shortcomings, she has what it takes..  We all do.  Right on, girl.

Just call me Scarlett.

Oops—looks like I just wrote what I was going to put off until tomorrow.  Well, tomorrow is another day.

Thanks, Michelle.  Here

Note:  The photo above is courtesy of New Waves of Light, a website designed by anonymous individuals around the world who share the intention of bringing light and love to a world of darkness and chaos. (newwavesoflight.org or NWOL.us).