Stunned By #WalkAway Campaign

A few days ago my sister suggested I look into a new Facebook group.

And me being me, that's exactly what I did.

HOLY BUCKETS!

At that time there were about 58,000 members of that group.

Now there are well over 112,000 with that number climbing rapidly.

So.

What's the big deal about this group? What's it all about?

A guy called Brandon Straka started the whole thing a while back. He walked away from an ideology that has become NOT what it maybe once was.

The group is a place where people can tell their own 'walk-away' stories. It's a place where people can offer their support to those who are walking away, and tell their own stories.

And BOY are people doing just that!!

Here's the link:

#WalkAway Campaign

What are people walking away from, and why?

Partly it's about those who are walking away from the democrat political party - each Story is different but there's a common thread: decent people are sick and tired of being treated indecently. Partly it's about that same theme carried over into whatever arena a person finds applicable to their life. Politics is a key focus of course, but the theme of just plain being decent to one another, showing kindness and even just common courtesy is such an inherent part of the whole that a visit to the group feels very much like walking into a group hug.

I can't explain it adequately and recommend that you go spend some time there yourself.

If you want to join the group, please be aware that they screen everyone first so it might take a while depending on how many folks are 'in line' ahead of you. But you can certainly go visit!

Because of the rapidity with which this is growing, it's gotten some attention. The purpose of the group might also have something to do with that. This is a mid-term election year and the 2018 results matter to a lot of people who might not really want word to spread like wildfire that people are walking away from the democratic party by the thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands.

So.

We've been labeled Russian Bots.

Talk about de-humanizing a large group of individuals!

You would not believe the diversity to be found in that group. Everyone is there, believe me! But, other than being a part of their introduction stories, none of that matters. The thing that seems to matter most to Everyone in that group is that we all love the United States of America and want to be able to say so, openly and proudly. With dignity and respect.

The stories and responses might shock you. They might make you weep. They will most assuredly make your day better, your heart lighter, and your Hope for the Future stronger.

This is one powerful group, I'll tell you that right up front.

It isn't just the 'traditional' Silent Majority finding its Voice but many and many members have been a less traditional Silenced Minority.

The effect the individual stories have on a person is ... high impact might be the term I'm looking for.

The effect of the whole, that's what is going to stun you.

Go.

Read.

Watch.

Remember not so long ago I was talking about that 'thing' that showed up during the 2017 natural disasters hitting us again and again and again with no end in sight?

Yeah.

That.

People stepping up and helping people and nobody checking which hyphen went with who.

That was the real AMERICA showing up full force in a time of need.

Guess what.

You can meet that AMERICA up close and personal.

Go.

Read.

Watch.

 #WalkAway Campaign

Balance, Balance, Balance ...

When at times the hurts of our world become so great that they hurt us all, an individual time of respite can become a necessity.

It's not like trying to make everything just go away, and it's not ignoring what's going on. It's more like the 're-charging' some of us need to avoid getting 'peopled out' and withdrawing from society altogether. A stitch in time, so to speak. 

So yes, I'm aware of Nepal, aware of Baltimore, aware of China and Ukraine and France and and and ... 

I'm not avoiding it; it's in my heart and on my mind even as I stitch away on the Character Collections or get ready to begin art projects or sit down to put the next part of SONG into words.

Everything is part and parcel of everything else.

And life is indeed a balancing act.

A person has to keep his/her own balance internally as well as physically and intellectually. It's the only way to become/remain strong enough to do what you have to do to help with the circles outside of your own self - family, community, region, nation, world ... it's all bound together. 

Those of us who seek peaceful solutions are perhaps doomed to failure. 

Perhaps there is no peaceful solution to anything. 

Yet seek we must, try we must - and succeed at some far distant point we might. 

If we just give up, our future generations may not even realize that there ever were any such things as peace, as freedom of choice, as personal integrity and accountability, as justice tempered with mercy ... as loyalty ... as unity... as faith ... you can add to this list ... please do.

Sometimes it feels as though it's all at risk - or lost already.

Most of the time, however, it's pretty easy to find the good that remains in our world. The people who care, those who step up to the plate when need be.

Yes it might well have to get worse before it gets better - but the 'better' is by no means going to have to spring from out of nowhere. It hasn't gone anywhere - it's right here within each and all of us and stronger than any of us probably have any idea about.

So when it feels as though it's gone from bad to worse and is heading for the worst, let's not forget our own inner strengths - we can, if we will it, use them as the force they are and in the ways they are meant to be used.

Find a way to the good we share instead of focusing on the differences that divide.

We are all of us more alike than we are disparate.

There is so much more to share than to fight about.

Take a little time, as much as you need, to think about what we share rather than what divides us. 

Difficult as it may be to believe, all things considered, those are the things that truly matter - and we might have a tough time remembering that sometimes. 

Still, what we share really does matter more than whatever it is that's dividing us. Lots of folks don't think so ... but a lot of us do think so, and our Voices really do matter. 

Someone has to balance out the rest of it, right?

Sez one lonely little Voice in the middle of nowhere.

UNITED States of America : A Call to Unity : Fifty Voices Are Needed

Here's a comment from one of my Facebook posts; it's my own:

Patrick Henry issued a Call to Arms. We could sure use somebody ready, willing, and able to issue not a literal Call to Arms but a Call to Unite, to set aside personal issues for once and prove to ourselves and the rest of the world that we know what the words UNITED States of America are supposed to mean.

And yeah I realize the photo shows the North American Continent. That's because the United States of America is not alone in this world and the UNITY is aimed not just at us but expands to include all. It only seems impossible.

Because you know what?

The United States of America seemed impossible to many at one time too.  

I'm not advocating a world-wide universal culture, mind you, nor even a nation-wide United States culture - our diversity is one of our greatest strengths if we could only bring ourselves to 'get' that concept.

But a unity of purpose, a united effort to make our nation and our world the best it can be, without constantly bickering and fighting all over the place - THAT'S a worthwhile goal, isn't it? Something to work toward?

You think our 'Founding Fathers (and Mothers)' didn't have differences of opinion? 

They did. 

Serious ones.

Somehow they managed to work those differences out - not without a struggle, and not without hot words going back and forth - and those Colonies became the States of a new Nation, one whose bottom line strength rests in her people ... that would be us. 

Each and all of us, equally. 

Just sayin' ... 

If they could do it, so can we. We don't even have to start from scratch the way they did. Those guys gave us some damned powerful tools, if we could only bring ourselves to use them the way they were designed to be used. 

What if we just started small?

What if even just one person from each State was ready, willing, and able to say flat out, and mean it, 'I am an American.'

What if even just one Voice from each State left out the rest of it, the politics, the religions, the age, the color, the gender, the divisive adjectives of all kinds, and simply focused on what it means, bottom line, to be an American? 

Can we find even ONE VOICE from each of the fifty States willing to set it all aside enough to Speak in Unity with 49 other Voices and say, 'I am an American.'?

And leave it at that.

No adding 'I'm a woman. I'm a Democrat. I'm rich. I'm a businessman. I'm a stay at home mom. I'm gay. I'm Lutheran. I'm from Texas. I'm eighty years old. I'm this or that or the other thing yada yada yada.'

Just for once to take hold of the concept of what it means to be an American ...  and to be ready, willing, and able to accept 49 others, no matter who they are, absolutely and without reservations, just because they too are ready, willing, and able to say right alongside of you, 'I am an American.'

Not in an attempt to negate our individuality and differences but to celebrate our diversity within the framework of our Nation.

Can we do this?

I am from North Dakota.

I will accept my own challenge and Speak, alone if no other Voices can be found from any of the other States.

And so North Dakota Speaks:

'I am an American.'

Who will add their Voice?

Think carefully what it means to add your Voice to this list. It means you are ready, willing, and able to stand shoulder to shoulder with 49 total strangers whose individual choices and affiliations may be radically different from your own. 

For our purposes, the ONLY thing that matters is that they too are ready, willing, and able to stand shoulder to shoulder with 49 total strangers whose individual choices and affiliations may be radically different from theirs.

Because, my friend, that is what we are supposed to be all about here in the USA, isn't it? 

Can we do it?

Can even ONE from each State, just fifty of us, accept 49 others as Americans no matter what our individual choices and affiliations are? With none of us trying to change one another's minds, with none of us turning aside from what we have agreed to do, with none of us saying to another you don't belong here among us? 

Can we do it?

Frankly, I have my doubts.

Please prove me wrong.

After all, the only thing we have to agree on is four little words:

'I am an American.'