Start Close In: Buffalo, Gun Violence, Baby Formula Shortage, War, Coronavirus, and Roe v. Wade
Author’s Note: The following blog was written and posted on Thursday, May 19. As of today, Wednesday, May 25, we tragically must add the Robb Elementary School shooting that took place in Texas on Tuesday, May 24, where 19 children and 2 adults were killed, to the ever growing list of violence, tragedy, and injustice. For those with children in their lives, here is a helpful age-by-age guide on how to talk with children about gun violence and here you can find ways to help the people of Uvalde, TX in the wake of the mass killing.
Within the last month, we’ve witnessed a baby formula shortage, a leaked brief suggesting a majority of the judges on the Supreme Court seek to overturn Roe v. Wade, a decision that will disproportionately affect Black women and Women of Color, continued Russian-led attacks on the people of Ukraine, reports of nearly 1 Million COVID deaths in the U.S., and a racially motivated mass killing in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. If you’re anything like me, you read the headlines, set your phone down, and say, “It’s too much. We can’t take much more. It’s too much.”
And it’s true. It is too much. Evolutionarily speaking, we were never meant to know about the problems of the entire world; we were only meant to know about the problems of our village. Grieving 1 Million deaths from the Coronavirus is a surefire way to gloss over and sink into apathy. Hearing story after story after story of the trauma women go through when they are banned access to basic care for their bodies is a surefire way to stagnate. Seeing Black people targeted over and over and over again by white supremacist hate no matter how many times you’ve marched, chanting, “Black Lives Matter,” and voted for antiracist politicians and given money to Black, woman-led organizations is a surefire way to feel defeated.
How do the human heart and mind even begin to feel in the face of such enormous violence, fear, and pain?
The poet, David Whyte, implores us to “start close in.”
bell hooks says, “When we choose to love, we choose to move against fear, against alienation and separation. The choice to love is a choice to connect, to find ourselves in the other.”
When I feel that the enormity of the world’s problems are too much to bear, I turn off my phone and any other screen that might leave me distracted and numb, place one hand on my heart and one on my belly, and simply breathe.
Then, I gather up all of the collective wisdom from bell hooks to David Whyte to Alice Walker to Mr. Rogers to the Rabbis and remember:
Start close in. When you walk by the color purple in a field, stop to recognize it, honor its beauty, give thanks for its existence. Look for the helpers. Ground yourself in love. Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly.
From here and only here, do I act.
For Buffalo, 6 Ways to Help.
For the end of Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action.
For reproductive justice across race, class, and gender, Healthy & Free Tennessee.
For advocacy and information about the baby formula shortage and systemic support for mothers and families, Chamber of Mothers.
For aid to Ukrainian women and children, The Center for Contemplative Justice.
For continued learning about dismantling white supremacist patriarchal violence, Caste: Origins of Our Discontent, I’m Still Here, The Body is Not an Apology, How to Be an Antiracist, for starters.
In bell hooks’ 1999 classic, All About Love, she writes, “Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.”
When we say here at NCCC, “Healing happens in community,” we echo hooks’ wisdom and in saying it and echoing it, we try to live it, one small, “start close in” step at a time.
To those in Buffalo reeling and grieving, raging and hurting, we see you. To the parents struggling to feed their kids, we see you. To the women, everywhere, we’re with you.
