"Wants VS Needs"

         I’ve read some pretty mean comments on social media recently. Insulting words lashing out, sometimes with no obvious reason for the inflammatory temper tantrums. Suddenly, a conversational steam turns ugly. I sit dumbfounded as I read through cruel, malicious responses from people I thought to be reasonable—and nice.

         Most of the time, I try to understand both sides of the issue. If I weigh in (many times I bite my tongue and keep away from my keyboard), I attempt to find factual support for the issue at hand. Sometimes I balance myself onto a middle ground. Occasionally, I respond with well thought out deliberation. Fortunately, I have a blog wherein I can pull together longer reflections.

         In my dream-state last night, I mulled through this-n-that in an effort to distill recent events into some kind of cohesive theory that applies to a bigger picture, and I tossed-n-turned myself into a dichotomy of wants versus needs.

         Many people state belief systems as though they are needs. They need to follow their religious doctrines.  They need to spank their children—and everyone else’s, too. They need to defund programs like education and welfare. They need to take care of their own—even if that means making decisions that harm others. They need to own guns. They need to stop abortion. They need to segregate themselves way from minorities. They need to prepare for Armageddon.

          Whenever these people speak out, they truly feel that these things are essential requirements for their safety and happiness—for their duty to family, or church, or country. Their insistence that things are needs lends a level of urgency and unreasonable panic to their daily lives. When they feel that these needs are threatened, they respond with illogical anger and boiling hostility. They view their world as always threatened by someone else encroaching upon or diminishing their basic needs and rights. It must be rough living with so much distress and disharmony.

         I wish I could wave a magic wand over these people and shift their mindset to the fact that all of these things are wants, and not needs, because the urgency and fear shifts dramatically with this worldview.

Copyright 2018 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman

“Dormant”

I love this time of year. With camera in hand, I take an excursion into my own yards, seeking sleeping possibilities. 

I hover over buds hidden under winter’s quiescence. 

I linger with my feet wet from yesterday’s rain. I close my mind to the hours of hard labor ahead—clipping, raking, bagging—erasing evidence of end time. 

I let my memory dash back to last summer when I danced in dappled sunlight, a nymph delighting in lazy days.

Copyright 2018 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman

"DELETE, DELETE, DELETE"

More deaths

More excuses

More status updates

More comments

         I’m right

                  You’re wrong

         It is the weapon

                  Fuck you

         Punching keys

         Angry

         Frustrated   

         Viciously vomiting vile

                           DELETE, DELETE, DELETE

         I understand

         Your fears bind your logic

         It is the weapon—and more

         Let’s find common ground

         Pausing at each letter

         Appeasing

         Calmer

         Weighing wary words

More deaths

More excuses

More status updates

More comments

         I’m right

                  You’re wrong

         Lives matter

                  Fuck you baby killer

         Gnashing teeth

         Pissed

         Wordless

         Shredding senseless shit

                           DELETE, DELETE, DELETE

         I understand

         Your reasoning rambles

         It is the weapon—and more

         Set aside the diversion—for another time

         Carefully staying focused

         Sensible

         Cogent

         Decisively data driven

More deaths

More excuses

More status updates

More comments

         I’m right

                  You’re wrong

         More guns? No way!

                  Fuck you BITCH!

         Away from keyboard

         Pulling hair

         Livid

         Annihilating aggravating assholes

                           DELETE, DELETE, DELETE

 Copyright 2018 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman 

        

        

        

        

        

        

        

        

        

        

        

                   

"Resist This!"

         Not long after Trump announced his candidacy for President, I began following him on Twitter. My logical, fact-bound brain couldn’t absorb the ridiculous tweets attributed to this man, and I had to witness first hand that the racist, misogynistic and narcissistic beliefs truly belong to him. They did.

         When Trump’ campaign came to San Antonio, I joined hundreds of protestors outside the country club at which he spoke. My fellow demonstrators chanted and picketed. We participated in peaceful dissent. At that time, hints of Russian involvement within our election process didn’t seem believable. Robert Mueller’s indictment of thirteen Russian nationals this week means we’ll soon learn more about the exact way Trump and his cohorts manipulated media and voting. With 2018 midterms looming, I find it necessary to email and call my Congressional representatives to beg them to do their jobs to safeguard future elections within our country. Also, in response to this I’ve joined a local chapter of Indivisible and completed the training to register voters within my county. 

         Many of the Executive Orders signed by Trump will prove harmful to my family, community and environment. I’ve written emails and made phone calls to protest. I’ve used social media to educate those within my radius. I joined the San Antonio March for Science after it became apparent this administration wants key Cabinet positions filled with unqualified, small-minded personnel.

         This week’s slaughter, so close to the lives lost in Los Vegas, wrapped my mind in foggy disbelief. I will make another round of emails and phone calls to remind my representatives that the miniscule progress made on gun reform has been stripped by this president. I will March for Our Lives in a few weeks. I will hit Twitter and Facebook. I will write through my tears and heartache. I worry that nothing will change. That my generation’s failure to protect everything (our environment, our health, our security, our children) will overburden me. That I will give up. I realized today that’s the goal of the opponents. They want us overwhelmed and off-balanced as they pummel at rights and regulations.

         I am tired.

         But Emma Gonzalez isn’t. David Hogg isn’t. Cameron Kasky isn’t. Delaney Tarr isn’t. Annabel Claprood isn't. These survivors, a year away from voting, will rip apart the current political system. They will save us all.

Copyright 2018 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman

“Put God Back into Schools”

   

         The battle cry of conservatives whenever slain children’s bodies hallow hallways, “Put God Back into Schools” mystifies me. For thirty-five years I’ve worked within the public-school systems. I’ve stood reverently through daily rituals of moments of silence and respectfully kept mute as faculty members and staff openly pray “in Jesus’s name.” I’ve watched students bow their heads before taking major exams and preach personal beliefs to their friends.

         These people don’t understand that the business of public schools isn’t to proselytize. That responsibility lies with parents, family, communities—religious leaders. Many educators’ strong beliefs seep out of their pores. They may not sermon while in front of the classroom, but their religious agenda pervades and influences how they approach everything they do. Anyone observing within the public-school system knows that the students most oppressed are those with no faith.

   I feel confused that anyone’s religion professes that if the Ten Commandments aren’t posted in the classrooms of public schools, the punishment of an avenging God is a logical result.

     What kind of God do these people believe in?

 Copyright 2018 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman