I prefer peace, but I’m paying close attention to the 2016 Presidential Election. Because I know we better watch out. Apathy is taking hold. Too many are too frustrated to watch and listen and they turn away. Apathy will take this country down faster than Him or Her. And when too many would rather turn away than listen and stay invested in this election, apathy is winning.
This is a disturbing election, and I understand the temptation to not watch the debates, and not follow politics. But American society is fast turning self-centered, and believing that their own personal life is more important than community.
This is not a time to retreat. Watch and listen. Read deeply, beyond what the media is reporting, and do fact checks. Work to form your own opinion rather than relying on what other people are saying.
If someone makes racist statements in your presence disrupt the offensive joke. If you have children, or if children are present and you stay silent you are teaching children that’s it’s okay to make fun of people of color and allowing them to gain the idea that POC are less valuable. How we respond will shape a child’s values. I add this because I’m a member of a mixed race family and a woman of color who receives light skin privilege.
I’m also from a very political family and we don’t all share the same views. I write and publish, but I don’t write about the election or political current events. I use my voice to speak out on topics that I care deeply about. And “apathetic Americans” is one of those topics.
"Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph." —Haile Selassie
We Who Walk the Seven Ways is Terra Trevor’s memoir about seeking healing and finding belonging. After she endured a difficult loss, a circle of Native women elders embraced and guided Trevor (mixed-blood Cherokee, Lenape, Seneca, and German) through the seven cycles of life in Indigenous ways. Over three decades, these women lifted her from grief, instructed her in living, and showed her how to age from youth into beauty.
With tender honesty, Trevor explores how every ending is always a beginning. Her reflections on the deep power of women’s friendship, losing a child, reconciling complicated roots, and finding richness in every stage of life show that being an American Indian with a complex lineage is not about being part something, but about being part of something.
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“Terra Trevor’s memoir is a gentle invitation to journey with her across decades, an invitation to notice with her as she seeks healing and finds belonging. There were phrases and sentences I underlined, places where I wept, passages that will remain with me as they drew me to insights I’d previously struggled to name. I closed the final pages and knew that in reading this book, I had been the recipient of a generous and much-needed gift. While I can certainly finish a book in a day, I chose to move slowly through this one, letting each idea, each paragraph, each reflection gently spill over me, allowing the pages to alter me in some way.” —Patrice Gopo, author of Autumn Song: Essays on Absence
