These Days

It was during the early days of the falling gas prices that my lover and I bid one another adieu. There were two groups of people then - the people who were thrilled to fill their tanks for $20, and the folks who walked the thin line between terrified and exultant at what was to come. Oh right, and the indifferent, the unaffected - the homeless, the crackheads, the poorest of the poor, who've been scrounging for food and change for some time already, and would likely be tickled to watch their numbers grow so immensely as to put them in the majority. Make that three groups.

A journalist threw his shoes at President Bush and was arrested and tortured; my ex-lover sent me messages of longing. People all over the world rejoiced that someone put the dumbass in his place, and we wondered why he seemed so adept at ducking from thrown objects. The brave journalist took one for the team and gave us a well-needed chuckle. Underneath the laugh, I ached thinking al-Zaidi was tortured and the man responsible for countless deaths and untold destruction would continue to run free, to his filet mignon dinner and private plane.

A university in Gaza was bombed. Images of dead & bloodied Palestinians made the rounds on the internet. I received a birthday package from my old lover. People were outraged and started planning protests. Others were saddened that this is what it took to incite outrage. They (we) asked, "What about Afghanistan? What about the Congo? What about Iraq? What about right here in the United States?"

But we took to the streets and marched and cried and some of us asked God for peace and some of us asked people for peace. I told people waving the Israeli flag, "I love you, I love them, I love everybody, peace, shalom." Like I did to the Chinese at the Olympic protests demanding freedom for Tibet. Like I will do at every protest from here on out. I love my opposition; we all want the same things. I called my old lover and told him that I love him, that I want to help him be happy, that I want to help him grow.

It's New Year's Eve, now. I have only one resolution: To love more fiercely and inclusively, and to do my best to do what's right. I'm tired of fighting, and I think we can do better than this.