My Third Novel's Conclusion, My Heartbreak

My heart begins to break when I think about completing this particular book -- because this narrative has sustained me like no other story I've known. It's both more personal and more universal than my other works. But beyond memory and archetype, it's a cri-de-coeur about needing to become the person one is destined to be. And in the writing, I have met my own life's work, my own fated journey -- having the sense all the while that the pages are suffused with a resonance, an energy, an electrified field that defies explanation. Writers hope and pray to be overtaken by a work in this way -- to be conscripted into passionate service of a profound story. To experience it even once in a lifetime seems a great privilege. I still have several months before this novel is complete, and this constitutes my reprieve. Because I'm not ready for the beauty to end.




Friday, July 22, 2022

Saying No to Concealment

What do I say to the FBI affiliates who continue to threaten my health, my life, and my family members' health, careers and lives in an attempt to coerce my acceptance of a redacted report responsive to my FOIA request?

I say no.

No redactions.

What do I say to the FBI affiliates who continue to threaten us in an attempt to coerce me into accepting the omission of the AI-generated film or films co-opting my likeness to depict a crime or crimes I never committed?

I say no.

No omissions.

What do I say to the FBI affiliates who would so readily harm us in an attempt to hide their crimes of falsified law enforcement reporting against the law-abiding American public?

I say no.

No hiding.

Democracy sometimes requires that we say no.  The civil liberties and human rights of American citizens can be difficult to defend without full knowledge of the manner in which they are being assailed.  Those who love the promise of freedom on which our nation was founded need to be as strong in defense of the rights of their neighbors as they are in defense of their own.  Our nation requires this integrity.  My conscience demands it.

I am in the midst of reading Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom right now. And I must admit to feeling delighted to discover that Mandela sees the individual's rejection of injustice as a soulful necessity:

"Our consciences dictate that we must protest against (injustice), that we must oppose it, and that we must attempt to alter it.  Men, I think are not capable of doing nothing, of saying nothing, of not reacting to injustice,, of not protesting against oppression, of not striving for the good society and the good life in the ways they see it."

Our very souls object to violations of our human rights.  And well they should.

For our democracy to survive, we must have access to the truth.

We must learn to say no to injustice, no to concealment, no to civil and human rights violations as a complete sentence.

No.

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