For my XXth lap around the sun, I took the day off work. I had planned to have a nice big sleep in, call my family and take the day as a real mental rest day. And it started great; I had a nice sleep in, spoke to my brother in Adelaide, then to my much cherished 91 year old Yiayia in Perth + my very sorely missed Uncle before starting my day with a delicious oat-milk-coffee. I then busted my guts on a 45min HIIT workout and stretched out my body with a yoga session. I got 20 more pages into my book, reflected on 2020 and set some new goals for 2021. My focus lately has been to Marie Kondo my mind so i’ve been working really hard to work through a lot of the noise that came with 2020. The day was so great, I felt love from friends and family all around the world; my spirits were high and my mind was calm.
And then January 6 2021 turned into December 37th 2020.
Growing up, I was always so confused learning about Nazi Germany and how it even escalated so far and how the inhumanity was accepted. But as the calendar switched up on me from the 6th to the 37th everything really just fell into place. As the Season Finale of America started to play out and the first images started to emerge from Capitol Hill – I wasn’t shocked, or surprised at the actions of these white supremacists. I know what white supremacists are, what they think and what they’re capable of. I was just watching how they were allowed to storm Capitol Hill. How one black security guard was left to defend one entrance with a baton VS hundreds of angry white dudes. Where were the tanks that rolled through the streets of DC when the Black Lives Matter movement started after Floyd’s murder? Why wasn’t the National Guard called in when the plans to storm the capital were announced earlier?
I did find myself speechless though. I couldn’t find the words to articulate the scale, wrongfulness and injustice of the situation as I tuned into the TV. And thats where I think we failed the first time. We were speechless while we were trying to digest the situation, and we just watched as the situation escalated and escalated and escalated until nothing shocked us anymore.
Yesterday, we weren’t just digesting the situation that was unfolding before our eyes in that very moment, but we were realizing the truth of what happens when white privilege and structural racism is allowed to grow and seep and fester within society and then just show up in our everyday lives as normal and acceptable.
The country is so deeply wounded and exhausted from all of the injustice; but we need to find our voice, now, more than ever, to speak up – we cannot accept this behavior. We cannot allow for these domestic terrorists to just walk out of from the scene of the crime and return home to sleep comfortably in their warm beds.
