Your fear, your sadness, your rage, are welcome at Still Processing this Thursday
Gathering Details: “Still Processing with Micah McCreary,” Thursday, Feb 6, 7pm, Warehouse 6, 136 E 6th St, Holland, MI 49423
Sometime in the summer of 2022, I wrote this about Still Processing: “We reject all forms of hierarchy, dominance, prejudice, hate, cruelty, and violence. We reject patriarchy, misogyny, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, nationalism, and religious supremacy of any kind.”
In late 2022, I knew that the United States was in deep trouble. But I was hesitant, worried about sounding too alarmist. And I didn’t want to exacerbate the divide that had opened up in our country. I believed (and still believe) in hospitality, kindness, even loving one’s enemies.
At that point, I had been studying the MAGA movement for seven years. In a few months, I will have spent ten years analyzing this movement. I don’t understand how anyone would willingly align themselves with a person as cruel and dangerous as Donald Trump. I don’t get it. I suspect that I never will.
Micah McCreary (therapist, theologian, activist, seminary president) has written a wonderful book, entitled, Trauma and Race: A Path to Wellbeing. As I read it, I recognized that I did know and understand the engine for the MAGA movement. It can be summed up by the title of a book on Israel/Palestine: Victory For Us Is to See You Suffer.
I didn’t want to believe that “the cruelty is the point,” as Adam Serwer wrote in the Atlantic in 2018. How could a White (and now Hispanic) Christian movement “find community by rejoicing in the suffering of those they hate and fear?” But the 2024 election put an end to my doubts. I had to face reality, as painful and confusing as it is.
I am speaking for myself here, not for Micah, and not even for the Still Processing community. Still Processing is not about uniformity. No one is ever asked to “fall in line” at Still Processing. You are encouraged to disagree, to challenge me, and to challenge our speakers (respectfully, of course). I know full well how fallible I am, how fallible we all are.
Every expert that I know and trust (Du Mez, Richardson, Snyder, Schmidt, to name a few) is saying the same thing: Democracy in the United States is under attack. It is no longer hypothetical. It is happening now. Steve Schmidt, a former Republican campaign strategist, has stated that we are “on the front edge of the most severe constitutional crisis since the civil war.” Timothy Snyder, Professor of History at Yale, concludes: “The people who now dominate the executive branch of the government … are acting, quite deliberately, to destroy the nation. For them, only a few people, the very wealthy with a certain worldview, have rights, and the first among these is to dominate.”
I am angry, sad, bewildered. But I am also focused and readying myself for the fight. I am not confused about what is good and right. I am not confused about who my allies are and who my opponents are. I am also afraid, afraid for my partner, who is an immigrant, afraid for my children, afraid for all of us.
I am anxious to discuss all of this with Micah. I hope you will join us.
Gathering Details: “Still Processing with Micah McCreary,” Thursday, Feb 6, 7pm, Warehouse 6, 136 E 6th St, Holland, MI 49423