Show notes
We were going to talk about the launch of Queen's Peril today. A couple months ago, I felt compelled to step out of the stream of our usual Star Wars talk, and we talked about the coronavirus pandemic, when the lockdowns were in their earliest stages. I never planned to make a habit of stepping out of the stream, and I still don't plan to.
But as civil unrest has engulfed dozens of cities across the United States, I've been thinking a lot about Yoda's lines from The Phantom Menace: "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." And it seems like they could help us understand a lot of what's going on in America right now.
As I said to a neighbor of mine recently, there will always be people, on all points of the political compass, who see tragedy as an opportunity to advance their own goals by exploiting other people's pain.
I believe our job as humans, at a minimum, is to bear witness to the pain. To listen, to truly and deeply hear what people in pain are trying to tell us. To help heal that pain, and not make it worse or prolong it.
Today's show is about how Yoda's words apply to our lives right now. In the process, I'm going to beg you to consider three things:
1. Please do what you can to keep your family, friends, loved ones, neighbors, and communities safe.
2. Despite all the fearful things happening that must be addressed, please do not lose sight of the inciting incident of the fires this time - the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, by a while police officer, in broad daylight, and the justice that must be done in Floyd's memory.
3. Please consider saying that #BlackLivesMatter. Speaking for myself, I have a wishy-washy history with making that statement. Not that I ever disagreed with it - more that I've had the privilege of living a life where it wasn't a visible issue for me on a daily basis. But that's no excuse. Imagine if hundreds of millions of voices would speak out together, to let the African-American community know that they believe "Black Lives Matter." It wouldn't magically heal things, of course. But maybe it could be a different kind of inciting incident. One based in love, not fear.
I hope the show today speaks to you, and I thank you for being a part of *this* community.
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