I’m one of those people who has occasionally admired people who get in their cars, brave all sorts of weather and stand on street corners for something they believe in.  I beep at them as I pass them in my car and I wave out the window if I support them.  

Yet, the closest I ever came to participation was standing on the corner of Montgomery and Cooper Rd. with my second grader and her friends in support of a local school levy.  I’m somewhat embarrassed about this because I believe in many things.  

But, I rationalized that I give my time in other ways and that you can’t stand on a street corner in support of every cause.  You must pick and choose; there is only so much time in one day.  I do other things. I don’t have the protest temperament.

Yet, there was something else: I mostly missed the 60s as I was still jumping rope and swinging on swings during the height of the protests and my mother told me “those people on the streets are dirty and long haired and disrespectful.”  I believed her.  

There was something inside of me that equated protest with nastiness, bombastic self-righteousness and demonization of certain groups which include some people I care about.  

A transplanted New Englander, I’ve lived in the Midwest since the 70s and I’ve grown terminally polite.  I’ve been seeing the dark side of radicalism across the political spectrum and don’t want to find myself guilty by association with perspectives which add fuel to a fire raging out of control.  

Yet, a sort of domino effect of events have happened which had me slapping a sticker on my shirt and standing today in front of the courthouse steps.  Two stand out.  

My daughter, her husband and their son have just come here from El Salvador and my grandson’s legacy is one in which thousands of people were massacred because people like me were silent or mostly ignorant about what was happening to poor people in developing countries. 

Then, I happened upon an article written by Paul Knitter, one of my theology professors.  He wrote of The Appalling Silence of Good People:

 Protest cannot be motivated by hatred.  It must always prefer non-violence.

(Yet), Buddhists don’t rule out indignation or anger. They just don’t want anger to lead to hatred and to hate-inspired action.

But anger and indignation play a very important role in the response to injustice.  They should not be short-circuited by a too quick, and perhaps too facile, call for compassion.

The same day I read the article, I got an e-mail to attend a prayer vigil for a group of people I love. They run an inn for women trying to get back on their feet as they go through tough times.  Oh, and they also have a successful program for women moving through prositution and addiction.  I love these women too. Their stories of abuse often leave me slack jawed and I’ve been part of a team which does facilitation training for the peer facilitators. 

A local corporation, Western Southern, is suing the inn and the city of Cincinnati because they want the area re-zoned and they want the property on which the 100+ year old Inn sits.  They say the area has changed and they say it is not an area meant for facilities like the Anna Louise Inn.   I was taken aback by the hubris.  

So, I went today and it was pretty awesome.  My grandson, Alejandro, joined us.  It was a beautiful, cool morning, I saw lots of friends, the prayers and speeches were thoughtful and reflective, music was played, some people sang and Alejandro ate goldfish.   

Each side argued their case before the judge who said he’d decide next week.  

I’m realizing this afternoon that I’d fallen into one of those dichotomies that says people and events are “either this or that.”   Yet, activism has its own spectrum which includes people experiencing indignation and channeling their anger with some level of dignity and care.  

I’m sorry it took me 52 years to find that out.