Still Drawn to the Light

 

By Marilyn Moore

Hmm…some of you may be thinking….didn’t she write about that the last time?  Good recall on your part, yes, I did.  In early November, before the election, I wrote about being drawn to the light, particularly candidates who saw promise and potential, rather than darkness and despair, who wanted lift people up rather than push people down.  That’s where I was in early November….

And now, in mid-December, with the election in the past, and many of the “darkness and despair” candidates readying to take office, I’m still drawn to the light.  

What I’m realizing, now that I’m past (sort of) my initial WTF response, is that I may have to look harder for light.  I can do that.  There is much light shining brightly in the neighborhood and city in which I live.  People are already stepping up in support of those likely to be harmed by proposed federal policy changes, like “tightening” Medicaid and Medicare, reducing food benefits to low-income families, “rounding up” anyone who even looks like an immigrant (and just how demeaning is that language….), and removal of protections for members of the LGBTQ community.  

Advocacy groups are watching, readying to testify, readying to file suit, ready to protect.  They will do the hard and necessary work of shining a bright light on the likely consequences of proposed actions.  I am drawn to that light, not to be the lawyer, but perhaps to be the one who writes a check, contacts a legislator, writes a letter to the editor, or marches in a protest.  

There is also light in the actions of individual people…good folks, stepping up to lend a hand, to make life a little easier or better for those who struggle.  I see Free Little Pantries being re-filled.  I see groups planting trees to make the air cooler and cleaner.  I see families welcoming immigrant families, retired teachers volunteering to teach English to newcomers wanting to learn.  I see people coming together to build beds for children, to pick up trash in parks and on trails, to provide gifts for people they do not know at this holiday time, to provide homes for rescue animals.  

I’m under no illusion that these volunteer efforts, laudable and magnificent as they are, will care for every need of every hungry, homeless, or ill person.  As Scott Young, retired executive director of the Lincoln Food Bank said on many occasions, “We cannot Food Bank our way out of the widespread food insecurity people are experiencing.” And he always followed that up with the pledge that the Food Bank would do all that it could do, with the resources provided by volunteers and donations, to assure adequate and nutritious meals for our neighbors.  

Scott is so right, about food, and about the other basic needs.  Habitat for Humanity can’t build enough houses to end the housing shortage.  Clinic With a Heart can’t provide medical care for all those who need it.  But what they can do, they do…and their work shines a bright light, one to which I’m drawn.  Writing checks, volunteering time…I can do that.  And I can also support the efforts of advocacy groups who work to address systemic realities that result in hunger, in homelessness, in poor access to medical care.  I believe the basic health and welfare, the promise and potential of those who live in this country, should not be shouldered only by volunteers and the goodness of their hearts. These are justice issues…and may justice roll like a mighty stream.  That looks like light. 

As the days grow shorter, and we approach the winter solstice, the day of the fewest hours of light and the most hours of darkness, I treasure the light in the sky.  I stop on the Rock Island trail for quiet moments of peace and tranquility in the fading light of the day.  I listen for the light in music that gives me goosebumps.  I read for the light in the words of favorite authors and those of faraway friends whose greetings we are beginning to receive.  I feel the light in warm and caring embraces.  And in this post-election time…I treasure the light, I look for the light, I commit to the light. And I know that I am not alone…millions of others are doing the same. 

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