Choices
Austin, TX | 2021 © Alicia Kae Miller
As free-thinking humans, every day, we have the advantage of choice.
Call/text/DM/e-mail.
You can get caught up on the news.
Stay home, like me instead of traveling, and bake a triple berry pie for the Fourth of July.
You get the point.
We generally have the advantage of choosing what we want or do not want to do. Now consider if someone took your choices away.
How would you respond to your indignant feelings of loss?
Many moments of upset over the last several years have gutted me, as my friend Mark from the UK says. I will lead with my top of mind since there are far too many to list here.
2020: The rising swell of Asian hate crimes.
May 25, 2020: A police officer murders George Floyd.
January 6, 2021: Attack on the United States Capitol Building.
May 24, 2022: Some but not all the students at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, escape death by an AR-15-style rifle.
June 24, 2022: Roe v. Wade overturned.
Consequently, imagine:
To be an American of Asian descent targeted with a hate crime by your fellow Americans.
Law enforcement did not prevent your loved one from taking their last breath.
When the President that you did not vote for incites an insurrection.
That you or someone you know is subject to a mass shooting.
In a 5-4 vote, a right you have held for forty-nine years is instead abolished.
As I catch my breath and wipe away tears, I cannot help but wonder, is the intention behind acts of hate to silence the voices of the majority so that our outrage becomes mute?
Until we meet again, lead yourself and others with empathy. ❤️
Yours in Solidarity, -akm
July 2022