The Opposite of Fascism

It’s six am on a Saturday morning and I should be writing my usual run-down about events around town. I can’t. Believe me, I’ve been trying since about four am and that door is shut.

Today is an important day in our community and across the country.

What do we believe in? What do we reject? What can we do to put our beliefs into action?

I found this brief video to be quietly truthful and terrifying.

This is Fascism, Randy Tolley on Instagram

I have no advice today. I bring no folksy anecdote, no inspiring parable, no impassioned exhortation.

I have only deep gratitude for the good people who are living out their goodness in thought, word, and deed. Whether it is quietly, day by day or in an unexpected burst of bravery - - that surprises even themselves - - all of it is a gift.

My father was a deeply cynical man who didn’t think much of my earnest idealism. Yet I learned shortly before he died that he was driven all his life not just to do the expected things but to feel that he had “made a contribution” to the greater good. I thought he didn’t believe in anything, but he did: making a contribution.

He did not mean monetary contribution. He mean doing the thing that you are most uniquely driven to do that will benefit the world you are in. Doing the work. The kind of work that’s the opposite of fascism. The way he saw it it would have been support for the common good.

For all who do the work - - be careful, stay safe, and know how important you are.

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