The Question 2017 Made Us Ask
Quote:As we look back on this crazy, exhausting, absurdist play of a year, there is a question that undergirds it all. Behind the policy decisions and executive proclamations, the resistance and abuse revelations, the question has persisted: What are people for?
Or, to put it another way: How do we measure the value of a person?
Is a person less valuable to this country because of their religious background — even or especially assuming they pose no actual security risk?
Should we bar soldiers from their service because their healthcare is said to be too costly — even, or especially, if that cost pales in comparison to what the military spends on Viagra?
Should a policy of brutal deportations include refusing the “courtesy” of allowing people to hug their loved ones goodbye because “emotional scenes” are unpleasant for immigration officers?
Shall we, once again, privilege tax cuts for the rich over the lives of millions of people?
Whose service matters? Whose heart? Whose health? Whose wallet? Whose safety?
“We can never undo what we have done. We can never go back in time. We write history with our decisions and our actions. But we also write history with our responses to those actions. We can leave the pain and the damage in our wake, unattended, or we can do the work of acknowledging and fixing, to whatever extent possible, the harm that we have caused.”
— On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg
— On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg