Dear President Trump,

As we head into your impeachment trial, however long or short it is, however integral or craven the major players are, however transparent or opaque its proceedings are, you would do well to remember that we are watching. We are watching you, your advisors, and every last Senator. We are watching what you all say and how you say it. We are watching what you all do and whose interests you appear to be serving. We are watching for ourselves and we are watching for generations unborn that will have to deal with whatever precedents are set over the course of this trial, whether it is real or a sham.

All of this is nominally about you because you are the current real and present danger, but really it is about so incredibly much more. I know I can get overly dramatic sometimes, but it really does seem like the implications of this trial, and how it is handled, are so consequential that the health of not only democracy, but the entire planet hangs in the balance. There just aren’t that many dominoes left standing and if you, McConnell, the Mercers, the Koch, Vladimir, and the Middle East alliance (to include Israel) that has been enabling you, manage to tip over the Senate such that you and your agenda are green-lighted, it would threaten the remaining standing safeguards and could very well topple us over into tyranny and chaos.

So we are watching. Intently.

For Soul Choir we are practicing the MeMuse song by Karisha Longaker “We Shall Be Known” and it goes like this (MaMuse posted the lyrics):

We shall be known by the company we keep
By the ones who circle round to tend these fires
We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap
The seeds of change, alive from deep within the earth
It is time now, it is time now that we thrive
It is time we lead ourselves into the well
It is time now, and what a time to be alive
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love
In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love

It’s a pretty easy song (after our Christmas music most everything will seem easy), but we’re still fairly wooden and stiff with it. Hopefully we’ll get comfortable enough to let the message come alive because it matters and it matters right now.

The company we keep, whether we’re tending fires for good or ill, what we are sowing and reaping, whether we’re open to seeds of change or would just as soon go scorched earth to prevent change – all this matters and is what’s at stake in your trial (and if need be, the election later this year). It does feel hokey, though, to think that we can thrive and that it makes sense to take care of ourselves, that it’s a good time to be alive. As I write this, it occurs to me that maybe this is why we’re so stiff; maybe we’re too tired and disillusioned to believe it, maybe we don’t see a Great Turning away from evil but rather a devolution into it. Maybe the notion that we’ll ever learn to lead in love feels so out there that we’re just going through the motions of learning a song as if it’s any old song rather than a clarion call to hope and action.

What do you think? Am I on to something here? Have you so conditioned us that our hope and vision for the future is teetering like a domino that can’t quite decide whether to stand tall or topple? Maybe so, but there has to be something useful in seeing this and saying it out loud – maybe we can pull together and support one another since it’s a lot harder to knock over dominoes that are super close to each other than it is if they are spread out just so. I know, this isn’t a game, this isn’t about who can out maneuver whom or who has a bigger wrecking ball. There really aren’t winners and losers in the long run so we truly need to learn how to lead in love or we are pretty much doomed.

May we be safe in real, sustainable ways.
May we cultivate happiness and contentment.
May we sow health and the conditions for thriving.
May we make peace with change and may love undergird both.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson