This week my husband and I attended an intimate house fundraiser. The invited speaker was a popular and brilliant journalist, Sami Hamdi. He started with a few good jokes about my state before he jumped into his analysis of American foreign policy and narrative change.
His talk is a little out of scope for my writing style and content. He’s very much focused on the present day as a journalist and I tend to write about ancient authors, preferably from the 7th century.
As a mother and a creative, I tend to balk when politics comes up, like I physically want to flee from the conversation. I’d rather read a romance novel than face reality— though most of my pieces during Ramadan are more substantial than I am in real life, I promise. (I also have a self-deprecating sense of humor).
All I can say is that in my one meeting in life at HHS in DC with my team, I fell asleep. The meeting was one of those full- day meetings where you seriously just want to check out and you can’t remember anyone’s name but you have to nod and pay attention because you don’t get meetings with the head of federal agency every day. I obviously did not pretend well and nodded off. Luckily people tend not to notice the petite Muslim girl in the back of the room. I might have been slightly pregnant, not that that explains falling asleep, but it actually explains so much of my strange social behavior. Thank God my colleague kept me from drooling and hitting my head on the table.
Well, this was a sign to me to never work for the government. I cannot stomach how long it takes to get anything done, but I also cannot stop being fascinated by the collective power of government to mandate change.
But right now I can’t look away or take a nap. My government is actively and unabashedly fueling ethnic cleansing and genocide. My tax dollars go to decimation, death and destruction abroad. This is the month of mercy and collectively as a society, we are witness to moral depravity and unrestrained vengeance from Israel.
I teach my kids if your friend does something wrong, and you know it’s wrong, you have to say something, and if you can stop your friend, stop them. Don’t walk away. Don’t ever choose to be liked over doing the right thing. I tell my kids that there are friends that will lead you to hell and friends that will lead you to paradise. Where do you want to go?
So every day on the school pick-up line, waiting for the kids, I call my representatives to talk to young staffers who take down my address and my name and pass along my message. These 5 minutes are the most important part of my day. Completely meaningless in the grand scheme of American policy change but personally meaningful regardless.
The reminder today is to do one thing you hate doing (calling or emailing government officials) because it might be heavy on your scales.
A Question for You
As you’ve matured, has your engagement with politics changed? Do you feel like the stakes became higher when you became a parent like civic engagement started to mean something? Or did you lose interest in politics and policy change? I’m curious about how activism ages in our lives. Let’s meet in the comments!
Thanks so much for this! I read it this morning and it inspired me to do some calls. Not to gov't reps but friends who I want to show up for. I took 5 minutes and sent a barrage of texts to different people I've been thinking about but who I haven't been in touch with and now am feeling so much better and aligned with values. I needed this reminder
I’ve only grown more disenchanted.