Choosing Action

I almost didn’t go onstage today. How could I speak about eco activism at a wellness conference when mourning the loss of eleven Jews who were viscously murdered in an anti Semitic hate crime just yesterday? When two black people were gunned down in a unmistakably racist attack by another white supremacist? When fourteen of our nation’s top business, political and media leaders were directly targeted with bombs by a right wing extremist? How could I do anything of meaning, of value, of worth at such a tragic, troubling, terrifying time? And then I remembered the words of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, “the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” I have long refused to take on the burden of hate, to succumb to darkness, to be overtaken by fear, but here I was about to choose something akin to those very responses: indifference, silence, inaction. And so I proudly put on my Star of David pin, took the stage before an eager audience, and spoke truths about environmentalism, activism and the need to take a stand for justice, for wellness, for humanity — here, now, for all, for all time.