Pagan Activist

–by Shauna Aura Knight

Pagan communities are fraught with internal conflicts. There’s that saying, “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” We don’t need Fox News, or a judge ruling on a case, or a religious leader to tear us down. We do it pretty well ourselves. And there’s a thousand reasons for it, most of them done in innocence. Where is that path paved in good intentions going? The Underworld, I think…

Recently there was hubub about an editorial in Witches & Pagans; basically, an assertion that the Pagan PR response to the defamatory comments made by Fox News about Pagans wasn’t that big a deal and there were other Pagan issues that deserved more attention. And there were responses tearing that editor down for what she wrote and blasting her.

Recently there was also a backlash response to some of Ruth Barrett’s comments about the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival; basically, she supported the “womyn born womyn” or “cisgender only” policy. Ruth Barrett, and others, have supported their stance with the idea that women need women-only space. You know, real women only, right?

Now, I can see how, in a generation or so, statements like that will be as faux pas as saying, “You know, we want white-0nly space. We don’t want to have to deal with sharing space with black people or brown people. We just want to be able to be ourselves, you know? White only, where we feel safe.”

The anti-trans argument is a segregation argument. That trans women are a “different” sort of women who can’t understand the experience of being real women and so shouldn’t be permitted to attend an event where they might offend “real” women.

Putting the long view on again–some day, we’ll just call trans women….women. Just like some day, gay marriage will just be…marriage. You don’t really hear people clarify, “Oh, that’s an interracial marriage.”

But as you might expect, a lot of people blasted Ruth Barrett for her stance, including me. And…there is another side to it. Ruth has been a fierce activist for women’s rights, and deserves respect for that work. And I’m sure it’s true that women who are victims of sexual assault are triggered by seeing women with male genital parts showering in the communal showers. As Melissa Murry said and I so often quote, it’s not an easy question, with no easy answers.

The last time I posted here on Pagan Activist it was about asking Pagans to be more ecologically conscious and to reduce their use of disposable items in ritual. And I took rather a lot of flack from Pagans, some of them event organizers who thought I was personally attacking them.

Pagan Community Building

All three of these scenarios are pretty common in our community. Someone in the Pagan community says something someone else doesn’t like, and they get blasted for it. But, how do we discern when to stand up and speak out? Part of activism is speaking up and standing up for what we believe. But, so very often, this becomes a fistfight of ego-bruising proportions that causes huge rifts in the community.

Starhawk often writes about how healthy dissent is important in a community. But, I see so few Pagan communities that are strong enough to sustain real dissent. For that matter, I see few Pagans with the communication skills to skillfully articulate dissent in a way that doesn’t tear a community apart. And I see few Pagan leaders who can sustain that level of negative feedback; as someone who’s had people tear me apart before, it can be hard to hear and work through. And all this is part of why I’ve devoted considerable time to teaching skills of Pagan leadership, community building, communication, and conflict resolution skills; because, to be stronger as a community, as a connected grouping of communities, we need to get better at this, or we’ll just keep ripping ourselves apart.

Discernment

Before tearing someone a new one, have you thought through the issue? Is the issue really worth getting on your soap box about? There’s a spectrum of behavior here. On one extreme, you have angry loudmouths/toxic people who are never satisfied by anything and compelled to complain about everything. These are the folks that are referred to in the book “Antagonists in the Church,” often suffering from major personality disorders. On the other extreme, you have people who will excuse anything their group leader does in an unhealthy, cult-like codependence. I’ve seen both of these situations play out, and both actually still lead to a group exploding or imploding, it’s just a matter of when.

Discernment means checking in with yourself. Is this an issue that is just about you? Is it just about you needing to be right? Or is this a larger moral issue? Are you compelled by your ethics to speak out? There’s a difference between being an antagonist, and being an activist. But it’s sometimes a very fine line. For me, this kind of discernment requires me to know myself pretty well. What are issues that trigger me? What are things I’m personally passionate about? What’s my sense of ethics, what informs my ethics? What’s right and wrong to me? What’s right and wrong in the group I’m in? Does the group share my ethics and values or am I the odd duck out? When I’m triggered, what’s my instinctive reaction? How do I feel? When I’m angry, do I lash out?

Discernment requires we know ourselves really well, and that we are able to take a breath and look at the situation from a bit of a distance, so that we can make an informed decision about how to act. What happens if I speak up? What happens if I don’t speak up? Am I going to be the only one calling the Emperor on having no clothes?

Holding Paradox and Critical Thinking

A lot of debates and arguments I see in the Pagan community involve polarities, black/white thinking. This is either wrong, or right. I am either wrong, or right. And usually,  if you’re “right,” that means I’m “wrong.” What if, instead, we could hold paradox? That possibly, you and I can disagree on something, and neither of us need be “wrong” or “bad,” but perhaps we can hold that we have different opinions.

Often, the polarizing happens during triangulation and gossip. Basically, person A has an issue with person B but instead of telling person B, they complain to person C. “Do you know what C did to me at the last ritual?” C, having heard of this first from A, assumes that A is telling the truth. C is then polarized against B. We’re inclined to believe what we hear from someone we know well, or from the first person who approaches us to tell us a story about a conflict.

Again, discernment, and critical thinking, means we have to look at all sides. What’s the other side to the conflict? What are the needs beneath the conflict? Is it a conflict where both parties could hold paradox? Or is there an irresolvable difference? Critical thinking requires us to check our sources. Instead of just accepting someone’s word, it’s important to fact check, which means asking the other party for their side of the story. Not just accepting, “Well, people say.”

I’ve had a lot of feedback offered to me in the form of, “I have heard people say that you are…” and then they refuse to divulge their sources. “It’s confidential.” Usually, this is a sneaky way of bolstering their opinion by making it seem like they have the weight of many voices. As a leader, it’s still my job to listen to and consider feedback like that, but I also consider the person’s agenda. What do they have to gain? Is this a power play? Or is this feedback about something I’ve done as a leader that wasn’t in alignment with my values, and I require a course correction and to apologize?

Ego and Egotism

Ego isn’t bad. Ego is the psychic bag of skin that holds the innards of our mind together into a cohesive identity. Ego has a job, and that’s to make us look good; ego wants us to have a positive self image. Egotism, I usually experience as a backlash response to deep personal issues around poor self esteem. In the Iron Pentacle taught in Feri and Reclaiming, this is referred to as the Rusted and Gilded Pentacle. When we have poor self esteem, it’s a hole in the ego. Arrogance and egotism is a poor patch-job on that hole in our ego. Most of the arrogant, egotistical people I see have really huge issues with self image. The more they fear they’ll look bad, the more they puff themselves up. Many of these folks, at the core, identify as a victim, feel like they are always under attack.

I understand it, because I’ve been there. Choosing to heal the old wounds in my ego, to develop better self esteem, to take responsibility for myself and my actions and my choices…well. That’s the work of a lifetime. But it’s this work that allows me to hear feedback and not immediately overreact to it. I can consider what’s being said. I might get pissed, I might get hurt, but eventually I can listen to it and check in. Did I do something wrong as a leader? Do I need to change my behavior? Do I need to apologize? Or am I listening to the sniping of an antagonist?

Or is it something in the middle; someone who has a genuine concern, because their own issues of self identity are triggered by something I said or did? Is it an ethical issue, a values issue, or an issue of a wound being triggered, or something else?

Communication and Conflict Resolution

There’s one tool I teach in my leadership classes that, if we actually all used this tool, I think most of the community conflicts would be reduced or even eliminated. Or at least, most of the needless ones. The tool is the Four Levels of Reality, taught to me at Diana’s Grove, and taught to them by Jean Houston.

1. Physical Reality: What actually happened. “Pat stood 30 feet away from me in the circle and squinted.”
2. Mythic Reality: We don’t see physical reality, we tell an instant story. “Pat glared at me.”
3. Emotional Reality: The story we create in our head creates an instantaneous emotional response. “Pat hates me, they are glaring at me, I’m so angry at them, I’m so embarrassed.”
4. Essential Reality: Why is that the mythic reality we chose, the story we wrote? Why didn’t we think, “Pat is squinting at the sun,” instead? Essential Reality is our core issues of identity and self esteem, how we frame the world. If we assume that everyone actually hates us because no one has ever really liked us, that’s essential reality. It’s our core identity, but it’s an identity that can be changed. This requires a lot of personal work. If you find you approach everything as a victim, that people are out to get you, that nobody likes you…that might be some areas to consider doing some personal spiritual work.

Poor self esteem and poor self image are at the root of many of the conflicts I see. Person A and person B have a massive argument because both are so petrified of people seeing them be “wrong” that they can’t fathom backing down. Ego’s job is to keep us feeling positive about ourselves. And…if I’m wrong, then I’m “bad,” right? And if I’m “bad,” then I’m a bad person, and nobody will like me, right? Then I’ll die alone.

Doesn’t have to make sense, it’s just how it works for some of us. And the irony is, by being the jerk who has to be right all the time, people really do start to dislike us and withdraw from this.

Take this from my personal experience. I used to be the self-loathing jerk who had to be right all the time. I’ve done a lot of personal work around this. I still get my hackles up sometimes, I want to be “right.” But I can usually head it off at the pass. I am a lot more confident in myself than I was 10 years ago, and it allows me to not rise to the bait of the “I have to be right” folks. It allows me to hold discernment about how to respond to a disagreement.

The Four Levels tool offers two potential roads for personal and group work. The first is exploring your mythic responses, and the essential reality under them. It offers the potential to create a new essential reality for yourself, heal the old wounds that are driving your actions and responses.

Direct Communication

However, there’s also the external work of checking in with people directly. If Pat is squinting at me, and I’m not sure if Pat is glaring, or what, it’s pretty simple. I can go and ask Pat, “Hey, in Circle you were squinting, were you glaring at me or just squinting at the sun?” Maybe Pat says, “Just the sunlight, sorry!”

Or maybe Pat says, “Yeah, I was really pissed at you because you…” and then you have an opportunity to address the conflict.

But, most of you won’t ever do this.

If we actually directly addressed things, most of the conflicts out there would dissolve without drama because most conflicts are over us making up stories in our heads based on our past wounding. But given our passive-aggressive culture, we’re taught to not bring anything up until we’re so pissed off that we can’t hold it in anymore and we blow up in a fit of temper.

For me, part of being an activist, and someone who is empowered to bring up the voice of dissent in groups I am part of means doing my own ruthless personal work to know who I am, where I stand, to heal the wounds of my past and to hold discernment for the issues I’m bringing up. Sometimes I realize that something I’m bringing up is just “about me” and I don’t need to speak up; I’m not standing in alignment with my values, in my integrity, if I speak out when it’s actually about my own issues. Sometimes, I realize that the cost of not speaking up, is not calling the Emperor out on their lack of clothes. And that isn’t standing in my integrity either.

Sometimes only history can tell us the “right” of our actions.

For my part, I have the discernment to hold both perspectives offered by the editorial in Witches & Pagans. I see the author’s point, and, I also think the Pagan PR response to Fox’s comments was also important. With Ruth Barrett and other Dianic and Feminist voices speaking out against Trans women being included in women-only events, I feel that this is a civil rights issue, and it’s only a matter of time before our society catches up to what’s right, just as states are slowly legalizing gay marriage, and as once upon a time, women were given the right to vote, and people of color were given legal equal rights.

I got torn apart by people who disagreed with me that Pagans should stop using styrofoam and other non-ecologically-friendly items, and some of that feedback hurt. But, it’s the voice of dissent that needs to be heard, even if it’s unpopular.

Ethics

I’d like to call on each of us to learn how to communicate more skillfully. To read books like Nonviolent Communication to learn how to give more effective feedback, to read books on leadership and community building, to learn to have respectful discourse, to do our own personal work to become the people who don’t fly off the handle at the slightest insult. To learn how to build and strengthen our groups instead of tearing them apart from the inside.

Only when we come at activism, and standing up, from a place of ethics and integrity, is the dissenting voice going to have the kind of impact we hope for.

My wife, the bee whisperer…

I freaking love bees.

I didn’t always do so.  As a child, I seemed to get stung more regularly than most.  On time, at the local public pool I was hit a few times in a row including inside my mouth.  Granted, there’s a bunch of different types of stinging insects, but frankly as a child they were all “bees” to me.

Things changed sometime in late middle school.  At the time I was still in the Boy Scouts but I was never a very good scout and had no interest in merit badges.  For those of you familiar with scouting, this greatly limited my ability to advance in the scouts, but I digress.  The one badge I specifically sought out:  beekeeping.

One of the scout masters kept bees in his backyard.  He had maybe two or three hives if memory serves and he volunteered to work with us through the steps of the badge.  We learned about bee physiology and their life cycle, how they organized the hive, and all that jazz.  Learning about them helped me to become less frightened and while I’m not exactly lining up to volunteer to get stung, I no longer worry about it so much.

But in 2006, beekeepers began to report significant reductions in bee populations.  This wasn’t the first time that bee colonies died off; it happens due to abnormal weather patterns or other environmental situations.  And, often, these die-offs remain unexplained.  But, this more recent die-off continued and its similarities with earlier ones created enough of a pattern that they all gained a common name:  Colony Collapse Disorder.

Colony Collapse Disorder

So why should we care?  This is likely information that you already know, but just in case you only think of bees as hurtful pests that ruin summer afternoons, a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report “estimates that out of some 100 crop species which provide 90% of food worldwide, 71 of these are bee-pollinated. In Europe alone, 84% of the 264 crop species are animal-pollinated and 4,000 vegetable varieties exist thanks to pollination by bees.”  That’s a lot of food supplies that rely on bees to reproduce

There’s a lot of information at the above liked wikipedia article but to summarize, colony collapse disorder (CCD) is the sudden and disappearance of worker bees from a beehive.  The European Union and the United States have tracked the situation quick carefully.  During a normal winter, you might see a quarter of your bee population die off from normal causes.  However, in a hive that suffers from CCD, the numbers can be closer to 50% or more.  In the US, it’s estimated that the bee population has declined from almost 6 million insects in the middle of the 20th century to around 2.4 million in 2008.

Neonicotonoids

It’s causes are disputed, but the European Union has noticed that rise in CCD was correlating to an increase in the use of a certain type of pesticides called neonicotinoids.  If you dig into that word a bit you might notice something similar:  the word nicotine.  These are pesticides based on the same drug found in cigarettes which is not only dangerous for mammals but also for insects.  Neonicotinoids are nicotine-like chemicals that we’ve developed to be less harmful to mammals but remain lethal to bugs.  Most frightening to me is that these chemicals are water-soluble, meaning that the dissolve in water, and as a result they can be sprayed on the ground, dissolved into the water that falls on it, and then drawn up into the plants themselves so that insects that consume them die off there after.

The EU released a study this past January that indicated three specific neonicotinoids that may pose a greater risk to bee populations than some others.  Unfortunately, as is often the case, the variables in the situation make it incredibly difficult for scientists to definitively say that the use of them directly leads to CCD.  Worse, the causes of CCD are generally disputed and in addition to neonicotinoids other causes, including various fungi, have been theorized.

But, earlier this week, in what I feel is a major win for those of us who worry about these sorts of things, the EU ruled that starting no later than December 1, 2013, certain types of neonicotinoids would be banned for use as a pesticide for two years.  During this time, the EU would try to determine if this change alters the resulting health of beehives in the area.  The voting was not enough to ban the pesticides outright, but so it falls to the EU Commission to enforce the ban.  It is the Commission that reported on the December 1 start to the ban.

In the US, both the Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Department of Agriculture are taking a bit more of a wait in see approach. I’ve previously found information about CCD on the USDA website here, even as recently as yesterday, but it doesn’t appear to be working this morning.  Similar to the dissenting votes in the EU, the US government feels that the exact causes of CCD are unknown and that more study is necessary.  Personally, I agree that the causes are unknown, but I applaud that the EU in actually trying to see if they can better determine those causes through experimentation.

Bee Activism

So what can we do about it?  This is an activist blog after all.  In many ways, if you care about bees like I do, the most obvious thing to do is keep some bees!  Apiculture (i.e. beekeeping) is fascinating but considering the danger of allergies and the general dislike for stinging insects, the comfort of your family and neighbors should be considered, as well as the local laws, before you go down that road.

Another, and perhaps more easily handled, way is to get your hands on the Queen of the Sun and share it with others.  Here’s the trailer:

The producers of the film have additional information on their site about how you can help even if you don’t want to keep bees.  Most accessible is their top-10 list of things to do to help bees.

The attack on the Boston Marathon left a lot of nerves rattled myself included. I feared the crazies would come out of the woodwork demanding the heads of those who would attack a peaceful event that the Boston Marathon is. I looked to my deities for comfort just as millions of others did around the world when they heard two bombs had been set at the finish line.

I was gratified to hear there was to be an interfaith service. The service included “Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley joined Rev. Liz Walker from Roxbury Presbyterian Church; Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Methodios; Rabbi Ronne Friedman of Temple Israel; Rev. Nancy Taylor, minister at Old South Church ; Nasser Weddady, chair of the New England Interfaith Council and director of the American Islamic Congress; Bishop John Borders III, pastor of Morning Star Baptist Church in Mattapan; and the Rev. Roberto Miranda, pastor of Lion of Judah Congregation in Roxbury on the altar as the service began.” (source). I listened to the service as I headed out to an appointment.

What I heard on the radio was intrAfaith: that is, the faith of three God fearing religions. Jews, Christians, and Muslims have a lot of work to do within their three faiths when it comes to getting along and not using Mother Earth as their pulpit. But I don’t like the use of the word “interfaith” do describe the work the Big Three participate in. Rather, I call that intrafaith.

Interfaith would have included Hindus, Buddhists, and Pagans. I’m sure there was at least one Hindu, one Buddhist, and one Pagan ran the marathon out of the 26,000+ runners that Patriot’s Day. It would’ve been nice to have been acknowledged for the fear we felt, to be comforted in our time of need. So if — when sadly — this happens again let the leaders of a myriad of faiths come together instead of just the Big 3 so we can all heal collectively. When putting together interfaith events please make sure they are interfaith and don’t just represent the three most dominant religions.

Image credit

Occupy the FDA – April 8, 2013

Our “day” started off at midnight as we boarded a bus in Hartford, CT joining up with riders who arrived from Northampton, MA. It was interesting that when I arrived at the bus station I met several people with whom I’d only had email or Facebook contact and yet our shared cause made it feel like I was meeting old friends. The sense of community was almost instantaneous. I can’t say the bus ride was either comfortable or restful but I kept reminding myself of the importance of our trip. Confronting the FDA on its own turf was too good an opportunity to pass up for the sake of a good night’s sleep.

We were due to arrive at the FDA in College Park, MD around 8:00 am. Getting in earlier than expected, Marty, our coordinator extraordinaire, called ahead to a diner to see if they were open for breakfast so we could at least fuel up on coffee before starting our day. The Silver Diner opens at 7:00 am but agreed to open at 6:30 to accommodate us. Good people! An even better surprise awaited us once we got to our tables and saw the menu: “Farm to Table”! While we had no thoughts that the menu was GMO free, we appreciated the steps the diner was taking toward a healthy, local and community sustaining menu. What were the chances that this is the place that would open early to help out a band of food activists?

Sitting across the table from me was James, a dedicated and excited member of our group. What made his presence special for me is the fact that he’s eight years old and had requested to join his mother on the trip. It is heartening to see that moms like his are educating their children not only about the health issue surrounding GMOs but also about the importance of publicly speaking out. It was an honor to share my day with James and his mother.

Arriving at the site of our picnic lunch and demonstration, the crowd seemed small but it grew throughout the day. Estimates range between 250 and 350 in total. Everyone had brought a contribution to the Stone Soup we would be sharing later in the day and many brought GMO free or organic seeds to share at the seed swap table. Many of us took the opportunity to take the mic and share our reasons for having made the trip. Reasons included wanting labels on all GMO foods, calling for the ousting of Michael Taylor from the FDA, boycotting anything containing GMO ingredients to send an economic message to Monsanto that we won’t buy what they are peddling and finally an end to GMO foods all together. There were other, less expressed reasons for some us to be there. Sharing solidarity, community and ideas for the future was motivating, empowering and validating. Sometimes when the struggle seems overwhelming, those things can keep me going with a renewed sense of determination.

In late morning, the fire was lit under a 50 gallon pot into which we put a stone to get us started followed by the wonderful ingredients brought by the crowd. By the time it was finished we had a wonderful meal – delicious in spirit as well as taste.

Homeland Security had quite a presence at our event in the form of no less than a dozen vehicles and many uniformed officers. Alas, they spent a very dull day patrolling an event that gave no cause for them to take any action. Quite the contrary, some of us shared food with them and my own conversation with three of them after lunch was very pleasant. The “enemy” isn’t always an enemy.

After lunch people took to the mic once again to express their personal visions for our food future and then informal sessions were held to talk about a variety of related subjects. A picnic lunch followed by discussion groups on the sidewalk and lawn of the FDA… quite a site.

As the sessions wound down, those of us who had traveled a fair distance got ready for the return trip. Once on the bus I began to go over the day’s events and evaluate our effectiveness for having been there. The local news station showed up and broadcast a segment which made its way to Facebook (of course!), pictures and stories were shared by all of us through social media and email which got the message out to many beyond those of us who were there and we all had a chance to meet up with people from other states to share ideas for actions and support. My final evaluation… it was a great day! It was a day worthy of an almost 15 hour round trip bus ride and being totally useless the following day from lack of sleep.

Would I do again? Certainly. Will you join me? I hope so!

This weeks post comes from the illustrious Peter Dybing. His own blog A Pagan in Paradise is an inspiration to Pagans across the planet.

Recent posts in the community have pointed out activism is home grown in nature. Those wishing to engage in activism must first find their voice in their own community and be able to “stand” their ground and call the community to self-reflection on how our own actions do or do not reflect our values. ‘Standing up’ and risking negative discourse, social consequences and sometimes-hurt feelings is at the very center of the activist archetype.

There comes a time when activists, after having attended a plethora of protests, writing letters galore and donating to many causes, realize it is time to sit down. This need arises from the realization that the many causes we support do not manifest their actions from spontaneous protests, letter writing and eloquent speeches, but from tactical planning, event coordination, coordinated effort and building alliances.

Ultimately, it is those who take a seat and engage in these less than high profile activities that are at the core of making a difference in the causes they support. Long nights are spent writing and re writing calls to action. Extensive conversations are held with allies in attempts to engage them in direct action. Planning around logistics including transportation, sanitation, permits and food takes considerable time. It is in these mundane efforts that causes make progress, attract attention and influence public discourse.

At the core of these activities are skills that set uncomfortably with activists. In order to achieve what we want it is necessary to negotiate, compromise, cede space to representatives of other causes and allow our vision to be refined in ways we never imagined. We as an activist community are long on the ability to shout from rooftops and sorely short on the ability to sit down, keep our own council and deeply listen to those who have different, yet complimentary visions.

The skills mentioned above are central to building effective actions in ways that far exceed showing up with a sign at a protest. The most critical of these skills is the ability to build a Web Of Mutual support within the progressive community. At the center of this skill is the acknowledgement that we are promoting a minority position and it is necessary to engage supporters of other progressive causes in order to affect real change.

Recently, this concept was on full display as organizations such as Greenpeace USA changed their internet profile to the HRC equity symbol while the Supreme Court heard arguments surrounding marriage inclusivity. In the case of Greenpeace, for example, this social media action suddenly was displayed up front and center before tens of thousands of progressives who believe environmental action is the top issue of our times. The leadership of many organizations made a tactical decision to suspend their own agenda, for a short time, in order to support a worthy cause in the community. Building mutual trust, good will and the possible engagement of the marriage equality community in future justice related actions of their organizations.

It falls upon activists of all stripes to engage tactical thinking, sit down and do the real work of activism and recognize that issues of justice, social, economic or environmental are interrelated. It is only by manifesting a Web Of Mutual Support through hard work that we have a chance of achieving the results that we imagine for our selves, our community and the world.

We must both stand up and be heard and sit down and do the real work of activism!

For those of you who do not regularly read Patheos, the site has set out a challenge for many of its writers to sum up their religious beliefs in 200 words. This has run the gamut from conservative Christian to my good friend Sufenas summing up es path. I decided I wanted to try my hand at this, after often questioning if I have a place here.

—————————————————————————————-

I have a voice. My gods and spirits encourage me to use it. I cannot be quiet seeing our Earth and Cosmos mistreated.
Not when bees are dying because of shortsightedness.
Not when plastic flies through the air like leaves.
Not when nutritious food and clear water are seen to be a privilege.
Not when the dominator paradigm, the Ism and Phobia brothers are the default mindset.
Not when so many people do not have a roof over their heads.
Not when the talk around energy is about more production instead of less consumption, and oil spills invade suburban back yards.
Not when states are trying to enact laws to make one religion the law of the land.
Not when I do not have autonomy over my own body in the eyes of the law.
Not when I cannot be out about my personal or religious life for fear of losing friends, family, job.
Not when people must worry for their safety and for their lives because of their gender.

I must live within ma’at and be mindful of wyrd. Let me lay down words and actions to boost both and make the lives of all people better and brighter.