I had a plan for this blog post. I don’t remember what it was. Last night’s events in Missouri have left me saddened, outraged, and deeply distressed. I can’t talk lightheartedly today.
In this world, we’re not supposed to hit people. We’re not supposed to react with violence to the hate and harm piled on us. And I get it. I do. Anything that can be solved with violence can be solved better and faster without it, if people are willing to try. And we need to be willing to try. Or it just gets worse.
I know that. But sometimes, man…sometimes the need to just hit someone is pretty darn strong.
When I get angry, I’ve been known to write scenes of former Marine Eve Marcori beating up slime. I have whole files of Eve taking on slavers, procurers, racists, homophobes…you name it. If whatever they are is a smear on the face of humanity, I’ve probably written a few scenes of Eve beating them up. It’s venting, therapy, catharsis.
In my stories I can fix things. I can lead victims of horror and abuse to their strength and recovery. I can save the children, right the wrongs, feed the hungry and comfort the mourning. I can, maybe, I pray, show someone a person who is different from them, and with luck and skill that I work every day to build, maybe show that reader that the different person is a person.
Anything I can do to make this world we live in a better place is a gift. It’s just added joy that in my stories at least, I can make justice happen.
Maybe that’s why a lot of us read. Because we need to see things come out right once in a while.
Yes, yes, and yes.
In the science fiction novel I’m currently writing, there is only one white character so far…oh, maybe two, I think the antagonist is white. Everyone else, including bit parts, is other than.
It’s a far-future spacefaring story. Making “person of colour” the default in this universe is one small way that I can act.
I hope it helps somebody, someday. I hope these small acts add up and slowly but surely tip the balance. I hope that if enough of us do the work, and talk and listen and rage and retreat to our families and our books when we don’t have the energy to be out there fighting, real change will happen.
I have to believe that.
Hugs.
I love the idea of trying to make things right through writing. 😀
Also, working through your anger through writing? Win. I should try that sometime.