Eyes on the prize

I was reading a friend’s posts–thoughtful, concerned, humane, powerful. One of her “friends” then posted a vitriolic attack on her. The attack was baseless, of course, but what’s fascinating is how that attack set in motion a chain of responses. The responses were good, smart, measured.  My friend did the right thing, blocking the poster, calling him out, moving on. Nevertheless, the attacker had succeeded, for a while, at derailing the conversation. The attack did what it was intended to do–cause anger, fear, uncertainty, and sow division.

I write about this because we are going through this on a much larger scale all the time. We face a series of problems: unfettered police authority. Systemic racism. Nascent dictatorship.

One person throwing a brick. One person lighting a match. One person driving a tanker truck. One person pulling the trigger on a pepper spray canister. One person can shift our attention from what we must do.

We need to remember the power of the destructive individual. That person can, in the blink of an eye, shatter the harmony we have struggled to build. We must keep vigilant, we must keep reminding ourselves that malevolence is simply easier than good.

We must keep our eyes on the prize.

We will get through this.