Politics Isn’t a Debate Topic. It’s Survival.
Ignoring politics doesn’t make it disappear—it makes injustice louder. Let’s have the conversation we’ve been avoiding.
[Dear friends, I write this as an invitation to recognize life is politics and very personal. I’m sorry if we didn’t have this conversation directly before I’m writing this to the world.]
“I don’t want to talk about politics.”
I hear this a lot. It seems like the conversation is starting to get tense. It’s clear we have different viewpoints. So, the conversation is shut down with the phrase, “I don’t talk about politics.”
And that is precisely why we have problems in our world today. Because politics is life. And when we don’t talk about politics, we don’t talk about life.
To have my son in a hospital with a medical team, I had the Oregon Health Plan. The Oregon Health Plan is the state-run Medicaid program. I made $12 per hour at a job with no insurance and worked less than 20 hours per week while finishing my bachelor’s degree. Because I made so little (less than $12,000 per year) and had no insurance, the societal value was that I deserved to have care so my baby would be taken care of.
My ability to have care is because elected officials decided we would have a program like the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid). Medicaid is funded by the state and federal governments. So, other elected officials and appointed and hired people all ensured that I was able to be in a hospital to birth my son. The birthing of my son required a c-section. Being in the hospital ensured I could safely deliver my baby.
Having a baby is politics.
My sister has a son with special health needs. He has been allowed to have insurance with the CHIPs program. Again, this is a policy decision that named that the care they need for their son is extraordinary, and it’s deserving of extra support so their child can be the healthiest he can be and the parents won’t be destitute trying to provide for their one child.
This is politics.
If I were in Idaho, a neighboring state, and I wanted to have an abortion. I would not be allowed to. My body is legislated. This is politics.
We didn’t have enough money to have enough food for our family when my son was little. We got extra in the form of SNAP (food stamps), WIC, and even heating credits for our winter heat bill.
Government programs funded all of these things. So, elected officials who were voted in, said okay, let’s do this. This is all politics. This is life.
When you say, “I don’t want to talk about politics,” you are really saying I can’t be bothered to be uncomfortable because I either haven’t experienced what you are or it’s been so long that I must have picked myself up by my bootstraps, and you should too. When you say you don’t want to talk about politics, it’s less about protecting your own peace and more about hurting the peace of others. Because you have the privilege to close your ears and eyes to the horrors in our world.
When you say, “I don’t want to talk about politics,” you are closing your heart to the empathy we need to really make our world a better place.
Maybe you don’t intend to close your heart to the empathy the world needs. But by shutting out conversations of politics, you are holding neutrality that is harmful.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
~ Desmond Tutu
This is an invitation to do something. And that something could be talking to your friends and loved ones why justice is important. That something could be messaging your elected officials and reminding them they represent you - no matter who you voted for - and their job is to represent your interests, and you are interested in justice. That something could be as far as putting your body on the line and risking arrest because you now believe defending justice is that important.
“The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.”
~ Maya Angelou
I want everyone to be free. I want everyone to have autonomy over their own body - whether they want to be pregnant or truly find a way to live into the person they know they are. I want everyone to be free to roam, to visit places, to be safe. I want everyone to be free to work how it makes sense for them and be respected for that work. We have a long way to go to build a truly just society. But, when we don’t talk about politics, we make the road to justice that much further away.
Let’s talk together. Let’s listen together, and together, we will build the just world we deserve and that our children deserve.
