In Solidarity

What does it mean to stand in solidarity with others? What does it mean to act in solidarity with them? How close is too close? Too overwhelming, too controlling? How far away is too distant, too removed, too out of touch? How do we balance between our isolationist and our interventionist tendencies? These are the questions I ponder when a text message seems too little and a plane ride maybe too much. I hope that we stay in this struggle for the long haul and we do everything in our power to help the most people possible to live lives of decency, dignity, and hope without doing too much or inserting our agenda. In the end though, I’d rather do too much and be asked to step aside than do too little and wonder who was asking when I was too far away to hear or too unconcerned to listen. Real transformation takes sustained engagement; it requires a consistent and unwavering solidarity, with a goal to develop sustainability. But if we leave when the cameras leave, we’ve done neither.