While California Jedi was up in the mountains with little signal or internet access focusing on our training, a woman died in Charlottesville. She is hardly the first person to be grievously harmed by white supremacy, nor, I fear, will she be the last in the weeks to come. Jedi strive to resolve conflict peacefully, but we are first and foremost “defenders and peace and justice”. Peace is not merely the absence of conflict, and justice not merely the enforcement of the law.
I’d like to ask all of you to look at your communities; not just the people you spend time with, but the people you walk by every day, and think about the ways in which they are vulnerable to the rising tide of violence being spread by those who think white people are the only ones who deserve to live. What can you as a Jedi and a person of conscience do to protect them?
Write letters, call your congresspeople and senators. Stand up to hate and watch out for the people standing next to you at protests. Take care of your friends and family, especially your community leaders: they will have to give a lot in the coming days, and they need fuel for that fight. Speak up for little moments of injustice, as well as the big ones. Put your skills to work defending others, and teaching them to defend themselves when you are able. Let those whose voices are the quietest or the most silenced speak up.
Find those who need your help, those with less protection and privilege than yourself, and do what Jedi are meant to do: defend and protect.
It is an important time to be a jedi. We are very much needed.
Absolutely wonderful!