QÜESTIONS COL·LATERALS
Dissabte va assistir com un
més a la marxa contra el seu nou president i va penjar algunes fotos al facebook, així com d’altres amb Barack
Obama en el comiat d’aquest, i sembla que hi ha hagut gent – cosa estranya –
que no els hi ha semblat bé.
Després d’aquests comentaris negatius, s’ha
decidit a publicar una nota:
Dear fellow citizens who are being mean in our
comments section,
I don’t know you so it’s hard for me to
accurately guess how much time you spend on your devices commenting on and
unfollowing “celebrities” and moderately well known music figures. My
assumption is that it’s more than even you would care to admit. Since I don’t
know you it’s extremely difficult for me to weigh the degree to which I should
take you seriously. Still, it’s easier to infer things about you than it is to
take on board your criticism of me. For example: When you say something about
Bill Clinton it makes me realize that you’re old (or at least as old as I am)
but it means nothing to me because I don’t care for the man and I don’t know
where anyone would get the idea that I do.
Anyway, it occurred to me that being in the
position I’m in – where people devote their time and energy to negatively
comment and insult their Formerly Approved of Musician™ (F.A.M. – I think
that’s going to really take off as a phrase in these upcoming years) for
lending his support to things he and his band mates and all of our families
have feelings about – I should take advantage of the opportunity to occupy your
time and energy as often as possible to infiltrate your minds. Not because I
have much hope of changing your opinions (again, I don’t know you, so I’m not
sure what your bag is) but I mean, MAYBE our sincerity about the things that
concern us can inspire some deeper investigation into those concerns. I suppose
that’s why we share our opinions on Facebook, social media, etc., but I think
it’s more often than not just a helpful reminder to like-minded people (our
bubble?) not to despair and to try to remain hopeful. It’s a place for us to
model some coping strategies that have made us feel better as citizens and to
remind people to participate.
Speaking of bubbles…sure, we live in a bubble.
I’d love for more of you to share our bubble though! It’s awesome! In our
bubble I know cops and rappers and grocery store cashiers and artists and
garbage collectors…so many decent people that don’t really care that much about
people being different than they are. If you can trust a reality TV star
billionaire when he says, “believe me,” surely you can believe me when I say
you’re welcome in my bubble. I grew up in what I think might be something like
your bubble. You should at least try this one! Come on in!
Or….maybe you just get off on getting people
angry and it helps you blow off a little steam and feel a tiny bit more in
control of your life. Good for you. Or…maybe you’re serious about all the
hurtful things you’ve been saying. If you ARE serious, I would like to welcome
you back to our little corner of the web to spit and foam anytime you like. I
can take it. I’m not afraid of you. There are more of us here and there always
will be. So please come back! We’ll keep laying out dishes of warm outrage for
you to lap up in the form of our vision of a better world, causes we believe
in, actions we’re taking, etc., and in turn we’ll have peace of mind in knowing
that you aren’t out in the world acting on the anger so evident in your hastily
typed and misspelled defenses of a man who has been elevated to a position of
immense power but in whom I’ve yet to see any evidence of virtue. You’ll be
here where we want you and the most vulnerable among us will have one less
danger to encounter.
With love (seriously),
Jeff Tweedy
