Most mornings, I wake up groggy. A lot of nights since October, I’ve woken up with great sorrow and dread. Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Haiti, and Yemen. These places have people and things, war, and bombs. So. Many. Bombs.

All over social media, there is this urgent call to stand up and yell for the voices being drowned out by bombardment and gunfire. I want nothing more than to make my voice a lion’s roar for them, because I have the luxury of doing so.

I have struggled to figure out how best to serve the communities afflicted by genocides and apartheid. I wasn’t around in Rwanda, the Holocaust, or the Trail of Tears. What did the radicals, the freedom fighters, and the people do then? How did they handle it? What do I do? I’m not a revolutionary. I’m a girl with comforts I am accustomed to. I am a girl with love in her heart for humanity, but I’ve eaten at Burger King. I’ve had Oreos by mistake. I’ve done things that make me seem like your basic boycott fatigued sissy.

Are we putting too much pressure on the people because our leaders have failed us? If those in places of leadership can’t do it, or rather won’t do it, then it’s all on our shoulders. Right? Because let’s face the facts, no one is coming to save us. At least, not yet.

So, what does it mean to stand up for something you believe in? When do social media posts and solidarity online become performative? Who do we blame if there is anyone? Most of all, how can we tell everyone that they’re loved? How do we reach the broken?

I saw a video a few days ago. A moment of peace in the deluge of chaos. A group of bright-eyed Palestinian children danced in the dust. They shimmied and smiled as if there were no genocide. A few days before that, I saw a boy driven to desperation create a wind turbine to help power his home. His dream was to become an engineer. He has made it. Decades earlier than he would’ve assumed.

These videos brought me to a conclusion. Joy and Creativity is resistance. Passion is resistance. Love is resistance. The media would like to keep us overwhelmed with bombs and children dying. While I want to grieve and need to grieve because of these atrocities, I think what we are seeing in the world today is paramount and powerful.

If no one cares, these atrocities can keep going on. If no one is outraged, no one cries, no one streams, and the artists don’t create, there will be no spark. Artists. You are necessary. People. You are necessary. Donations while we are in an economic crisis might be too much for you. That’s fine. However, you can help in other ways. You can talk to your neighbor. Ask the quiet co-worker to lunch. Smile at the next person who gives you a frown. If we reach out and touch, the powers that be will lose. The goal has always been to keep us so divided, tired, and grief stricken that we cannot mobilize. Now they know we are numerous. We are mighty. Lets stick it to them.

— Satuurn