Initiative

There’s a world full of grief waiting every morning as I wake up, make a coffee, and connect to the news.

It’s said that grief is love with no place to go, and it’s true that the period of collapse that we’re in seems to be accelerating - that “burn it all down” isn’t a hyperbolic expression but actively happening without anything to counter the flames.

It often seems overwhelming - there’s so much to do, but how do you start doing it?

Where are the places our grief can go?

Someone once told me that if everyone picks one cause and focuses their attention on it, that single drop of love, hope, and attention rapidly becomes a wave. She told me that when rest is needed, there’s plenty of momentum from other people doing the same to keep the wave going.

In this way many causes are fought, amplified, heard. You don’t need to fight all the fires, all the time to make a difference.

In New Zealand, something happened in January this year, when activists noticed the Treaty Principles Bill submission deadline had been planned for when most Kiwis were on holiday.

Calls for submissions became loud and widespread - and three times more feedback than any other bill has received came in.

Now, there’s a fight to ensure that feedback is heard.

Something happened in February this year, when an act of bigotry happened during Auckland’s Pride month.

Immediately, there was an outpouring of support for the Rainbow community and calls for action from elected members and the public.

Seven people have appeared in court.

There were calls for Destiny Church to lose its charity status, including from Labour MP Phil Twyford. There is a petition with almost 40,000 signatures to support that call.

People are finding places for their grief to go.

They are speaking up as culture led by those at the top influences the type of men who desperately want to make internet comment sections a reality.

They are speaking up to challenge a political status quo that does not serve the public - or democracy.

They are speaking up as relationship and sex ed guidelines were removed by the Education Ministry in New Zealand - even as the UK are implementing lessons for schoolchildren on how to counter misogyny and toxic masculinity.

They are speaking up to support access to gender affirming care.

People are speaking up to say “police patrols, as visible expressions of the state’s coercive power, mean a different thing to the community (they) represent than they may mean to others”.

They are speaking up about political targeting of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives (which mysteriously occurred just before a New Zealand visit to the United States to “ask the new Administration what it wants from New Zealand”).

They are speaking up in the face of deliberate minimisation of vital public health tools and communication.

They are speaking up as services are underfunded and under resourced, and as poor service is deliberately normalised to aid the case for privatisation of healthcare.

People are speaking up in the face of deliberate intent to silence them.

They are speaking up as the healthcare system is eroded, and impacts are accelerating.

I asked two of those people what made them speak up.

Shontelle experienced unacceptable delays in the public health system that impacted her health, and spoke about it with RNZ here.

She told me:

“I wanted to speak up because I've learned the only person who is really capable of advocating for you, is you. And that by not saying anything, we allow those in power to keep us in the dark.

Speaking up, whether it's to advocate for yourself or somebody else, is daunting. It feels like searching for a light switch in the dark.

The health system currently feels like an extremely hard place to navigate. I am hopeful that by shedding light on the issues so many of us are facing, it will make a difference.

I have to believe that, collectively, we can do anything, together.”

Dr Ed Hyde spoke with The Post here about his experience with Covid, and caring for people with Long Covid. “He knows the damage the infection does to bodies, and to brains, and he knows how easy it is to catch.”

In an environment where Covid precautions are now minimal, Ed spoke up in his capacity as a healthcare professional.

Ed talks about why:

“I was asked if I’d be interviewed for a news article on people who were still COVID conscious.

As a doctor I’m acutely aware of both the need to stay COVID conscious for myself and my patients, and also to utilise my privilege by speaking up publicly. I felt nervous because it’s a relatively new experience to speak publicly outside of healthcare.

I was a little concerned about push back from colleagues and even patients, but actually the feedback (so far) has only been incredibly positive.

It was really empowering and heart warming to realise that I could make a difference in this way.

I don’t know that I would want to do this regularly, but it’s certainly encouraged me to be prepared to do so again.”

Many thanks Ed and Shontelle for sharing your thoughts - and many thanks for using your voices.

There are those who like to use the word “initiative” in a similar way to the way they use “woke” - to conjure visions of a golden era that never existed.

This false golden era is one where hard work yields you vast riches - and if you’re accustomed to privilege, equity feels like oppression.

There are people who want to burn the world down in the name of that golden era, but I have hope in those finding a place for their grief and their love to go in order to combat the flames.

“Initiative” means the ability to assess and initiate things independently. To "use your initiative, imagination, and common sense".

It’s “the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do”.

You have to believe that somewhere over the horizon green shoots are starting to grow, to emerge from under the ashes into a different kind of day.

You have to believe in things you can’t yet see, in the power of your own voice and the collective one.

As Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw noted recently:

“We all have a role to play in framing the values that lead to the sort of community we want to live in - compassionate, responsible, inclusive, creative and wise.”

This morning I came across this - there may be some tidal waves coming yet, worldwide.

There are moments that require more from us, that require our grief and our outrage and our hope for a better day.

We’re in one. This moment will not be quick, and it will require our resistance and our solidarity and our empathy and our rest and the uncompromising joy waiting for us on the other side of grief, just over the horizon.

It will require our voices.

It will require us to build a movement where the middle of the political road is no longer enough - and where we choose to step together onto new paths.

Thanks to everyone speaking up in the way they can with the resources, privilege and capacity they have.

Whether it’s a media interview, a parliament submission, an email to your MP, sharing words that move you or amplifying a cause close to your heart - you’re showing us the possibilities that will eventually make their way into the light.

Inside the word "emergency" is "emerge"; from an emergency new things come forth. The old certainties are crumbling fast, but danger and possibility are sisters.

- Rebecca Solnit