Today, the horrific situation in the US is breaking my heart… the divisiveness, the lack of basic respect and common decency, the breakdown of basic democratic principles and institutions… all of which is making almost any kind of civilized political debate impossible… well it just breaks my heart.
So I am hoping and praying that everyone of you who reads this and who is able to vote in the US election, is doing so and doing so fiercely and with pride.
Remember, every single one of us has a voice, and our voices matter. And in this situation, your right to vote is your voice. Please use it.
For me, living here in Denmark as I do, watching the unfolding situation in the US today really triggers in me the memory of my own traumatic departure from the US. As many of you know, in the early 1960s when I was 18, the Vietnam War was really starting to turn ugly. My boyfriend Steve had just dropped out of college and was immediately drafted into the army. Steve and I were against the Vietnam War. My father was a military man and worked at the Pentagon, so our opposition to the war wasn’t very popular in my family. At that time, there was the draft in the United States so Steve had only two options – join the army or go to jail for five years. The protest movement hadn’t really begun yet in the United States and Steve and I felt very alone with our choices. But it was a question of doing the right thing and we had only our lives and our bodies to do it with – so we did. We decided we would not be a part of a war that we thought was unjust. So I ran away from home and Steve ran from the army – and together we went underground. We left the United States and after two years on the run and many adventures, we ended up getting political asylum in Sweden, a country that opposed American involvement in Vietnam. And 2 years later, I was living in Copenhagen and my first book about the youth rebellion against the Vietnam war was published in Denmark and Sweden.
Doing the right thing
Because of this experience, I learned at an early age that doing the right thing isn’t always easy and that all one’s choices always have consequences – both for oneself and for the world. In the case of the Vietnam War, fortunately there were many other young Americans who felt the same way as Steve and I did and eventually America withdrew from Vietnam, but only after so many lives were tragically destroyed.
For me personally, this decision changed the course of my whole life and resulted in me leaving the country of my birth at a very young age and building a new life in Scandinavia where I still live today. Many years later when I saw my father for the last time, he cried and apologized for not understanding or supporting me way back then when I was young. Such is the way of it.
The impulse to do the right thing burns brightly in each of us.
It is our nature, the heart of us, which is love and which is crying out for respect and common kindness and decency. When we oppose our innermost nature, we suffer and so do others. That is why I feel so strongly that if we want to live happy lives, we must not disregard this urge, this flame, this bright impulse for justice and to do the right thing (which is always an expression of love) – regardless of the cost. This flame is our morning star, this flame is our guiding light, this flame is the heart of each one of us.
So please today, when it counts so much – stand up for the highest and best you can envision – and vote in the US election if you can. Our voices matter. All our voices matter. Your voice matters. Your vote matters!
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