Healthy Opposition

Photo by Linoleum Creative Collective on Unsplash

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Resistance: A child's super-power

Parents understand resistance. Think about it, as your child develops from toddler to teen you face innumerable moments of opposition every single day.

It's time to put on your shoes.
Please put on your shoes.
Put .On. Your. Shoes.
Shoes, Now!

And, even then, you may find yourself carrying your shoe-free child to the car.

Our child's resistance is their super-power for developing healthy boundaries. How you respond to this opposition often defines your parenting style - but that's a topic for another post. 

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Opposition is healthy boundary building

A child's ability to exploit the weaknesses in our parenting, although challenging for parents, is essential to their healthy development - it is also incredibly healthy for a democracy.

What we know as parents about resistance can be used to develop a guiding paradigm in our political-lives:

• Constant opposition wears the opponent down - it creates chinks in their power simply through exhaustion. When exhausted or overwhelmed by the opposition, power-holders may make mistakes or over-reach.
• On the other hand our kiddos know that constantly testing the boundaries is a way to see what is solid and what is not. Political resistance reminds those in power that we know there are boundaries which must be maintained for a healthy democratic government-  and we expect them to color within the lines.
• While a toddler's opposition to anything may change moment by moment, anyone who has raised a teen knows they are capable of long-term, strategic opposition!  Thus, in political resistance, we should take a note from a teen's playbook - take a long-term view of what must be done to reach your goals.
• And, finally, any teen knows freaking their parents out about a less important issue is a reliably successful tactic to distract them from something far more important to the teen. So, actively curate your news - legacy media and most of the social media/blog-o-sphere make money by keeping people alarmed about current events.  Don't get distracted from the important issues!

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Resistance record-keeping

• I continue to read and to write - again, reading and writing can be subversively resistant actions. For example, I am excited to borrow a copy of Tim Snyder's On Tyranny from my local library. (Wow. In a weird way I am impressed that all of the copies of Snyder's books in my county's library consortium are out and the hold queue is lengthy! - simply a good thing all the way round. Except maybe for my patience muscles...)
  
• After writing a letter to my Congresswoman urging her to vote No on H.R.9495, I was disappointed the bill passed the House on November 21st.  Now it's time to contact my Senators.
  
• Vetting various reliable news sources continues.  A family member recommended Democracynow.org, but said, "It is very progressive and independent weekday morning news, a lot of international and environmental justice news, and well done.  It tends, therefore, to be depressing a fair amount of the time." Don't be afraid of reading sources that can leave you upset, but avoid anything which is sensational.

I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving holiday and that you are figuring out how you can stand in opposition to injustice.

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You never know what a Nonna can do to affect change when her children and grandchildren’s futures are on the line.
Nonna                        
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