A Civilly Disobedient Open Letter for Anyone Accused of Virtue-Signaling and Other Garbage from the New Right-Wing Lexicon

A Civilly Disobedient Open Letter for Anyone Accused of Virtue-Signaling and Other Garbage From the New Right-Wing Lexicon

            Greetings from Pittsburgh.  We are still the best city in the country, the most-livable city in this United States.  You saw that this weekend in the response to tragedy. 

            Earlier this year I was accused of “virtue-signaling.”  I had an idea what the term meant; I tend to see it used pejoratively when someone levels a moral argument. If you are not familiar with this term   For example I might state:

            I believe that the local ordinance guy is an actual human being, sending me actual letters about my overgrown lawn, and should not be harassed for doing his job (Chris Dougherty, 204 S. Cedar, suite 2)

             Oh quit virtue-signaling! You don’t actually care about Chris Dougherty, who works at 204 S. Cedar, suite 2 and hates having the restroom outside of his office clogged with paper towels.

            See how that works! What a fascinatingly feeble manner of avoiding a dialogue of any substance.  The internet helped me clarify all of this.  I soon learned that I was in the same company as the Pope.  Yes, the guy with a direct line to God was accused of virtue-signaling, just like me!

            But, I will give you credit whomever you are, it must have been difficult that day to generate a counter argument as to why children should not be caged.  And, since I am giving you credit, in the real tradition of the Christian church, I also want to express my love.  By getting me so fundamentally wrong, I was forced to reckon with the fact that I have been too idle.  Single-parenting three children, spending twenty years working in behavioral health, and tending to the enormous amount of suffering that I see on any given day, has left me exhausted and barely able to complete my dissertation.   I found comfort in being generally moderate in politics and temperament, and went about my life just trying to be kind.  You are correct that I was not doing enough.

            You might have assumed that I was a social-justice warrior because you have filled your mind with the type of garbage media—the type that has you believe that angry baristas have taken your city. It feels familiar to the trope from a few years ago about cities under sharia law. By the way, have you met your local MS13 gang member? I have, he’s a stitch, but never a snitch. 

            I would like you to know I was never a radical.  Christ was a radical.  Buddha was a radical.  I can’t even hold a candle.  But, now I have Squirrel Hill on 10/27/18, and I feel like I have to hold a candle.   I have to speak up because people I care about can’t even find their words now.  To be clear, I cannot speak for anyone in the Jewish community or Squirrel Hill because it is not my place.  But, I am not willing to tolerate a world where my 10 year old, in all sincerity states—“should we be afraid to go to church?”

            The consequence of speaking up is the recognition that I will have to be more active.  And, by active I mean in the Christian tradition I was raised in.  I’m talking abolitionist active, Dr. King active, Fred Rogers active.  Earlier this year I gave money to Everytown.  Tonight, I think I will give to the Anti-Defamation League and the ACLU.  I have not attended church enough this year, so consider this some sort of secular tithe.  I will give to any organization I can think of that you may despise.   I will get back to building the Pittsburgh I want for my children. I am going to cram so much love, and hope, and tolerance down my beloved city’s gullet that there will be rainbows shooting out of even the darkest asshole.  I am coming for your dark heart and the dark horses of the apocalypse, not on a unicorn.  Unicorns are fake news, but sea level rise is not, and so help me God if you get in my way, you may be impaled on the narwhal I ride in on.