Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Nine children were killed in a mass shooting at school in Canada, and at least 25 were injured.
[00:00:08] Let us not rush past that number, and let us not read this as another headline.
[00:00:15] Where are we going? As a society?
[00:00:18] Where our values and who is leading us?
[00:00:23] Because when schools cannot protect our kids, when the basic agreement of a society to keep children safe is broken, this is not just political failure.
[00:00:37] It is a moral failure.
[00:00:40] A, uh, society is measured by how it protects those who cannot protect themselves.
[00:00:46] If children are not safe in schools, something fundamental is wrong.
[00:00:53] And this is not about political sides. It is about what's right and what's wrong.
[00:01:01] And when our leaders fail through inaction, fear, corruption, avoidance, paralysis, responsibility does not disappear.
[00:01:14] It moves to us, to citizens, to parents, to teachers, to adults.
[00:01:24] And I'm grieving today, as we all do in Canada.
[00:01:30] And also I am very angry.
[00:01:33] Grief tells me something sacred has been harmed and injured.
[00:01:39] And anger, rage, tells m me something deeply unjust has happened in our country.
[00:01:49] And these feelings are not weakness.
[00:01:54] These are signs that we still care, that we are still alive, that we still know what's right, what's wrong.
[00:02:04] And there is something else happening that we must name.
[00:02:09] Some people will say or think, oh, it didn't happen in our school. At least my kids are safe.
[00:02:16] Or, it didn't happen in our city, or it didn't happen in our province.
[00:02:22] I'm in Ontario. This happened in BC or it didn't happen to my child.
[00:02:29] And I lived in a war for a very long time.
[00:02:34] I survived two wars and genocide.
[00:02:37] What I know from my lived experience and as a somatic therapist for PTSD and trauma recovery, the nervous system does something very human. Um, it reduces proximity of threat.
[00:02:55] It says, it is not close to me.
[00:02:58] I can relax.
[00:03:01] So when the bombs are dropping in the country, I remember I said, well, it's not in my city yet.
[00:03:10] And then when was happening in my city, I was saying, well, at least it is not in my neighborhood.
[00:03:20] And then when I was in a bomb shelter, after every single bomb, I said, oh, it's not my building.
[00:03:30] And this is a pure survival response, and it's understandable.
[00:03:37] But when that response becomes our, uh, moral compass, we as a society are in danger.
[00:03:48] We collapsed as a society because wrong does not become acceptable simply because it happened somewhere else.
[00:04:01] Because it didn't happen in your proximity.
[00:04:04] It didn't happen in your postal code.
[00:04:07] And if children are unsafe anywhere, it is not fine.
[00:04:15] Are unsafe anywhere, it is not fine. This is a clear sign something is really off in our Country.
[00:04:29] And if we only respond when harm touches our own door, our own body, we are not leading, we are not leading as a society.
[00:04:42] We are reacting to trauma response of a horror. So this is now in a categories of a horror trauma.
[00:04:52] And that response can shrink our view.
[00:04:58] It can make us focus only on immediate proximity.
[00:05:03] But let's zoom out. This is what we need to do now.
[00:05:07] Let's zoom out. Because moral clarity require us, you, me to see the pattern, not just location your survival brain under the horror. Trauma will locate location, proximity.
[00:05:31] And that's normal.
[00:05:35] What we need as a society. Now look at the patterns.
[00:05:42] Because the issue is not only there, it happened.
[00:05:46] The issue is that it happened, it was allowed, and it keep happening.
[00:05:56] And what is dangerous is not grief, it's not rage.
[00:06:03] Please check my episode on collective rage.
[00:06:06] This is not dangerous.
[00:06:08] What is dangerous is us getting used to this news, to the theory, to moral collapse.
[00:06:23] Because our tolerance for terror has increased, our tolerance for tyranny has increased, foreign safety has increased. And that's dangerous.
[00:06:40] And our expectation of just, uh, a normal, safe life has decreased.
[00:06:48] And this is not strength, this is not resilience.
[00:06:54] This is our society becoming numb.
[00:06:59] And inquiry is here. Am I becoming numb as a human, as a parent?
[00:07:09] Because you're slowly being trained to, to accept what should never be accepted.
[00:07:16] And that's to scroll past horror in our society, in our country, or to wait for the next election, or to move so quickly because it didn't happen in our postal code or waiting for someone in government to stand up.
[00:07:41] Who is that someone?
[00:07:44] Where are those names?
[00:07:46] And why we are not listing first name and last names of those who quote unquote, are supposed to do something and led this society to this reality.
[00:08:04] Because waiting is not working clearly. It's not working anymore.
[00:08:10] And this is not a call for chaos.
[00:08:13] It is a call to wake up.
[00:08:16] And waking up means we stop outsourcing our moral judgment and our moral responsibility to please name first and last name of those people who are sitting in the government.
[00:08:35] They have first name and they have last name. And clearly they are not doing what they are supposed to do.
[00:08:44] Also, what it means we speak clearly about what is right and what is wrong.
[00:08:53] It means also we refuse to treat preventable, uh, violence as something that we are so sorry that happened.
[00:09:07] Who wants to live in a place with the government or with the person who keeps saying sorry, Sorry means something bad happened which we could prevent, but I didn't care enough, or it wasn't on my list of priorities, or I don't need to be, uh, responsible for it.
[00:09:41] Someone else is going to do it.
[00:09:47] Also, what it means that we need to stop hiding behind the distance.
[00:09:53] Please be aware of proximity.
[00:09:56] If we start saying that didn't happen in my neighborhood, it means we are in a deep response of trauma, horror.
[00:10:09] And human rights are not optional.
[00:10:13] Safety of our kids is not optional, and basic dignity is not conditional on geography.
[00:10:24] We also cannot tolerate what's happening in other countries to normalize tyranny in United States or to normalize tyranny in Iran.
[00:10:38] Because if we lower the standard for what we accept, our kids inherit death, lower standards.
[00:10:49] And if we normalize terror, terror becomes normal.
[00:10:54] Or if we say, oh, it wasn't here, thank goodness my kids are saved, we quietly allow it to be somewhere else.
[00:11:09] Each of us has a role and we have a responsibility.
[00:11:18] And activism doesn't always mean protests, riots. This is not a call for riots.
[00:11:27] This is a call for speaking up, for protecting, for organizing, for voting, for calling out again, first name and last names. Who are those people who failed to protect human lives in this country?
[00:11:56] It means refusing to normalize harm in everyday lives.
[00:12:04] It means standing up calmly and clearly for life, for what is right, for what is just, for the moral compass. And today I am in a deep grief, and I'm in a deep rage.
[00:12:21] And yet I will not collapse because collapse gives the future to despair, to resign.
[00:12:32] I lived under deep horror, trauma, wars, their nervous system fight. And yet also resign and collapse because it was so young and unprotected and my responsibility as everyone in Canada, we have so many people who survived war and genocide, immigration, being stateless, being undocumented.
[00:13:02] And we led by our moral compass and love for humanity, care for humanity, care for humans.
[00:13:19] And I absolutely trust with all this wisdom and knowledge, we will stand up for what is right.
[00:13:30] And we will not collapse and wait for something in government to be changed. It's time to call them up.
[00:13:42] We all have voice. We all have power.
[00:13:47] And we have responsibility for our kids.
[00:13:52] How we are leaving this society to our descendants, on what grounds?
[00:14:03] As I grieve for kids who are shot today, as I grieve for my country, as I grieve for our world, as I grieve for our shared humanity.
[00:14:25] I refuse to give up my moral clarity.
[00:14:31] And I refuse to give up on humanness.
[00:14:38] And I refuse to wait for someone else to make things safe for our kids, for our neighbors.
[00:14:52] And I know and I trust there are still people in government, in the systems, who can lead with courage and heart and with moral compass.
[00:15:12] And today I will close with a prayer.
[00:15:17] Just take a moment so we can send a prayer to everyone who is witnessing grief and terror what happened in our country.
[00:15:34] Divine spirit, angels of light, beloved ancestors, gracious God.
[00:15:46] Hold our, uh, grieving hearts.
[00:15:51] Hold the families who have lost their children.
[00:16:00] Hold the students who have lost their friends.
[00:16:06] Hold the communities who has lost their members.
[00:16:18] Calm our hearts so grief doesn't turn into helplessness.
[00:16:24] Calm our minds so anger becomes clarity, not harm.
[00:16:35] Divine spirit, angels of light, beloved ancestors, gracious God, Remind us of our dignity.
[00:16:51] Remind us of our responsibility.
[00:16:56] Remind us that goodness and humanness lives in us and around us.
[00:17:10] Help us remain human and let us not grow numb.
[00:17:17] Let us not look away.
[00:17:21] Let us not make distance for safety.
[00:17:28] Give us courage to protect life.
[00:17:33] Give us strength to speak what is right.
[00:17:39] Divine spirit, angels of light, beloved ancestors, gracious God.
[00:17:50] In this moment we grieve.
[00:17:55] In this moment we stand for lost lives.
[00:18:03] In this moment we choose life.
[00:18:13] So it is.
[00:18:27] I'm an Amal.
[00:18:29] This is exalt and rising.
[00:18:32] Please share much career.
