Hello, Friends.
Wait, wait, wait! Here are two mini notes, and then I have two actual notes, which you need to read (even if you aren't going to read the whole post.) Mini notes:
#1-Sorry this is a long post.
#2-This is the first part of two parts, which is why I posted on Wednesday, not Friday. Part two will come out on Friday.
So, when you saw the title of this post, you may have been
surprised. You may have panicked. I'm sorry about that. In light of
this, here are two notes before we start.
I do not want to and have no interest in talking about
politics on this blog. I do have political opinions, but I believe
it is important to have spaces where we do not have to think about
politics, both online and in our real lives. However, when our
country has problems like these, I believe we should speak about
them. Because they are things worth caring about. I know there are
many political views on these, but before these were political
problems, they were, and are, humanity problems. People are dying.
Children are dying. Families are being separated. No matter what we
as a country think should be done about it, this is the reality. If
we can prevent more school children from dying, or keep immigrant
families together, we should.
- If this stresses you out, or you would prefer not to read
this post, I will not hate you. I don't watch or read the news
because there are so many sad things going on in this world, and I
just can't, for my emotional well-being. It still makes me sad that
all these things are happening, but I can't subject myself to them
constantly. Also, If you have different opinions than me, I will not
hate you. I hope you can still read and enjoy my blog, and we can
set aside our differences in favor of the things we love.
All right. I started writing this post because something needs to
be done about these issues. People are dying, families are being
separated, and they are people,
not some complex political problem.
Then, our sermon at church on Sunday
was about just this. Actually, it was about Romans 13, and how the
way it has been used to defend the immigration law was completely
erroneous. God, in fact, does not call us to submit to government.
(
Here is a link to the sermon if you want to know why.) Our pastor
talked about how no matter what we think should be done about
immigration, it is horrible to separate children from their families.
We all need to see these immigrants as people, just like us. Because,
we are called to love others, and love them always. We need to work
to get children and their families back together. Whether that means
writing about the immigration law, voting, marching, supporting
organizations that are working to reunite families, being open to
meeting new people in our neighborhoods, etc., we need to do
something about it. We all have different views on what should be
done on the political side, and that's fine. Our views can vary, but
we can still resolve to see people as humans and love them as humans
above all.
A few days later, I saw West Side Story in the theatre with my mom
and my sister. It was brilliant. If you haven't heard of West Side
Story before, West Side Story is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, but
in the 1950s on Manhattan's west side. Instead of two warring
families, there are two warring gangs. Of course, the whole love part
is kind of dubious and not actually love (at least, at first), but
there are many brilliant messages in this play. A lot of the messages
pertain to the gun violence happening across the country today. A lot
of the messages pertain to the issue of immigration in today's
society. So, here we go.
*Note: This post contains spoilers, but they're not too bad
because West Side Story is based on
Romeo and Juliet.
A giant, upside-down Statue of Liberty sometimes appeared in
the background.
West Side Story was reimagined, and
the choreography was redone for this specific performance. The Sharks
are from Puerto Rico, and in this retelling, the Jets represent
Americans. (The Jets are more diverse than in the movie version.)
Police officers often discriminate against the Puerto Ricans
horribly. At one point, the police officers kick the Sharks out of
Doc's drugstore. As the Sharks leave, they whistle “My Country, Tis
of Thee” (“Sweet Land of Liberty”). At the end of the play,
right before Maria (Juliet) runs off (in this version, she doesn't
die, just Tony (Romeo) does), she stares back at the Statue of
Liberty in the background.
At the end of the play, right after Tony is shot, Maria grabs
the gun and asks (something like) “How many? How many can I kill?”
She also says, “We all killed [Tony].”
Her words emphasize the problem
in our society today: that when people are killed, others want
revenge, kill more people, and the violence just keeps escalating.
Killing more people doesn't solve the problem. It makes it worse.
Violence is not the way to solve
anything, ever.
Bernstein's silence at the end.
Leonard Bernstein wrote the score for
West Side Story. Bernstein was musically brilliant, and worked with
music in a wide variety of ways. He composed in multiple genres,
including theatre, orchestral, film, etc. He also did tons of other
amazing stuff, so please look him up and read about him.
In any case, about West Side Story.
For the last scene, when Tony has died, and everything else happens,
there is silence. No music. None. Bernstein
did not offer us nice, tragic music to go with a beautiful tragedy.
He did not offer us hopeful music, because maybe the gangs were
reconciled now. (After all, they both helped carry Tony's body off
the stage.) He did not offer us nice music to end a play, because it
was a story, and a story meant for our enjoyment. He gave us silence.
And his silence practically shouted. Through his silence, I clearly
heard: And what are you going to do about it? This is the question he
asked us by not having music at the end. Silence. I said something in
my head like: Dang. (I can't remember what I actually said.) Because
that was such a powerful question, to end such a powerful play, and
one I couldn't simply shove out of my mind.
And so. I am
going to write.
Spruce Nogard
