Yesterday in our city we had the deeply troubling experience of people standing on a highway overpass bearing Nazi flags and banners. The Nazi Party of Germany put to death more than 6 million people in a war that killed more than 75 million people total — all this death their attempt to control the world and to enact a world where some people are better than others.
We should really wonder why someone would think that would be a good idea, during World War 2 and today.
Many of our Cincinnati neighbors confronted yesterday’s Nazi flag-bearers and ran them out of town. Many of our neighbors stood at that spot and prayed afterwards.
We all need such courage.
There are troubling things happening, all of them rooted in this idea that one human is better than another. We fought a Civil War in our own country to try to decide that very premise, whether one human being is better than another, could be owned by another. It seems sadly that that war was never finished, even after the important drive toward Civil Rights for all and a recognition that a human is a human is a human, all equally valued and protected under the law.
2025 of course did not re-commence this move toward trying to prove that one human is better than another…we’ve had growing to do as a human-community for some time. Maybe since our beginning as humans on this planet.
It’s time we grow. If we’re to continue living together on this shared planet, it’s necessary we grow.
Our VITALITY circle is a welcoming place for that growth, for heart-felt conversations, for wondering about things without judgment.
Tomorrow/Sunday at 11am is our 4th week of FIND YOUR VITALITY — we welcome you.
The conversations have been rich and helpful for many of us — all of them first rooted in a shared experience of quiet, in the quiet and safety of your own space.
We hope you’ll consider joining us. Sign up to get the Zoom link: https://vitalitycincinnati.org/find-your-vitality/
We ask for a $1 donation, if you can.
I suspect we all will need ever more courage to stand up to people expressing hate, to stand up to people who envision a world where one human is better than another and who try to enact that vision.
And I suspect we all will need the courage to love these same people who express hate — that is if we don’t want to take on the hater’s ideology.
May these times call forward in us our true heart’s compassion, desire, and strength — to be all we can be as human beings.
Brian Shircliff
