Recorded on May 18, 2022. Leela responds to the recent mass shootings in Buffalo and elsewhere.

Transcript
Leela Sinha:

The world seems to have an awful lot of trouble

Leela Sinha:

staying out of trouble these days. When I was a kid, I

Leela Sinha:

learned this thing called "Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board".

Leela Sinha:

It was a party game of sorts, a holdover, probably, from ancient

Leela Sinha:

magic passed down through children's hands and children's

Leela Sinha:

eyes. And we would all gather around one child and chant

Leela Sinha:

"light as a feather, stiff as a board, light as a feather, stiff

Leela Sinha:

as a board," and each lifting with just two fingers, one on

Leela Sinha:

each hand, we would lift their body up into the air, and it

Leela Sinha:

would seem weightless. Weightless. Of course, it's

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weightless. If you take a small child, and then you lift them on

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the fingertips of ten or twelve children all squished shoulder

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by shoulder next to their body. It was never clear to me how

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much work the child being lifted had to do to stay stiff. I don't

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remember if I ever got my chance in the center of the circle or

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not. And if I did, how much work I put into not collapsing. But

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it was like magic.

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Recently, there were several more mass shootings. Several

Leela Sinha:

more, as though it was several more strawberries that I found

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at the farmers market, or several more pieces of trash

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that I had to pick up off the street. But this was several

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more mass shootings with dead bodies, many racially motivated

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killings. And history comes back around to repeat itself and

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comes back around, and comes back around, and comes back

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around. And it has at this point, come back around so many

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times, and I have been so disappointed by people that I

Leela Sinha:

believed could and should know better and do better. That this

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time I just looked at the news and said "yeah." That's all I've

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got. That's the only word I have left. Yeah. Yeah, that's

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happening. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Every day. Yeah. Yeah.

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Several yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh. I start to

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sound like one of those, those creatures from the Muppets,

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those aliens that moved around the house going "uh huh, uh huh,

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yep. Uh huh." Yep. Uh huh.

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And people are sick of me saying, "Yeah." They look at me

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when I say "yeah," and they act like I should have something

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else to say. But you know what? I am fresh out of words. Because

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at this point, this is not an accident. This is not

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happenstance, this is a choice. This is a choice that we are

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collectively making, to keep killing people for who they are,

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for going to the grocery store, for trying to breathe. This is

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our collective choice. And it pains me so much that I want to

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rip into the body of which I am a part and rip myself out.

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Because I cannot bear that I might be part of the heart that

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beats or the hands that hold the gun. This is our choice. This is

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our collective choice. And we must collectively choose

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differently. Because, "yeah," is not any kind of answer. It's not

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any kind of response. It's not any anything but it is what is

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real right now. Yep. Yep. That's how we act. Yes. That's how I

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expect us to act. No, it's not the best we could do. But it is

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the best we are doing. Because it is what we are doing. And we

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are here. And it seems impossible. It seems

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insurmountable. It seems as heavy as tons and tons of bricks

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dumped from tons and tons of distructions and bombings of

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brown and black bodies that didn't matter. Didn't matter

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enough to save, didn't matter enough to protect. But, but just

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imagine, just imagine. All of us. All of us gathered around

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that pile of bricks. That pile of bricks on a stretcher, that

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pile of bricks on a board. Imagine all of us gathered

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around the bricks, shoulder to shoulder as tightly as we can

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fit in, and then squeeze one more in and one more in because

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so many people want to be part of the lifting, and then we

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stick our fingers underneath those bricks and maybe we even

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use two fingers each because this is a heavy load and then we

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start to chant "light as a feather, stiff as a board, light

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as a feather, stiff as a board, light as a feather stiff as a

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board." Can we lift these bricks up? Off the people they are

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crushing? Is that worth more or less?

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Is that worth more? Or less?

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Than a cup of coffee at Starbucks?

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Or you being able to shut the door to your own heart?