What Radicalized Meg?
Reflections on Day 1 of 1,461 Days of the 47th Presidency
I was exactly 10-years-old when I declared openly that I would be a Broadcast Journalist. If not marching in the footsteps of my local news anchor, I was going to be Hillary Clinton. Not the presidential candidate Hillary, not the first lady Hillary, not Senator Clinton. Just Hillary - something about the leadership and oratory skills got me. My parents had enrolled me into a competitive public speaking competitions in 4th grade and my hyper-verbal imagination was fed, for the time being.
Many people will ask folks like me - “what radicalized you?” So I wanted to reflect today on what sent me to the left of the leftist left.
Catholicism - Nothing will nurture you for revolution like spending 13+ years in catholic school, wearing uniforms, competitive public speaking, being disciplined, and ultimately erased. I hold the Roman Catholic church responsible for most of the trauma inflicted on me and my ancestors. From the crusades across Europe, to the invalidation of LGBTQIA+ community - the catholic cult has tried to ideologically kill folks like me. We’ve always been here. We always will be.
Persian Gulf War - Watching the Gulf War on CNN at the age of 6 in 1990 - I remember the first time they broadcast missiles being shot on live video. We watched them from the big tube television in my parents living room. I didn’t know what was happening and from my parents exchange I heard War and other more defaming marks toward the Middle East.
9/11 - Watching the Planes hit the Twin Towers on live TV in my senior high school Media and Communications class. I’ll never forget the frozen feeling. Looking at my friend Brian Stanley, who i’d traveled the last 13-years of school with like “everything we know just changed”
Working - I started working a month after I turned 15-years-old. before I graduated highschool I had already worked at five different jobs including food service, grocery stores, and retail. Being exposed to other folks that didn’t look like me was the most life altering experience I had as a teenager. It made me pursue a more global perspective right as the internet was starting to connect all of us.
Sexual Assault - My freshman year of highschool I was assaulted by two fellow students that were athletes at the school. I spent the next four years having to spend time in the same building, events, and social functions with them because I was told it was my fault. Through years of therapy and self-forgiveness I realize that this experience helped me see through the gaslighting early on.
White Women - I sat on this one for a moment trying to figure out the way I wanted to phrase this because it’s not simply racism - It’s the particular violence of white woman, against Black Americans specifically, that conjures a specific type of rage so visceral I can feel my skin flushing. I used to be party to this type of violence, I likely could still be one day because it’s always there…lurking. This is why we do the work. Every. Damn. Day.
When I went to college, I quickly declared my major in Broadcast Journalism. After three years, and starting to work into my core classes at Temple University, students were informed that our course of study, our “major”, was being discontinued. Like an out-of-date shoe on sale at Payless - we were going to have to adapt our course study. I had two choices - change my major or general “Communications” or add an extra 1-2 years onto my tab. Since I took my education out in loans, I swore I would graduate in 4-years so I opted for the Communications Major and a $16,000 discount.
Since the resurgence of the genocide of Palestinian people on Oct. 7, 2023, over 166 journalists and media workers have been martyred by the Israeli Occupation Forces. I think about this almost every day. I think about the 46,000+ people who have been killed and the tens of thousands more still missing under the rubble. I think about how the next four years will be a continuation of trying to make us forget. More of the “Great Return To Normal” we had in 2020.
Don’t be fooled. Nothing about what is happening is normal.
This too has radicalized me further.
Continue to use your voice. I’ll be sharing my thoughts and insights here.
Yours in solidarity,
Meg