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Erika Sauter
Writes stories | Creates art | Hoards books | Eats feelings | Iowa, USA ⭐www.patreon.com/erika_sauter

We Are the Antelope and the Islamic State is the Tiger

Photo Credit: Carl Court, Retrieved from the New York Times 6/7/2017

I wake up every morning at 5:00 AM. It was my New Year’s resolution. Here we are, six months later and I’m still at it. Some days I cheat. Occasionally I’ll turn off the alarm and keep sleeping. Sometimes I’m so exhausted. Sometimes my body needs more rest.

My goal was to wake up at 5:00 AM to be more productive. “Wake up with the sun,” they say. “You’ll write at your best when it’s quiet, peaceful and calm,” they say. “Your brain is naturally more stimulated in the morning,” they say.

But what they didn’t say is that I won’t be more productive. No one told me I wouldn’t get any writing done. No one said that my thoughts would be sabotaged and my heart would be heavy.

This wasn’t the case at first. At first I was productive. At first I was pounding out word after word, while oblivious of all that goes on around me in a giant ripple that covers the earth.

When Inauguration day came I did what I believed, as a true blooded American, was the right thing to do. I blocked the news out. I set filters on my computer, subscribed to the local newspaper (yes, in print) so I could flip past the Nation pages without reading a word. I uninstalled news apps from my phone and turned off notifications. I wanted no part in the soap opera of America’s politics.

Time went by and something happened. I’m not sure if it’s that Cortana has a mind of her own, or if the universe has determined I cannot remain ignorant, or that the world needs my empathy and my will to believe there is hope. Maybe it’s simply because I have faith that all will be okay somehow, in someway. Whatever the reason, my phone dinged.

There it was, presented to me by the Associated Press, “ Car mows down a group of people outside the Westminister Palace before assailant stabbed police officer to death.” That was only the beginning. Not of the attacks, but of my awareness. When I shut out American politics I had shut out the world too.

I couldn’t bring myself to shut out the terrorist attacks anymore. I decided this as I lay in my hammock surrounded by the brilliant shades of mother nature, birds chirping a symphony while I’m swaddled in a safety net of calm.

The dinging carried on consistently as the hours, days and months passed. Bangladesh, Egypt, France, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Egypt again, United Kingdom again and in recent week London, Melbourne, Paris and today- Iran.

Once I became aware both my hope and my faith began to chip away. I still feel empathy but in a sickening and disgusted manner. I feel anger, hurt and fear. I think about the families that have lost loved ones. I think about the suffering in every single violent act that takes place. It is far more suffering than our world should bear.

Vans running people down, suicide bombers, men threatening the lives of others with hammers, machine guns, people running, people injured, people dying at the hands of an organization I can only assume feels no empathy, hope or faith. People living in fear, including myself, who lives in fear for those victimized.

I am a natural born American Citizen. Before six months ago I lived in a country with dignity, strength, compassion and the endurance to take on the world. I lived in a country where I looked up to its leadership.

Now I live in a country where our president tweets every abusive thought and feeling he has. I live in a country where each day I wonder if any of our leadership- whether it be our president, vice president, senators or congressmen are going to do something, anything that benefits our country, let alone the world.

I live in a country where one of the first things our president did in office was create a 120 day travel ban attempting to keep refugees from crossing into our boarders. It’s 138 days later and he’s still trying. Americans are killing Americans every day, terrorist attacks have become standard norm- yet the focus is on discriminating against those that are different than us, those that deserve safety but are denied that human right. Those that are blamed and held against for the actions of others.

I live in a country where I have no other option than to accept that a percentage of its citizens want this, believe in this and willing chose this leadership. Those citizens do not represent me. America’s leaders do not represent me.

All of us live in a time where ISIS is raging against the citizens of our world. A world where they believe religion takes precedence over life. A world were the strong sit back and watch their wrath at a safe distance. It’s escalating more and more as each day passes. What used to occur months apart now feels like days.

I remember years ago I was watching the Disney Earth series and there were hundreds of antelope grazing in a field when a tiger came along. The antelope ran in fear while the tiger chased them with unfathomable stealth and speed, eventually snagging one and mutilating it. I thought, sheesh- what are those antelope thinking? There’s a ginormous pack of them. Don’t they realize they can turn around and stampede the tiger?

ISIS strength lies in their belief they have power over us, but they are wrong. We are the antelope and the Islamic State is the tiger.