Michelle L. Cramer

What kind of difference are you making?

You with your social media trolling. So much to say. So many people wrong that you must set right.

Taking up platforms from your couch cushions. Polished nails. Baby smooth heels. Pressed shirts and clip-on ties.

While my heels are rough, my hands callused. Where your couch has an ever present divot, my floor has an eight foot long rut. I have so many things that prick my heart, but there’s only enough of me to platform for the things that tear it to shreds.

You, with your narcissistic ramblings of correction-ism. Tossing religion, gender, race around like tomatoes-in-the-face when the platform others take doesn’t meet your expectations. How dare you… those are perfectly good tomatoes and now you’ve gone and soiled them with your unfounded rage.

Who are you really mad at anyway? When you negate the context of someone’s entire persona over a sad emoji left on a post about sex trafficking… abortion… gun violence… because how could we possibly be so concerned about that when this [fill in the unrelated cause you chose to take up but feel no one is watching all the trolling you’re doing about it so you need to make sure they see how much better your cause is, how much better you are, how much difference you’re making by educating them all…].

“I’ve lost a lot of friends over my views, but I will not be silenced. I will not back down! I will continue to tell people how wrong they are and how right I am.”

Oh, but my dear, solitude never helped anyone to save the world. Sure, I can point you to plenty of lonely world changers, but the vast majority of them didn’t impart the kind of change any of us want to get behind.

Do you know what does save the world? Action. The embers so fierce that you cannot remain still for the fire burning inside you, screaming at you to move.

Words? Words motivate. But that motivation must be turned to movement.

You can stir the pot incessantly, but nothing will happen if the pot remains cold.