Who Will Be Our Mockingjay?

Last week I took my children to see The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1. We’ve read the books, and listened to the audiobooks, and seen all of the films as they have come out.

Mockingjay on fireFrom the first time I read The Hunger Games, I was hooked. I even wrote a post about the similarities between Katniss and Artemis a couple of years ago. There’s something about the dystopian society, and the underdog helping to topple a corrupt society that is extremely engaging. We want to believe that we would not treat our children and citizens so harshly.

A quick glance at the news (and I refuse to actually watch the news, and I still can’t avoid it) reveals the truth – we are being fed on fear and told we need stricter laws to protect us (restricting our rights and freedoms). Meanwhile, police violence is on the rise (there are any number of videos out there showing police using excessive force). Our economic system is based on imaginary money, and is likely heading for collapse, despite government efforts to keep it propped up.

As I was watching the film, I found myself wondering, “who will be our Mockingjay?” What will be the tipping point event that catalyses enough people to say NO MORE?

I’m not a proponent of violence. I am not looking for or forward to a bloody revolution. I’m also not likely to step out and be a leader for the kind of change that is necessary. There are alternatives to violence – look at Iceland and what the Occupy Movement was working toward. “We are the 99%” had many of us energized for a while, but I sense that energy has fizzled.

Any movement for change needs a leader – someone, or several someones, to champion the cause and keep the rest of us focused until the change becomes reality. It takes a lot of courage to stand up and be a leader like that because it also makes you a target. Historically, the most outspoken leaders for major change have not had long life expectancies (Martin Luther King Jr, Abraham Lincoln, Malcolm X, John Lennon…), or lived a life under threat and persecution (Ghandi, Edward Snowden, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth…).

I don’t have any answers. I wonder how long we will bow down and accept the increasingly restrictive conditions and limitations to our freedoms being imposed on us. I wonder who the champion for change in our generation, who our Mockingjay will be?

In the meantime, I will continue to visualize the world the way I want to see it, and work on standing up to injustice in my own small way where I experience or witness it.

Blessings,

Mary

PS. Do you identify with Katniss and Artemis? Claim your spiritual power with A Walk With Artemis. The world needs you.