A longtime Facebookfriend just dumped me in a huff because I won’t say nice things about Jacinda Ardern. She said: “It’s so easy to sit from your sofa & criticize one and all. I’ve hardly ever read any praise for people who are trying to get things right. I read & agreed with a lot of your posts but I’m going to unfriend you as I prefer to read someone who is willing to see a bit of good in this world & not always the worse.” The difference between us is not that I’m sitting on my ass in a misanthropic stupor & can’t see any good in the world. We’re looking in different places for ‘good’. I see plenty of good in the struggles of the oppressed & their allies against war, occupation, persecution, genocide. I see courage, sacrifice, heroism, compassion, solidarity, martyrdom, determination, hope, & a visionary aspiration for human freedom. Don’t ask me to see courage in the rotations of two-bit politicians who compromise on the struggles of the oppressed, as Ardern has on the Kashmiri struggle. It’s not my right & I don’t have it in me to broker discounts on behalf of those fighting war, occupation, persecution, genocide. If you want that kind of compromise from me, you’re barking up the wrong tree. If you don’t like it, get it off your chest & denounce me as sectarian. It will roll like water off a duck’s ass.