Wednesday Walk: The Test
Is the test over? Or does it ever end?
Welcome to Willoughby Hills!
If you enjoy what you’re reading, please consider a free subscribtion to receive emails every Wednesday and Sunday plus podcast episodes every two weeks. There are also paid options, which unlock even more features.
As is typical every Wednesday, I’m bring you a smattering of topics that I hope will make you a bit more curious about the world around you and give you something to think about later. I call these Wednesday Walks, as it’s the type of conversation we might have walking down a path in the woods. Shall we take a stroll?
Passing or Failing?
If you’re from Ohio, this image will look very familiar. If you’re from elsewhere, you may have no idea what this random grouping of cones means.
In order to receive a drivers license in the state of Ohio, an applicant must pass two practical tests. The first is a road test, where a car is driven in the area around the DMV branch on actual roads. But the other part of the practical test looks like this.
This is what’s known as the maneuverability test and it’s more theoretical. After all, most drivers will never encounter this exact grouping of five cones in the real world.
Under an instructor’s supervision, the applicant must drive through the cones, around the cone at the end, and then reverse through the course and end up back at the starting line. In order to pass, none of the cones can be disturbed.
When I took this test at age 16, I found it to be strange. There was no application for it in the real world. Wouldn’t it be more practical to prove parallel parking prowess or something like that?
The truth is, the longer I’ve been driving, the more that I realize that the maneuverability test wasn’t one of those tests to pass and forget, it was actually at the heart of so many operations of a motor vehicle. Learning how to navigate through that cone maze was about building an awareness and a skill, one that will always be relevant.
Every so often, I’ll have to drive around an obstacle or reverse in a tricky way and be reminded of this test. The test itself with a DMV official wasn’t the actual test, it was only the beginning of a life of being tested all the time in ways that look nothing like the driver’s test but are really a thinly veiled repeat of those exact maneuvers.
We are tested every day, even when we think the test is over and we’ve already passed.
Like so many, I was horrified by the killing of George Floyd in 2020. I watched the Emmanuel Acho videos on YouTube. I did some reading. I posted the black square on my Instagram grid. I thought I was doing everything right and I know I wasn’t alone in that sentiment.
But when I look back, that black square hardly stands out against my other Instagram posts of that time. It made no real difference in the world because I thought the test was over after that single act and so I made no difference.
As we hit one month since Hamas attacked Israel, I have to ask where are we as a world? Hamas killed 1,400 people and took 240 hostages in that single day. Israel retaliated against the citizens of Gaza, where the death toll is north of 10,000 people, more than 4,000 of whom were children. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called Gaza a "graveyard for children."
I know many Americans are sickened by what is happening. Some are protesting, some are calling their leaders, some are sharing on social media.
Yet many, many, many more are silent.
These are the people who learned the lessons of 2020, who listened, and wanted to improve. The people who don’t even realize the test is still ongoing and they are failing it in this moment.
I can’t fault anybody too much, as I was in that place not that long ago. I’ve discussed before how fortunate I was to have found the work of Regina Jackson and Saira Rao and to have discussed their book White Women as a group earlier this year.
That book group led me to interview Saira on my podcast, to meet her, Regina, and several other prominent antiracism activists in New York last month, and to be introduced to the work of many other amazing voices in this space.
One of those books is Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. It opens with the description of a photo taken in Nazi Germany where a hundred or so men are heiling while one man stands with his arms crossed, seemingly refusing to make the Nazi hand gesture.
We all like to imagine, with the benefit of hindsight, that we would have stood up to the Nazis, hidden Jews in our attics, and resisted Hitler. Yet Wilkerson uses this sole man to illustrate how hard it is to stand up to oppression. She goes on to say:
“But unless people are willing to transcend their fears, endure discomfort and derision, suffer the scorn of loved ones and neighbors and co-workers and friends, fall into disfavor of perhaps everyone they know, face exclusion and even banishment, it would be numerically impossible, humanly impossible, for everyone to be that man. What would it take to be him in any era? What would it take to be him now?”
The situation in the Middle East is charged right now. It’s just as easy to be labeled an antisemite as an Islamophobe. But that shouldn’t stop us from speaking out for what is right.
If you ask me, what is right is stopping the killing and death. It’s stopping the bombing of hospitals. It’s letting people have the necessities of life: food, clean water, safe shelter.
The test didn’t end in 2020. The test is right now. And it’s for the rest of each of our lives.
There are people reading this who have taken action. They have stayed informed. They have spoken out. They have donated. They have marched. They are engaging in civil disobedience.
I am disappointed in the others who are choosing to remain on the sidelines.
It’s really, really easy to pass the test when it’s a controlled environment, like a parking lot with traffic cones. It’s much harder to pass the test when you’re not even sure that you’re being graded.
Further Reading
I’ve actually found some really helpful resources here on Substack, and I thought it was worth highlighting some recent pieces that helped me make sense of the situation in the world.
, Cleveland congressman, former presidential candidate, and childhood friend of one of my uncles, launched a Substack earlier this year called .His recent article “The Nothingness of a War Consciousness” really articulated much of what I’m feeling in this current moment. I especially loved this passage:
“War reduces all nothingness.
It is as if 10,000 Palestinians and more had never existed. But they did, just as the 1,400 Israelis killed on October 7 existed. They had birthdates, names, fragile exchanges of human emotion, of love of family, private moments in everyday life that confirmed their existence. Obliterated. Nothingness.”
An equally good read from Kucinich was called “The Math of Murder” in which he cites that 50 civilians were recently killed when Israel bombed a refugee camp to target a Hamas leader:
“Mr. Netanyahu has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which is estimated to have at least 40,000 members. If the ratio of 50 -1 holds up, that is 50 Palestinians will die for every Hamas member killed -- then every single Palestinian in Gaza would be killed. This is not without possibility, perhaps the colonizers’ plan.”
I’ve mentioned the work of
before, and his most recent piece “Palestinians, Victims of Liberal Hypocrisy” is a great read. As is often the case with Joseph’s writing, he takes what seems like a very complicated situation, breaks it down into digestible pieces, and beautifully weaves a narrative thread through the seemingly disparate aspects.This one passage in particular stood out to me, but the entire piece really helped inform my perspective:
“It is also interesting to consider that this conflict is being referred to as a war. For war implies a contest between armies, a clash of near equals, however disproportionate they may be. But the history books written in the blood and breath of Gaza’s children, the disfigured topographies of once-neighboring homes, and the extinguished masses of families, testify not to a war but to a spectacle of slaughter. Genocide.
To name it otherwise is to be complicit in the perpetuation of its occurrence.
And so, if we are to be honest stewards of history, we must call things by their true names. For in the naming is the acknowledgment of the act, and in the acknowledgment, the possibility of justice.”
Finally, I wanted to call out
. I especially liked a piece she wrote about a week ago for titled “FAR-RIGHT, CRIMINALLY INDICTED NETANYAHU: "THIS IS A TIME FOR WAR" . . . LIBERALS: "YAAAAY!" where she asks her readers to consider America’s response to this war from another perspective:“We must face reality. And in facing this reality, we need to acknowledge where we are. If former President Trump were currently in office, he would be making the exact same decisions President Biden is presently making and issuing the same unwavering support to Netanyahu. So, I have an earnest question for the #BlueNoMatterWho crowd and need you all to answer honestly . . . how would you feel about America's unyielding support of Netanyahu if it was being issued from Trump? Does this change your relationship with this war?”
If you have other folks, either on Substack or elsewhere, whose writing you have found helpful during this time, please share it in the comments.
I publish new issues every Wednesday and Sunday. Sign up to always receive the latest issue and support my work:
Other Wednesday Walks
If you’ve missed past issues of this newsletter, they are available to read here.
2 notes Ohio switched to maneuverability the year I turned 16. We were the guinea pigs. With regard to Israel, Hamas, and the US for that matter. We've all done a poor job of picking our leaders. That somehow needs to be fixed. Anyone who's studied the history of that region, knew this would come. Hamas leadership is committed to the destruction of Israel, and vice-versa. Also, Trump did incredible damage to America's image among other countries. We are no longer seen as being capable of any type of leadership by the rest of the world.
Great newsletter, Heath. You'll appreciate this:
https://www.discourseblog.com/p/they-are-scared-of-us