“Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” These beautiful lyrics from Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” were invoked by Mary Kay Rauma in her Sept. 10 article “When the world seems dark, light can get in.” She tells us that we can cope with the horrible news we hear every day if we “look beyond the cracks and see the light” and that “we’re fortunate to live in a place … with room to breathe, natural beauty, caring people.”

Ever since Vashon musician Roger Taylor first introduced me to them, these exact lyrics have been a kind of anthem for me, but the message is not “look on the bright side of life.” It’s a call to action for positive change: speak up, loud and clear; do all you can but don’t expect immediate results; speak the truth to those in power.

Cohen is not telling us to see the light beyond the cracks. He’s telling us to shine light through the cracks to expose what’s inside. In the same Cohen song are these lyrics: “I can’t run no more with that lawless crowd while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud. But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up a thundercloud, and they’re going to hear from me.”

We can only make change when those in power hear from many of us and see us as a thundercloud. Looking away from the bad and toward the good might be a successful way to cope, but all it does is make you feel better. Taking action can make you feel better and help make things better.

— Richard Paulis