I was gutted after the election. Gutted. To see a fascist win the election, and to hear people celebrate taking away people’s health care insurance (including their own!), the sell-off of public lands, more guns, taking money away from public schools, closing women’s health care clinics, oppressing Black Americans, marginalizing Mexican-Americans, and getting cosier with the current Russian dictator – it was too much to bear. I wasn’t despondent because of one man – I was despondent because of more than 60 million voters in the USA – and those that didn’t vote but were oh-so-pleased at what was happening, at the misery of others. I was mostly pissed off at white people, because even a majority of university-educated white women voted for this man. <\/p>\n
But now?<\/p>\n
The women’s march – largest day of protests in US history – the refusal by any artist of substance and importance to perform in any way associated with the inauguration, the spontaneous protests regarding the Muslim ban, the massive donations to refugee-support agencies and the ACLU, the incredible activism against DeVos, people spontaneously cleaning off Nazi symbols on a New York subway car, all these people calling their senators and congressmen repeatedly and turning out for city council meetings in record numbers and filling their social media feeds with activism ideas and activities…<\/p>\n
No, we didn’t stop DeVos, who is profoundly unqualified to be in charge of this nation’s education system. But Republican Senators are now exposed for not listening to their constituents. We’ve scared them – really scared them. Let’s keep scaring them.<\/p>\n
This is from a dear friend back in Kentucky, someone I’ve known since the 2nd grade:<\/p>\n
“I was never one to care about politics, pay attention to politics, sadly to say \ud83d\ude1e However, I AM PAYING ATTENTION and Trump will make an activist out of me!!! I wish I paid attention sooner.”<\/p>\n
Dear friend, thank you for your energy. It’s people like you, not me, that are going to make the real difference.<\/p>\n
I do not lament all this political talk on Facebook. I relish it.<\/p>\n
It’s all given me hope. And rebellions are built on hope.<\/p>\n
Don’t be discouraged. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. We’ve much work to do before the midterm elections in November 2018. We’ve got voters to register and non-voters to inspire and districts and states to focus are energies on and turn from red to blue. And we’ve got human rights to defend.<\/p>\n
Also see:<\/p>\n