Today, the phone calls from friends and family are starting to trickle in. My email is still quieter than usual. I am struggling to organize my thoughts. To paraphrase the novelist Attica Locke:
“I am not crushed. I am awake.”
I am awake to the fact that freedom, empathy, and equality are as important as they have ever been. I am awake to the fact that we cannot let fear persuade. I am awake to the fact that the media needs to be fortified by voices that speak truth. And I am awake to the fact that we cannot forget this feeling—of despair, action, and energy—or let it degrade into apathy. Because apathy is how rot takes hold and spreads.
Naively, I once asked a woman who leads a struggle to protect forest lands in an indigenous region of India: “How do you keep going?” She gave me a pained, silent look, and in one shattering moment, I realized that my question implied that standing up for basic decency and human rights is a choice.
I, like so many white, privileged, straight Americans born after the Civil Rights Act, Roe v. Wade, and suffrage have never lived in a society in which I couldn’t feel secure in my rights to freedom, expression, my own health, and my own values.
All those things that I have taken for granted were hard-won and not a sure thing—just like more recent victories for LGBTQ rights, action on climate, healthcare reform, and more.
Today, I am awake.
Everyone, regardless of their party affiliation should have equal opportunity to effect change. I also recognize that people have the power to generate change in other ways besides voting. Together we can take action. And this is not a choice—it’s a privilege and an obligation.
It is my obligation to stand firmly for decency and peace—perhaps not in public office but in my own community, to ensure that the decay seeping into institutions I never before questioned doesn’t get anywhere close to infecting my 3-year-old son or the bonds I have with other human beings.
I am, by no means, a one-issue voter. Yet I can’t help reflect that at this time last year, I was preparing to go to Paris to do my part in the fight against climate change—what I believe is the biggest threat humans and our planet has ever known. We all know the resulting Agreement isn’t perfect, but the steps we did take forward are now at stake.
If you didn’t feel the urgency deep in your bones before today, hear this: Our world has only years left to act on climate change, and this election will set our country back 50 years. That means each one of us has a moral obligation to impact the strength and resiliency of our communities today.
Watching people on the front lines in North Dakota, Vanuatu, Peru, Alaska, Nairobi, and around the world has taught me this: We must take it upon ourselves to do the hard work and put our individual selves out there for the betterment of all.
Standing up strongly for your values might make you uncomfortable. I say, relish in it. Embrace it. Then channel it.
We are awake. Now, let’s find hope and move forward with conviction:
- Tell our children we will protect them. As Ali Michael put it so beautifully in this Huffington Post op-ed, “Tell [our kids] that bigotry is not a democratic value…. Then teach them how to speak up, how to love one another, how to understand each other, how to solve conflicts, how to live with diverse and sometimes conflicting ideologies, and give them the skills to enter a world that doesn’t know how to do this.
- Participate actively in your community. Some days, we are all too tired or defeated to stand up. That’s why we need a strong fabric that can support us in those times of despair and do the hard work for us until we are strong enough to go on. Find the groups in your town or city that form bonds between people—not cause them to disintegrate. We cannot lose the empathy or personal connection that humans fundamentally need. Choose to reach out to other people in a personal and meaningful way, even if it takes more effort and emotional investment. At the same time, spurn those things that tear us apart.
- Challenge the media to do better. Find the voices that speak truths, and raise them up.
- Support civil society. Dedicate your resources to supporting movements for change—and the people in communities that stand every day for your values. That might mean donating to a local nonprofit in your town, or it might mean supporting grassroots activists through a network like the one I work for. Getting your money to the people who are creating change and working for a future that engenders positivity and opportunity for all people is part of building a strong foundation. If you need some ideas of good organizations to support, check out this list on Racked.
And finally, believe. We are awake and we can move forward. In a speech on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton said, “Never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.”
Today we grieve and tomorrow we rise.
Photo Credit: Takver/ CC BY-NC-SA 2.0