Just Keep Working

Apparently the fucking patriarchy is a zombie. It was painful to go from being a powerful woman back to a second-class citizen. I'm almost glad I'm old, but I feel like I did in 1969 when I had my political awakening...horrified, shocked, and devastated at what is under the shiny shell of America. So many people okay with a fascist misogynist bigot in the White House. Back to the early 1800s for us.

I'm horrified for my son and his fellow young people. I feel like 40 years of patient efforts to work for justice and peace have been ridiculed and devalued...but wait! That's not going to help anyone. Turning depression into angry action is the best way to remain a powerful woman. This is not the end of times. The President is a figurehead that can't do a thing without a powerful team of people who do the things. Nobody is going to be able to work with him...he's a loner. He's going to be blocked and diminished with every step we take in the path so well worn, the path to a better world.

Hillary was never going to save us from anything...Obama has done some amazing things but he still had to sell us out here and there, because this is the world we're part of. It isn't about any of our little needs and it has never been so. It's a big rolling machine that no one really directs and it will keep moving where it goes while we run to keep up. Good people will have to work harder, that's all.

So all the bigots came out of their sheds and got to celebrate their small thoughts, but they don't have the energy to do the work to change things, they were just reactionary and playing a game of dominance. The people who have been working are still working.We're picking up our notebooks and going to our meetings today. The people united are not defeated.

I'm going to the City Council worksession. There's a lot on the agenda, and I don't expect them to cover it all, but I need to hear everything said regarding the current thinking about downtown. We're still functional on the local level, still working for community solutions to our problems, still committed to preserving what we love about our town and our lives. Nothing has changed there.

I have another meeting tonight, Craft Committee for OCF. We have work in progress to improve the crafter's experience with Fair and make things more fair. It's a longterm effort and we're still in it, and will be for the rest of our time. Nothing has been ruined there.

I live in a bubble, and we have weed. Later this week, after I print some hats that say "Just Keep Working" I will get to shift my perspective a little for a few hours and remind myself that birds are beautiful and the skies are incredible and the things I thought were true are at least malleable. This will not be illegal as it has been for most of my life. My personal freedom is fairly protected at this moment in time. My personal  work will be to find the ways my fears will not be realized and to find ways to keep inspiring and bringing beauty to the lives of other humans, while protecting the earth and those who are not human. I know I can do that.

It's going to be harder for our kids. Maybe the real estate markets will ease up with the confusion and loss of faith in the economic sectors. Maybe this will help them not be lazy and excessively pleasure-seeking and learn the hard lesson that things matter: actions, words, and choices. Maybe they don't seem to matter much in the individual case, but in the aggregate, things like this will happen even if we are diligent. So our diligence is necessary.

The policies that led us to devalue education, to ruin our planet, to exploit and plunder our resources have put us here, and given us this common enemy in a figurehead for greed and hatred. It can be a gift to have such a clear example of what we don't want. The Vietnam War and Nixon and the whole military industrial complex are what galvanized my generation, and made us so committed and strong when it comes to peace and justice. So this now is what will give us the will to defeat sexism and bigotry. This is the backlash to our progress on racism and we did make progress. It will not be possible to return us to the dark ages of slavery and people who call bullshit will call it louder. People will work harder. We don't have any other choice.

So dig in and think bigger. We made it through many years of bad policy from W and Reagan, and we will make it through this. Work louder and harder. We may have gained many allies in our work with this. When the bigots gloat, use your words. Don't be meek.

Our young people are strong, determined and mighty in their knowledge of right and wrong. Let's stand with them and make the changes we need whether the figureheads are with the program or not. Don't panic or fall into despair. Go to the meetings. Take the notes.

There is no giving up, we all know that. There is no moving to Canada. Our job just got harder, but it is the same work we have been doing all this time. Forty years of going in the right direction for humanity can not be reversed by some ridiculous distorted contest of power that does not even relate to our daily lives. We will still be able to do a lot with what is in front of us, and we have the strength, the will, and the desperate need to do it.

So we found out that there are more stupid, ignorant, and limited people willing to be that. We're still smart. We're still articulate. There is still the next election, and the work we are doing until then. Keep it up! I'm with you.