Do Not Despair. Hope Is Not Lost.

Hi Friends,

Well, here we are. Are you exhausted yet from drinking from the firehose of bad news? Are you starting to find a balance between staying informed and active and finding joy and rest? Do not let the panic of constant new developments paralyze you or sap your valuable energy. Protect yourself for the long haul and trust that others are acting while you are resting.

I have been bolstered by the idea of social progress towards the world we want to live in as a train, inexorably and inevitably moving forward, however slowly, but never stopping. Those who have come before us in this essential work can be seen pushing it along, encouraging its progress, our ancestors in this work never tiring or wavering. Under the wheels of the train are challenges of the past — Jim Crow, enslavement, witch burnings, and the Red Scare. Those who engage in backlash to progress, which we are seeing very intensely right now, are in a futile battle to stop it from moving forward.

This is not to say that they will not cause damage, because they already have and harm will continue. It is simply to say that progress will keep moving forward. And each one of us can help it along as we are able. This image brings me hope because when I step back far enough to see the forest, I can see where we have been. Even though we feel like many backwards steps are being made right now, we are still making progress. I have to believe that Martin Luther King, Jr. was right when he spoke of the arc of the moral universe bending towards justice. Even though it is slow and long, it is still happening.

My hopeful image might seem sanitized — slavery isn’t over, for example, it’s just taking other forms like incarceration — and I don’t mean it to be so. Clearly, there is much work to do. But for me, at least, when it comes to hope, the power lies in the simplicity even as I hold all the nuance and complexities of reality in mind as well.

Another example is when we hold the humanity of everyone as sacred, despite any of the complex or nuanced details of their lives, actions, values, and dreams.

Things are being broken right now, suddenly and quickly, some of which have been breaking for some time already: our relationships with each other; our willingness to tolerate discomfort; our institutions and organizations and structures that uphold patriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism, and elitism; our trust in politicians; and our Earth’s climate. This is a time of intense upheaval and significant change, much of which we want to resist, deny, or prevent. To be clear, we must resist, deny, and prevent much of what the oligarchy and autocrats are attempting to do. We must do what we can to limit the harm done to our communities and to all of the life on Earth.

And.

While we consider which things are worth preserving or rebuilding, I would invite each of you to see this time (and the many years that come after this) as an opportunity to build the world we want to live in. Dream of what that world could look like. Share your dream with others. Start building those dreams in the ways in which we connect with each other, in the ways in which we build community, in the ways in which we support each other and honor each others’ humanity. This work can happen simultaneously with the resistance work, and must, in order to start filling the void left by the destruction to make a smoother path for the train.

I recently finished reading The Women by Kristin Hannah, which I highly recommend. It’s about nurses in the Vietnam War and it was so impactful on me partially because I needed to be reminded how divided the country was then (not very long ago!), how much upheaval and unrest and violence there was, how challenging it was to live during that time. Our time now is not the same and there are still similarities that can inform us. This is not the first time our country has faced significant challenges. Good things will come out of this and we must start building and planning for the new world we create after this particular moment has passed. Because it will pass.

Do not despair. Grieve, let the pain and fear and anger flow through you. Do not let it consume you. Use it to fuel your determination to fight and to rest. Remember that caregiving and community building is all part of this work. Everything you are doing matters and counts. Do not let the narratives of “never doing enough” prevent you from contributing. Those are capitalist narratives that make us feel like we are worthless if we are resting, we are negligent if we take care of ourselves, we are unproductive if we are not doing all the things.

Make space for healing. For grief. For dreaming. For connecting.

I have diversified my news sources lately and I’d love to hear about any of your new favorites. Some of my essentials are now truthout, Prism, Waging Nonviolence, and The 19th. Whatever sources you use, maintain a critical eye for what the publication wants from you (more panic = more eyeballs = more ad revenue) and who owns them and who controls their perspective. Sources I have formerly relied on have been compromised.

The employees of our local grocery store chain are on strike. Unions may be one of the most powerful ways for democracy to survive and thrive. Find ways to support union activity in your community, at your workplace, in your purchasing decisions. Make sure that your unlearning includes understanding class in this country and how it, like race, has been used to divide and control us (some resources below).

One of the ways we have power is to be thoughtful about how we talk about things that are happening and things we want to change. For example, this guide on Dismantling Antisemitism is very clear about the power of words and the intersections of many forms of oppression and how important it is to recognize those connections. ASO Communications has messaging guides for many topics. I’d like to call your attention to “Here to Stay: How to Talk About MAGA’s Authoritarian Agenda on Immigration” as an example.

If you’d like some additional resources to help inform or inspire you, here they are:

- David Dean is a great person to follow, particularly this post about the Race-Class Narrative

- Valarie Kaur’s latest book, Sage Warrior and her Revolutionary Love Toolkit (focused on the LA fires, but relevant for any crisis)

- Jennifer Harvey’s latest book, Antiracism as Daily Practice

- Loretta J Ross’s latest book, Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel

- An article about people who have recovered from being conspiracy theorists and what helped them out of the rabbit hole

- Dorcas Cheng-Tozun’s latest book, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul

- Heather Cox Richardson is my go-to person for historical context of what is happening. She wrote about historical events in our country that challenged us on July 28, 2024. She wrote about Obama’s argument for pluralism, to connect over what we have in common, on December 7, 2024.

- Normalize Grief shares writing prompts for processing your feelings and understanding grief.

- Sarah Jaffe’s latest book, From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire

- Garrett Bucks and his confident belief in community building include an article about what would happen if the most caring members of your community all knew each other. Another about how to love your neighbors when your houses are on fire (about the recent LA fires). And another about Bishop Budde’s message of mercy.

- The Indivisible Guide

- Derek Seidman’s article about the larger system of corporate rule laid bare by the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing and how collective resistance campaigns can help.

- Cherise Morris’s article about the need to connect anti-racism and class-consciousness into building stronger coalitions for change.

- Kelly Hayes’s article about showing up for each other and allowing our friends to make mistakes and not confuse them with our enemies. She also wrote about how to refuse fascism and a podcast about how our relationships are how we move forward.

- David Bacon’s article, “A Working-Class History of Fighting Deportations”

- A guide called “Looking for what to do? Some Actions to Stop Authoritarianism”

- One of my favorite organizations, White Awake, has changed its name to Comrades Education. Check out their new offerings.

- A reminder from adrienne maree brown that “it is our turn to carry the world”

Find a path of resistance that works for you, build your relationships and connections to people in your community, grieve and hope. You are not alone.

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow. In Solidarity.

Common Shared Humanity

Hi Friends,

I hope you all had an enjoyable summer. I have been reading I Never Thought of it That Way: How to have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times by Mónica Guzmán and it has been shifting my perspective, yet again. Isn’t learning wonderful?! I highly recommend the book and I’m hoping to share some resources related to what I’m learning and seeing that might help illustrate just how essential these perspectives are for creating the world we want to live in. In case it’s not clear, that world includes every single one of us.

The goal is to reduce the divisions among us and to find ways to connect over our shared humanity.

I’ll start with a very clearly laid out opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof called “Here’s Why We Shouldn’t Demean Trump Voters” in the New York Times last month. He rightly points out the classism that many progressives engage in, even as we fight against sexism and racism and how important it is that we learn to stop doing that, not simply because it is expedient for the upcoming election, but because it undermines our moral values to demean any group of people for any reason.

Much has been said about Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention last month, but I was particularly moved by Phillip Bump’s focus on her phrase that most of us “will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth.” He explains the genius of her phrasing: “Her line overlapping affirmative action and generational wealth wasn’t offering “affirmative action” as a pejorative term. It was, instead, contextualizing a different way in which people are boosted by circumstances that aren’t always under their control. It was a defense of affirmative action programs that noted how wealth built in an explicitly unfair economy was its own form of unearned advantage.” I share this here to highlight the ways in which most of us have more in common in our experiences of (economic) systemic oppression than not.

There was a story in the Washington Post recently about a Black couple hosting parties at their home and their neighbors calling the police. The article by Ellie Silverman does a good job of capturing the nuance and complications of the situation and it made my heart ache. I share it here to highlight the situations that arise when people don’t reach out and get to know each other as people, but treat a situation as something for the police to handle. I can see so much lost opportunity for everyone involved to create a connection and the ability to treat each other as people instead of a problem.

The next story is by Abha Bhattarai about how the unhoused population in our country increasingly includes working people. Besides raising awareness about this growing problem (again, along economic lines), I encourage you to consider your assumptions about the unhoused population and consider that who you might see on the sidewalks and streets is not a complete picture. For example, ask your local school or school district about their programs for unhoused children and learn more about the less visible unhoused population in your community. Did you know that it costs less to provide basic preventative support for people (housing, food, medical care, etc.) than it does to address the challenges they face when things fall apart (prison, ER visits, clearing “encampments,” policing and crime)? There are multiple studies that prove this, but we’re way behind because of fear, ignorance, and a lack of connection around our shared humanity.

Another article that broadened my understanding of the complexities and brilliance of humanity is the Washington Post Opinions series highlighting government employees. Michael Lewis wrote about Chris Mark of the Department of Labor in an article called “The Canary” and I found the entire thing riveting. But what keeps running through my head is the way the article brings out the personal story, the relationship he has with his father, the ways he has adjusted his perspective and understanding of the world because of his experiences. “But Chris had been endowed with a deeper-than-usual desire for fairness. He had a powerful father and a powerless mother and wound up feeling powerful sympathy for the underdog. He’d ended up working for the institution best equipped to help the unlucky defend themselves from the lucky. And the effect of his work had indeed been to make the world just a little bit less unfair.” I am so grateful for the problem solvers who are passionate about their work for its own sake.

If you’re interested in another perspective-challenging experience, I want to highlight Robin Givhan’s article about artist Hank Willis Thomas. His description of the conundrum of race is poignant “‘And so there I am: [Race] is not real. But the impacts are real! But it shouldn’t exist. But it does!’” The images of his work are striking, particularly “The Cotton Bowl” and his statuary with hands and arms is very moving to me. “Thomas strives to link our past to our future, to communicate urgent and difficult ideas when words fail us, when politicians make matters worse, and when moralists and terrorists all lay claim to God’s unique favor. As we struggle to communicate across the divides — political, racial and demographic — perhaps a monumental sculpture or a disruptive photograph can help us better recognize each other’s humanity.” [emphasis mine]

Food for thought (and action!).

Emily
Listen. Amplify. Follow. In Solidarity.