Forging Ahead Through Despair
Over the past few days I have been filled with what I can only think to describe as despair. Some other feelings that have been circling around inside my body are fear, sadness, hopelessness, guilt, and uncertainty.

Most importantly, today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Dr. King was a brilliant, compassionate leader of the Civil Rights movement who practiced non-violence and peaceful protest. He faced unthinkable racism, hatred, and violance, yet he never lost hope. He deserves to be celebrated and remembered today and every day.
Ironically (and something that we cannot ignore or push aside), it is also Inauguration Day where a racist, homophobic, slimy bigot will enter the White House and become the leader of our country a damn second time over.
Over the weekend, TikTok was banned for about half a day in the U.S. Threats loomed for months and a full-on Supreme Court case happened where they ruled in favor of the TikTok ban. And yet the next morning we all wake up to this message:

The fact that Donald Trump is named in this alert should send red flags to all of us. First, he formerly advocated to ban TikTok. Second, he was not president when the ban was lifted. Third, he is clearly in cahoots with all of the major social networking platforms which will absolutely censor and control our media (or worse).
While people are obsessing over TikTok, even more terrifying are things like the potential mass deportation of immigrants in Chicago. From what I'm reading, the mass deportation that was supposed to start tomorrow has been postponed due to information being leaked about it. However, I have no doubt that things are about to get devastating in the United States. While Trump (the convicted felon) has stated that deportations must happen due to crime skyrocketing, statistics show that crime across the U.S. has decreased significantly over the past two years.
While my head was swirling around with uncertainty last night, I was feeling lost as to what actions I should take. Do I delete all social networking because this atrocious man is in cahoots with all the tech billionaires? Do I carry on posting and trying to “fight the good fight?”
I came to a decision this morning after some good conversations with friends and lots of time to ponder. I am not going to get rid of my social media at this time. I might in the future but not right now. No matter what, there will still be people on all of these sites—some posting good, educational content, others posting hateful, scary content. That is the nature of social media and a major part of free speech. There actually needs to be more people sharing acurate information, doing the research, and advocating for those communities who Trump is going to target.
That’s just it, see, Trump is a hateful man. He is a power-hungry, money-hungry, cruel man. And I absolutely refuse to let hate win. Do you know what is more powerful than hate? Love. I know it’s cliché but it is a way more productive emotion and mental state, where far fewer people get hurt in the crossfire. My feelings of despair, anger, fear, sorrow, and devastation are not productive. It is not productive to feel guilty for my privilege or my whiteness. It is not productive to scroll through social media and feel heavy and defeated. Hope, joy, passion, and maybe even a little bit of anger can all help fuel a nonviolent, powerful fight.

One thing that I am going to try to avoid is burnout. I tend to get really impassioned about social justice movements and then when the spotlight fades and life carries on, I lose momentum. We are in this for the long haul, unfortunately. Here are some productive things to consider over the next few days, weeks, and years:
Do your research from multiple credible sources. This goes for people on the right and left. But if we are to advocate for those in need, we need to be armed with facts rather than misinformation. It's also important to question and critically analyze the content we are consuming.
Be a safe space and a listening ear. Now, more than ever, we need to listen to marginalized communities who are being targeted and amplify their voices.
Accept what cannot be changed. Right now, we cannot change the fact that Trump is our president again. In fact, we are to blame because we, collectively, put him there. It isn’t changing, so we have to forge ahead. On this note, many of his inevitably terrible policies we cannot even change. The house, senate, and Supreme Court are all republican-controlled. Nothing to do about that now!
Care about politics. We are in a hot mess of a situation currently. If you think that politics don’t matter, you’re wrong. A lot of us don’t know shit about shit when it comes to politics, and it’s time to change that if we want to see lasting change within our systems.
Take action. On a really great blog that I read on election night, action paths are broken down into a few options:
Protecting People: Examples including starting immigrant welcoming committees, donate to Planned Parenthood
Defending Civic Institutions: Bureaucracies will either succumb to Trump or stand up against him and we have to support those that stand against
Disrupt and Disobey: Organize strikes, any large scale, nonviolent disobedience tactic
Building Alternatives: Learn something new, such as cultural work, new ways to grow food, save the planet, care for kids, etc.
It’s going to be a long 4 years. Today--and every day following--I choose hope and action rather than fear and despair. I will focus on small, sustainable efforts that can snowball over time and I invite you all to do the same. It will undoubtedly be a messy, confusing, non-linear path but that is okay.
Thanks for reading and joining along.

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