We live in an era of chaos and potentially catastrophic change at a level humans have never previously seen.
That being the case, I am struck by how callous our leaders are in failing to cease with their bullshit instead of doing everything possible to save our butts or at least come to some equitable agreement on triage.
But I am thankful on this, my 71st birthday, to know (and see) that there are people who are still hopeful, still active, still passionately compassionate and refusing to give up despite the odds being stacked against us.
I am thankful for the resistance. Not just the resistance to that brainless Mussolini in the White House, although that matters.
I mean the whole shebang.
The resistance that was active long before Donald Trump arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania. The resistance that will be necessary long after he’s gone.
The resistance sparked by 350.org and Bill McKibben to stop our insane self-destruction. Sparked by Occupy. By the women and men of Black Lives Matter. By the indigenous peoples of many tribes who rose against the black snakes of Keystone XL and Dakota Access. By the DREAMers. Sparked by the women and men of Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights who refuse to stand down against the forced birthers. By the campaign of Bernie Sanders and other Democratic socialists. By the ACLU and the Native American Rights Fund for their decades of fighting to sustain or extend constitutional rights.
Sparked by those anti-imperialists whose warnings have mostly been ignored since 1898 but continue the crusade to get us to stop. By the LGBTQ activists who remind us that gay rights is not a fight that’s over by a long shot. By the progressive candidates at all levels of office who have chosen to run, many times in races where no Democrat has run in ages. And by the tens of thousands of people who have canvassed voters door-to-door, the hardest and, imo, most important election work that can be done to build resilience into the recent victories at the ballot box we’ve had in unlikely places.
I give thanks for all (and to all) of them. Without them and others like them there is no future.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving.