Tuesday’s result was a gut punch.
For many reasons, but mainly because so many of us desperately want something better, something beautiful and just. Because so many of us and our ancestors have worked tirelessly to dream it, to build it.
We know our opponent, we know what they want to do to us. We can never underestimate this administration and the Project 2025 agenda. We know there will be detrimental consequences for ourselves, family, neighbors, and friends. Like many of y’all I am tired, but I know there will be opportunities to resist and grow stronger together.
What I know for sure is that how we treat each other and the decisions we make at this moment matters.
Caring for our essential needs so we are able to show up for ourselves and each other is not optional, it is non-negotiable. Learning why people we thought were with us weren’t is a postmortem we must undertake if we want to rebuild trust across lines of solidarity.
It would be easy to only focus on the needs of our immediate communities. Easy to turn our backs on each other in this moment of great fear and dread. We must not.
That is what they want. They will not make me care less about other people because I am worried about myself. They do not get to have me lead from a place of individualism and fear.
How we choose to lead in this moment is crucial for our long-term survival. We must only and always lead from a place of great love and care. Caring for ourselves and each other is what makes us human, we must embrace it. That is how we win.
The intense emotions or numbness y’all are experiencing right now is our collective pulse, a pulse that tells me just how much we still want to create and live in a more compassionate and loving world.
And, the well is infinite on how much I can love. How much WE can love and care for each other.
That is something that they have never and will never take from us. They might have laws to try to control my body but my spirit belongs to me.
We belong to each other.
This is a time for us to get clear on what we mean when we say, “we are in community with each other,” not just in theory but in praxis.
What does that look like day to day? What does that look like when you are safe and I am not? What does that look like when I have needs being met and you do not?
Just sitting in rooms together is not enough.
Politics is practice. Now it is time for praxis. Now is the time for us to lean into our values. Now is the time for us to come closer together than ever before.
What we do, what we seed, what we invest in, and how we lead in this moment matters.
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