NEVER GIVE UP
Our November 5th election gave us a convicted felon to be President of the United States.
This man is a threat to our democracy, our planet, human rights, freedoms, or economy, our place in the world, our values. Much has been written and here I include comments from Rebecca Solnit, Al Gore and an essay by the editor of Fix the News, Angus Hervey. The latter for me captures the deep tragedy of this election and I especially recommend it.
From Rebecca Solnit:
"They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what you love."
Also read “Authoritarians like Trump love fear, defeatism, surrender. Do not give them what they want.”
From Al Gore:
"For climate advocates across the country, the outcome of this election means that all of us must find ways to redouble our efforts and find bipartisan solutions to the climate crisis that create jobs, promote prosperity and safeguard the future of humanity.
"In a moment such as this, it is important to remember that all major reform efforts, from civil rights to the climate movement, suffer dark days. And this is surely one. We can mourn a loss, but we can’t linger in despair. Our planet doesn’t have time for that. Now more than ever, this movement needs engagement and leadership from all corners of the country.
"During a down moment in the struggle for civil rights, Martin Luther King, Jr. said something about overcoming days like this: “If you can’t fly, run; if you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl; but by all means keep moving.”
We know the line to solutions is never straight or easy. But we have won major victories in tackling the climate crisis and reducing climate pollution in our country, and we will again.
"My greatest source of hope comes from the courage and commitment of grassroots leaders and advocates in the US and around the world who are relentlessly pushing for progress. Onward."
From Angus Hervey of Fix the News
"The End of Inevitability" He begins his essay with this quote from Carl Sagan:
I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
~ Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, 1995
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