my official statement

many have been askin

I think we can all agree: things are going quite badly right now. There’s a general consensus, right? Today, this moment: Not good.

Although, of course, I don’t mean to imply that those same things weren’t going badly before now, as well. Just because the bad things affect me more currently than they did previously doesn’t mean that they weren’t always out there, being bad. I am not oblivious to the fact that the condition of others has, in the past, been really awful, maybe even more than any of the conditions of today. I can’t take solely my own experiences and perspective into account. That would be, in itself, a perpetuation of a lot of not-great. When I de-center myself in this conversation, I can see that things are, actually, getting better!

I’m so glad to live in this time of things going so well.

Well, not WELL, obviously. I mean, there is some seriously messed-up stuff afoot, both back then and also in modern times and probably later on, I bet. I just meant, comparatively, some situations have improved, on the whole. Though I suppose that other circumstances, when considered holistically, have deteriorated, and so perhaps it evens out, in a way, such that all of the things, taken together, sort of even out, cumulatively.

Really, things are basically the same.

Which is not to say that nothing’s changed! To ignore the many changes would be to disregard the hard work of the change-makers, and all the changes they made. What we are seeing now is barely recognizable from what we saw before, except that on the other hand, the essential problems are the ones we’ve always faced, and are in fact core tenets of the way things are and have been and will continue to be unless we tear it all down.

So, we should just start from scratch.

…Except for the progress. If we tear everything down, that includes the progress, and we can’t erase the progress, or discount the progress, or belittle the progress. We have to acknowledge the progress. Progress: you are acknowledged. I acknowledge you.

Okay, I am certainly not new to the conversation, I have been paying attention, and keeping up, which is why recent events shock me but aren’t surprising, because I saw them coming, which no one could have done. Honestly, I am so upset, but sadly also not, because it’s what I expected, this very predictable chaos we won’t fully comprehend for years, which I totally understand right now.

This status quo is not normal, it’s a pattern as old as time — but new enough that we can still reverse it — which we won’t — unless we do! Don’t be complacent, and get used to it! The system won’t allow for improvements that are outside of the system, which has been eroded into a new system that looks like the old system, because it’s two steps forward and one long moral arc of the universe back, and and if you give up when things aren’t quick, you’ll forget that we don’t have time to wait for tomorrow for your entire life.

And in the meantime, VOTE.