“We’re fucked!”
My BlueSky this morning was filled with people verbalizing where their emotions are while waking up in America and staring directly into the face of fascism on this of all days - July 4th.
I’m not going to tell you how you should feel. I have no idea how you should feel. I barely know how to feel these days myself. What I will offer, instead, is to share what I choose.
I choose to try, even when I don’t see a reason. New opportunities will emerge, if I persist - they always do.
I choose joy, even when I don’t see a reason. The ancestor I want to be remembered as was always smiling and making others laugh and smile, even in the darkest of times.
I choose to love, even when I don’t see a reason. Everyone brings value, ideas, talent, pain, trauma, baggage, and their stories to their encounter with me. I can’t build solidarity with people whose pain and value I can’t see, so I am working very hard to be able to see their pain and breathe before responding to them or assuming their motives.
I believe love, hope, and joy aren’t just things I feel. I believe they are things I can choose as well - decisions I can make, if I have the courage and capacity in any given moment to make them. Sometimes I do, many times I don’t, but I keep practicing and persisting.
Trust me, “we’re fucked” is a phrase that runs through my head several times a day. But rebellions aren’t built on “we’re fucked” - they’re built on hope.
“I never have been in despair about the world. I've been enraged by it. I don't think I'm in despair. I can't afford despair. I can't tell my nephew, my niece. You can't tell the children there's no hope.” - James Baldwin
In community and in solidarity with everyone reading this who isn’t a fascist and/or billionaire,
Iain Hamp
Secular AZ Board Chair
