My child wept.
My friends and family in the LGBTQ community are afraid.
My friends who are people of color are afraid.
Women are numb with shock.
I wept. I will weep again.
This is the hurricane. This is the disaster. This is the attack launched against us.
The cavalry’s not coming.
Unless, we become the cavalry.
Before the election I asked myself, how brave am I? What will I write in the face of a duly elected leader who is hostile to critics? Is it better to go quiet and tend to my own or use my words in my own small way? I didn’t know the answer until this morning.
I will be as brave as I need to be.
For now, I leave you with this: the administration that will take office in 2017 is not going to protect our civil and human rights. We cannot look to them so we must look to each other. There are countless non-profit organizations that will help us organize ourselves so we can hold the line on legal protections that currently exist. Organizations that benefit women, children, people of color, the LGBTQ community, the mentally ill, the disabled, the impoverished, the environment. Find them and ask how you can be of use to them.
Then look around and ask yourself how you can be of use to your community. What do your neighbors need? What does your city need? What do your schools need? What do your friends need?
We have each other. That’s what matters now.
