A reader recently told me that she thinks I’ve become too negative lately: that she misses the optimistic version of me that she got to know before the 2024 election.

“I miss that version of me, too,” I assured her.

Then I asked: “So, do you want me to be optimistic or honest?”

I wasn’t being facetious or sarcastic with the question.

I know that she (like myself and every other sentient human being with working empathy) has completely had it with the catastrophic, the unprecedented, the terrifying. She (like all of us) is stumbling around, both hope and sleep-deprived.

But the alternative to sober realization is to indulge in toxic positivity; to deny the nightmare reality, avoid the afflictive emotions, and wait for a rescue that simply isn’t comin’.’And that’s the rub here, isn’t it: the only way we’re going to persevere is by not sedating or distracting ourselves, which means we’re going to have to feel and know a lot we’d prefer not to.Now, contrary to the opinion of some, I really hate being the bearer of bad news, but anyone thinking we “just have to get through the next two years” isn’t paying attention.

We are already long past the point of any conventional remedies to this fascist takeover. November 5th, 2024, was the closing of that window.

Many of the checks and balances are gone, the Republican Party is unsalvageable, the courts will not permanently sustain us, and no wholesale election rescue is possible.

The old rules of engagement are no longer relevant, which is why, outside of a few leaders, the Democratic Party is falling to the occasion right now.Whether we survive or not as a nation is going to depend solely on whether or not We The People are willing to do what we’ve never had to do in this nation: stand together and oppose our own Government.And this does not necessarily mean violence, but it will likely mean exposing ourselves to violence directed by those in power, pushback from our neighbors, rejection from our families, but believe me, those we stand with and for are worth it.What civil and human rights activists have done to bend the moral arc of the universe toward justice 60 years ago, we are now entrusted with continuing, and if we fail, that work, too, will prove not to have prevented democracy’s demise but postponed it.

I don’t share this to scare or depress you, but to empower you. You have enough information and resources right now to do what needs doing.

No one is going to hold our hands or save us: no party, no court, no personality. We need to use our personal, financial, and relational resources and do something today.

If tens of millions of people move in the small and close confines of where they are, we might be astounded at how much collective power we have.

I didn’t write this to alert you to how dire the circumstances around us have become. You know that, or you wouldn’t be here.

I’m not here today to tell you how bad things are; I’m here to remind you how good you are.This is not about anyone else’s inhumanity; it is about your humanity.It’s not about one group of people’s cruelty; it’s about your empathy.In some ways, it doesn’t matter who is in the seats of power.It doesn’t matter how horrible the legislation that gets passed is.It doesn’t matter how much the Evangelical church rejects Jesus and his teachings.It doesn’t matter how compromised the courts are.It doesn’t matter how predatory the preachers or the politicians become.Those things, in one important way, are almost irrelevant.

The only thing any of us possesses is how we choose to show up in the world, as ugly, nihilistic, and brutal as it might be.Anyone else’s capacity for violence is not the point. Your capacity for love is the point.And that love is the only plan for us individually and collectively.

So, as bad as it is here, we will passionately move together in these days, but we will do so recognizing that we are inextricably bound together here.

We will fight for the outcasts, the vulnerable, and the hungry.

We will fight for the lonely, the hurting, and the desperate.

We will fight for the progressive, the moderate, and the conservative.

We will fight for the blue voters and the red voters.

We will fight for the deeply religious and the fiercely anti-religious.

We will fight for those fortunate enough to be born here and those who seek to call this place home.

We will see hatred and ignorance and violence as the only enemies worth our collective rage.

We will not become people at war with the world, but for it.

We will fight for everyone.

We will fight for everything.

You are one of the fighters, and you’re still here.

That’s what matters most.

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It Doesn't Matter How Bad Things Are Here