Okay, I am going to be off this website for an unknown length of time, as I suspect people are going to be *extra* awful now, but I will say a few things first:
-This is not the end of days. Even Trump winning, as horrible as that will be, will not be the end of days. For the sake of those who came before us, those alongside us, and those who live after us, we must continue to live, breathe, and fight for that which is good in the world.
-We still have power. People will tell you that we do not. They will tell you that neither party wants to fix these problems, and that worse, these problems should not be fixed. They will tell you that we deserve our fate. They are wrong.
They are wrong both in that America deserves to suffer, because there is no crime that deserves suffering, and they are wrong in that there is no power- nor, I suspect, an unwillingness to use it. It was simply not apparent until this week how deep the rot ate.
-There are a lot of people who will say that there is no place for hope or brightness or joy here in this fight. They will post quote about Grim Determination. Some of you doing this are my mutuals. I am sorry, you are wrong. Grim determination is great for hurting yourself and little else.
If you kill the hope, light, and joy in your hearts, you have killed the thing you hope to save. You have confused yourself and will end up breaking, your hardness making you brittle. Always laugh, always smile, always enjoy things, no matter how hard things get.
As my people were placed on a death march a thousand miles away from their homeland to live in eternal exile, as they were subject to the lash and the gun, as they were killed and butchered and had their very names and words stolen from them, they still laughed and loved the sunrise.
The story of my people is a fire that has been passed from generation to generation, never going out for even a single day, and I won't let it go out even now. May everyone have the strength to do the same.
I always try to remember that the most important part of the story of Denethor seeing the armies of Mordor and panicking about their inevitable victory is that he was wrong.
I'm with you there. Allowing Trump to win will unleash an unknown amount of suffering on people who are already suffering, but it will be much worse. But, even the most tyrannical dictatorships don't last forever.
In the words of the great political philosopher Charlie Chaplin:
"The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish."
