We seem to have entered the Darkest Timeline. I really don’t know what else to say. I have been oscillating between rage and sorrow since late Tuesday evening.
I thought we were better than this, America. I was wrong. We aren’t.
Human rights are not negotiable and they aren’t something we can “agree to disagree” on.
- American Civil Liberties Union
- Southern Poverty Law Center
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- Council for American-Islamic Relations
- #NoDAPL Official Sacred Stone Camp
- Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
- Anti-Defamation League
- Planned Parenthood
- NARAL Pro-Choice America
- Women’s Medical Fund
- ADAPT
- American Association of People with Disabilities
- National Council for Independent Living
- Lambda Legal
- The Trevor Project
- Trans Lifeline
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- National Immigrant Justice Center
- National Immigration Law Center
Most of these organizations will accept monthly donations as small as $5/month. If you can’t give money, many of these organizations have local chapters that could probably use volunteers.
Write to your local and state representatives. Hold their feet to the fire. They work for all of us.
“Believe the autocrat. He means what he says.” Don’t allow yourself to be lulled into thinking everything is normal. It’s not. We survive together, not alone. Resist.
And fellow white people? We have work to do.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
I_Sell_Books says
November 11, 2016 at 12:53 pmAs a WOC, I am terrified and sad and I don’t know how to make it through the next four years.
Democracy is under threat. I…I just don’t know.
Lori says
November 12, 2016 at 2:46 amIt’s been about 12 hours since I first read your post. I want you to know what’s happened since then, what this post has done. Thank you for writing it. I always learn interesting and important things every week because of you. But this week kind of takes the cake.
When I read your post this morning something clicked over in me. I realized I was sick of being sad about this and sad wasn’t going to get us anywhere. I wanted to DO something. So I made a Facebook group, called it the Room of Requirement, and posted that I wanted advice on how I could volunteer in ways that would best help people in our (SW Washington) community most effected by this election. Then I invited 10 of my friends and asked them all to join me.
Twelve hours later our group has already grown to 20. This afternoon I discovered that the Northwest Imigrant Rights Project was hosting an Imigration 101 workshop in Seattle for people who want to better support imigrants in their community. When I posted it to the group, my lawyer friend said “hey, instead of a few of us driving all the way to Seattle, let’s try to get a workshop going down here. I’ll get on it!” So apparently that’s a thing we’re doing now. And all of us are having conversations about how we’ve been too complacent and it’s time we start actively giving a shit, because democracy is a verb, dammit and hey here’s this place I heard about that needs volunteers.
And that’s just the first 12 hours. I read your post this morning and tonight I have a clearing house for active hope going in my community and a growing 520th Division of Dumbledore’s Army. There aren’t really words enough to thank you. I know you weren’t the only one saying these things, but you’re the one who finally lit the spark. And I am grateful.
This morning I was still grieving and tonight I’m motivated. Thank you, more than I can say.
Natalie Luhrs says
November 12, 2016 at 8:22 amOh, Lori. This is amazing. You are amazing.
Natalie Luhrs says
November 12, 2016 at 8:24 amI wish I had words that would make this all better for you and for everyone else. all I have is that we have to do this together, as much as we can. <3
Lori says
November 12, 2016 at 1:33 pm@Natalie Luhrs: Thank you, Natalie. Though is would say that it’s only amazing in that so few people tend to do it, not that it’s at all difficult to achieve.
Which is good news; it’s easy! But not enough of us do it. The reason why we don’t do it is the hard part: it has not seemed urgent until now. But the hard uncomfortable truth is that Trump didn’t suddenly make it urgent. It has always been urgent, just not for people like me. I am a straight white woman with a steady job that provides good health care. Issues of equality, discrimination, economics, and health have not put the same barriers for me that they do others. I thought I understood that, and I did in an abstract way, but not in the way that I should as a citizen of this country.
This week is the closest I’ll likely ever come to having a minority experience. It shames and humbles me to realize that’s what it took for me to truly understand the fear and stress that so many people live with every day. I did not vote for Donald Trump, but he is still my responsibility. My complacency helped make him possible. The things I’ve begun this week are small in the face of that debt. But it’s a start. My goal is that Trump will inadvertently Make America Great Again, by forcing the rest of us finally start giving a shit.
Again, thank you for being the original clearing house of active hope. I know I would have gotten to this place on my own eventually, but it wouldn’t have happened yesterday. And I wouldn’t want to spend even one extra day being an idiot.