Hopeful in bad times
We have to be hopeful. I don't know how yet but we have to be hopeful. We will be fine. We will get through this and we will be fine. We always are, eventually.
“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.”
It feels like it took all day to catch my breath - now that the nausea is slowly gone. I didn't see this coming. Did you? Were we naive? Has the left become so snobby and detached that we do not see the signs, read the minds of those we share our spaces with? Yet honestly, do I want to care about angry white men streaming to the polls fearing for their privilege? Hell no! But does that mean, I am part of the problem looking down from my high horse of liberal education and European privilege who frankly cannot be bothered with the problems of some redneck from the bible belt? Don't say it. I know. My friend Sarah pointed out today that white liberal feminism has a huge problem. Focusing on sexism without taking racism, white supremacy, class, and neoliberalism into critical account won't quite cut it. And obviously didn't. I am angry. Because when it comes down to it, shouldn't it be the f* enough that we are all humans deserving of a piece of this cake that is our world? Myself included.
My heart is breaking. For women, the queers, people of color, and all Others who have been voted against in this political nightmare. I am heart broken for all my friends in the United States, hailing from all strides, colors, backgrounds and orientations, who deserve better. For those who worry about their health care, reproductive rights, their safety walking down the streets at night fearing the unleashed anger of the dominant class, for those who fear of being stripped of what has become a privilege (!) rather than their right of marriage.
Knowledge is power. Today, it seems frighteningly fitting that Kelsey and Irene's wedding in Los Angeles this spring featured this phrase. In as much as knowledge is power so is ignorance we just painfully learned. And we need to fight it once we stopped crying.
“What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. ”
I have always struggled with defining gay marriage as a political act. It undoubtedly is, but I have always felt it problematic as marriage has been built as an inherent heterosexual structure to which those outside of this framework aspire to. There is something that does not sit quite right with me personally. And yet, in times like these, reviewing the photographs we took a few months ago, these words by Howard Zinn resonate in me: And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future.
“The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
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On that note, let's marvel into that which positively is the beautiful side of America. Never lose sight. We got this. All shot on Portra.
