The truth of the matter is that the world has always been cruel, unkind to people of color, immigrants, those with disabilities, people in the LGBTQIA community, and women, and willing to crush anyone whose voice is not backed by millions of dollars and a stadium. This is life. It sucks, I know it does, and it feels like the world is caving in on itself, run by fascists, rampaged by gunmen, marked by tragedy, but the world is not ever one thing.
For every tragedy there is a hero who steps up and says “Not today!” For every moment of darkness, a hand in love is extended, for every time a white supremacist takes the mic, takes the presidency, a crowd of neighbors says “Oh hell no!” It sucks that we have to fight as much as we do. It sucks that to beat back the darkness we must be constantly vigilant, but it also makes us guardians of the light. It means that we have the power to step on the line between dark and light and make a difference, if we only care to do it.
And we’re lucky enough to have within our means the power of the people, the power of our community.
Make no mistake, all leaders fear the people. Because we are mighty and strong together. Because our voice can create sweeping change that leaves these outdated, outnumbered ideologues in the dust behind them.
They want you to shut up. To get tired, To not care who takes office. Because that suits their ability to make money off you, off their sponsors, off their slow but steady degradation of natural resources and the environment. They benefit from your silence, and each day you say nothing, you become complicit in their harming of people and the environment.
Voting always matters, forever and ever, because you get to decide the course of your communities and your country, but it matters even more now. It matters because we are at a tipping point of rising fascism, rising hate, and rising temperatures that could leave us all without air in thirty years. We have to take action. We must put aside our distrust in the system and take it back.
So, I beg you. Don’t be silent because your privilege tells you that you’ll be okay. Don’t be silent because you don’t think your vote makes no difference. Don’t be silent because you fear jury duty.
Fight.
Because the older generation has ruined us, but in your beautiful, awkward, weird, lovely hands we have a shot at being better.
The world sucks, yeah, but so what? Fight anyways. If nothing else, it’ll make a bunch of old white men who hate you angry, and that’s as good a reason as any.
Vote. Because it does matter, and they fear you, but only when you use your voice and amplify the voices of others.
To learn more about the bills and people up for election in your area: Ballotepedia.