As We Wait
We are here waiting for a huge decision about our government. But I’m used to not having the government behind my dreams. I have a lot of marginalized identities. I’m also the child of a parent who worked for reproductive rights before Roe v. Wade, so I was raised to show up when the government doesn’t. In my lifetime of activism, I’ve been doxed, I’ve had things thrown at me, I’ve been harassed by the police, and interrogated by the FBI, and none of that has stopped me from showing up for justice, for mercy, for compassion, for equality.
“Surrendering is unimaginably more dangerous than struggling for survival.”
― Leslie Feinberg
Those in power are used to having power. They need the government behind their agenda. They are used to police looking the other way when they kill — heck, they are used to being the police. Heck, they are used to being President. We have a different relationship to power. We organize from hospital beds and prisons, from kitchens and classrooms, from the streets and from every place we exist.
“I think people with disabilities are used to the world not being accessible and having to make things work out of nothing. […] So we get to be really creative problem solvers and I think aren’t constrained to boxes, can kinda see pictures that other people can’t see.”-Stacey Park Milbern
They need this win because coercive power is the only way they know. We know there’s so much beyond that. Of course I would rather not struggle towards a more just world under a dictatorship, but our comrades around the world have shown us that it can be done. In these moments of waiting for election results, in these moments of hoping and hopelessness, I’m glad that we know a different kind of power and I’m glad that we are resilient and relentless in our struggle.
“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.”
― Assata Shakur
So, I’m not waiting for the results. I’m still working for justice, just like I was yesterday and just like I will be tomorrow. I’m not waiting. I honestly wouldn’t know how. I’m out here creating beautiful futures for us all, and if they try to outlaw those futures, I’ll just build outlaw futures.
“If you’re honest, you sooner or later have to confront your values. Then you’re forced to separate what is right from what is merely legal. This puts you metaphysically on the run. America is full of metaphysical outlaws.”
― Tom Robbins
Every vote matters, but no vote will bring us justice. We will transform the world by doing what we have always done: acting now and not waiting for someone to hand us our utopia. No matter how much fear and doubt I am experiencing, no matter how much they terrorize us, and intimidate us, my faith in our ability to create change is never shaken.
“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” -Angela Davis
So let’s bet on ourselves. Let’s remember the needle always points towards justice. Let’s keep building something better. Let’s be who we always have been: unstoppable forces for good.
“I don’t think there will ever be a time when people will stop wanting to bring about change.” -Yuri Kochiyama
