Send in the—
On not ceding my imagination
Just as soon as I have the time to sit down and write something else happens. Do I write about the violated social contract, the ramifications of which we are all experiencing? The doxxing campaign against teachers? The suspension of Jimmy Kimmel? I’ll tell you what I won’t write about—.
A person should be judged by how they lived and not how they died, and likewise, I want to be remembered as someone who tried to work towards solution, as someone who tried to write into the questions of life, as someone who tried to lean into the wind.
But, the winds are gaining speed quickly.
This country is changing and its changing fast. This administration is systematically dismantling our infrastructure, collapsing social safety nets, seizing power, silencing dissent, persecuting opposition, and stripping us of our rights. And when I say this administration, I am also implicating the big tech companies kissing the ring, determining the algorithms serving us the dopamine hits we are all addicted to, and profiting from our rage. Big tech is doing everything it can so it does not have to be regulated and it can CONTINUE to profit from the erosion of this country. Corporate media will NOT save our democracy. And education, oh, education, I worry for you the most. I firmly believe that education is the answer to everything and in America, education is something we already limit and deny and devalue. But, the attack on higher ed institutions and the cyberbullying campaign against educators and the book bans and canceling of free speech are all chip, chip, chipping away.
I want to believe that some things will hold. That there will be a reckoning for these buffoons that are destroying so much and not just here but around the world. I want to believe that science will prevail. That all of those career scientists no longer at the CDC will find their collective power and start something new. I want to believe that we will all find our way to a healthy relationship with this digital world and I hope the internet is one day capable of abiding by some form of social contract. And choose and desire to believe all of these things not because I am naive. I am not. But the practice of cultivating hope is essential for my own survival, my own citizenry, and my own agency. I don’t want to turn away or turn it off because how dare I? In the face of such an ominous and terrifying and unknowable future, I refuse to cede my imagination.
How are you resisting today?