Not the end, the beginning; a dark road to hope

Yesterday, man what a world yesterday was. It was a short lived world bursting with the kind of unrepentant joy that flows from a long held moment of uncertainty.

Yesterday was wild, it was warranted, it was welcome.

But, like always Yesterday is now gone and we are left with the world we have. It may feel as though there was an Ending that happened. That foes were defeated and victory is at hand.

I propose that it was not the end. Too many things have been let out of the box and they will not go back in quietly. Some of them are new, but most of them were already here working quietly in the shadows where we have now shone the light: systemic racism, police brutality, economic inequality, eco-fascism, misogyny, on and on. These things do not go away simply because we've begun to say their names out loud. Also, all those people who believed 45 a demi-god? They don't just go away either. QAnon and MAGA flags, Proud Boys and Three Percenters, "Back the Blue", "Fuck your feelings", and "Liberal tears" aren't going to simply evaporate. If anything they stand to grow, finding new figure heads to lead their movement

And Biden will not save us from them. His presidency is likely to achieve little real change, even less knowing that his opponents control Congress. His opponents will grow off a likely strong electoral backlash in the 2022 mid-term elections. Mitch McConnel, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio are all still in power, and they have no intention of cooperating. More than likely they'll be joined by proto-Trumps who will start running for office hoping to harness the anger of his cult.

What Biden's victory does give us is some breathing room. It gives us room to finish building the movements that have gained renewed focus and new momentum during the last four years. To engage with and tackle racial injustice, climate change, and economic injustice. But if we have learned anything, it is that the status quo no longer serves the majority of the people. Neither in this country or in the world. And so it is time for us to stop trying to find our way back to what we thought worked.

It is time for us to start carving new paths forward, instead of building bridges to the other side.

It is time for us to dare to imagine new ways, new systems, new worlds, instead of maintaining those that failed us long ago.

It is time to dream of new ways to care for each other, to heal each other, and to teach each other.

It is time for us to walk forward. Those who wish to walk with us are welcome, those who do not will remain behind.

And so I challenge you to to dare and dream and walk forward with us.