#hopeishere

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” — Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and activist

Whether you're there or not,

Remind yourself,

My world will stop spinning,

✥ B E T T E R ✥

I’ve been trying to articulate my thoughts over the last several days, any words feel as though they fall short and I’m usually one for words.

How did we get here?

Where do we go from here?

The reality is that America was built on cruelty - genocide/ethnocide of indigenous peoples, slavery, and the oppression of black, brown and queer people. Our entire story of America might not be one of cruelty but until we truly acknowledge our dark history it will continue to eat away at our core.

Every day feels a little darker right now as if we are moving towards the winter solstice and not away from it towards the light.

No one should be surprised that hate and division rose to power in 2016 and continues on today in Trump's second term. It is all deeply interconnected with our dark history, white supremacy and capitalism.

We watched as a nation a woman get murdered in broad daylight. We heard her wife’s sobs and saw the stuffed animals in the door. But still despite what we ALL saw with our own eyes - there are some who would attempt to label her as a domestic terrorist or some other absolute nonsense. People would rather protect the status quo than acknowledge what we all saw with our own eyes.

The government murdered someone in broad daylight and it isn’t the first time nor will it be the last.

Renee Good is a human being and she should still be here. All those captured, kidnapped, terrorized and caged are human beings. We shouldn’t be comfortable with ICE using violence against anyone. Period.

I guarantee we are NOT angry enough.

Fuck ICE. Abolish ICE. May they be abolished and never exist again.

We have to acknowledge how we got here in order to build a community where we are all safe whether we are black, brown, queer, guilty people, non-US citizens, etc.

We have to acknowledge our dark history but that isn’t our whole story.

I always joke that anthropology’s tag line should be “basically humans are terrible” and we are at times. But that isn’t the whole truth. Our story is filled with darkness and incredibly bleak moments, it is easy to get lost in that but the reality is that it is also overwhelmingly filled with resilience, survival and hope.

We are after all the result of 150,000 (at the very least) years of evolutionary success. We wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t helped and protected each other. We continue to survive no matter the odds and I know we’ll survive whatever is coming.

Now is the time to resist ICE and the regime.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

We are not safe until we are ALL safe.

Your silence will not protect you.