It
is a shattering result. The return of Donald Trump feels like the end
of something, more than a reversion. The end of a certain idea of
America, the end of an era, the end of so much hope and faith and
belief. The end of a complex of institutions and ideas.
For many
of you, the result will break your trust in America and in the people
around you. You may be tempted to turn away. That is entirely
understandable. For some, it might be the right choice for right now.
But
for those who, as ever, believe in America, the work remains. It
becomes all the more urgent. It doesn’t go away just because a carnival
barker wants to be a king.
What
is important now is to find the right way forward, to lend the love and
support the people around you will need in the coming days and weeks
and years, and to give yourself that love, too. And not to lose hope.
How
can we go on right now? Where can we locate hope? Can the grueling
years ahead also be a time of rethinking and rebuilding, so that another
country from this becomes possible again?
On these questions there is no better voice we can bring you right now than Rebecca Solnit. We encourage you to visit her Facebook page and her books, and revisit the conversations we’ve had with her this year.
And read this special message from her below in the wake of Tuesday’s result.
The fight for the future continues. We hope on.
The
Ink, I hope, will be essential to the thinking and reimagining and
reckoning and doing that all lie ahead. On this dark day, I want to
thank you for being a part of what we are and what we do. And I promise
you that this community is going to find every way possible to be there
for you in the times that lie ahead and be there for this country and
for what it can be still.
By Rebecca Solnit
They
want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample
everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and
neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we
cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may
need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no
matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth
gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember
in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what
you love.
The Wobblies used to say don't mourn, organize, but you
can do both at once and you don't have to organize right away in this
moment of furious mourning. You can be heartbroken or furious or both at
once; you can scream in your car or on a cliff; you can also get up
tomorrow and water the flowerpots and call someone who's upset and check
your equipment for going onward. A lot of us are going to come under
direct attack, and a lot of us are going to resist by building
solidarity and sanctuary. Gather up your resources, the metaphysical
ones that are heart and soul and care, as well as the practical ones.
People
kept the faith in the dictatorships of South America in the 1970s and
1980s, in the East Bloc countries and the USSR, women are protesting
right now in Iran and people there are writing poetry. There is no
alternative to persevering, and that does not require you to feel good.
You can keep walking whether it's sunny or raining. Take care of
yourself and remember that taking care of something else is an important
part of taking care of yourself, because you are interwoven with the
ten trillion things in this single garment of destiny that has been
stained and torn, but is still being woven and mended and washed.
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