For much of my life I considered myself to be an optimist. After all, many claim that optimism is the best outlook on life one can have. It's been shown to have numerous health benefits, including a longer happier life. But now, seeing the state of the world- a pandemic bringing entire nations to kneel and our police engaging in rampant acts of brutality against innocent civilians, with children being quite literally sold back to their parents from camps holding them at our border, and with environmental restrictions being rolled back across the board when the age of climate change is now upon us, I can no longer afford to be a hopeful optimist. And neither can you, dear reader.
Hope isn't action. In fact, quite the opposite. To hope almost seems to imply that "the work" be done by someone else. It implies that someone else will come along and fix it. Well, news flash- no one with any position of power is going to fix anything. The primary election is nearly upon us, with a choice between a borderline sociopath, a Sulla-like figure who seems to set the stage for tyranny, and a corporate puppet moderate who will but corporations over his constituents every time no matter how much action he claims he will take to solve the last 4 years of chaos. This isn't to say you shouldn't vote- you should, and you should vote Trump OUT in November- but don't get your hopes up for Biden to bring a revolution.
I don't know if racial injustice will end in our lifetime, or if this pandemic is going to truly go away with little lasting impact. One thing is for certain, though. Climate Change is not going to be fixed in our lifetime. This hurts to say and frankly I'm sure it hurts to read. But considering how poorly America has handled a crisis literally happening right now and not 10 years away like Climate Change, it's safe to say nothing meaningful is going to stop it. Scientists have already begun shifting the language from "climate change prevention" to "climate change preparation". That was before Trump got elected and we have already seen how much worse things have gotten. So what can we do?
All that's left is for us- the people- to try and fix things. We need to vote for officials that trust bust like Roosevelt did in the good old days. We need to get out in the streets and protest police brutality, and scream Black Lives Matter from the rooftops until they hear us. We need to dismantle these camps at our border and abolish ICE. We need sweeping, systemic change.
We can no longer afford to hope. Now, we must fight. Fight tooth and nail to save what remains of this world before it all goes down in flames. It's going to hurt, and it's going to be uncomfortable. But which would you rather have- a changed, better world earned through blood, sweat and tears, or let this one slowly rot away into nothing?
