Hi Everyone! Welcome Back! It’s 2025, and if you are reading this… YOU HAVE SURVIVED the election. So here we are all together... friends, family, and foes, in the early part of this new administration, and everything many feared would come true… has. There is global instability, wars and rumors of wars, preventable natural disasters, immigration sweeps, the rollback of civil rights gains and strides, disrespect and disenfranchisement of veterans and farmers, Women and children, the unprecedented loss of jobs, stocks, wealth, medical services, grants, and global allies. And the U.S. is just getting started!
I KNOW y’all want me to bash and trash what is happening right now, but I’m not. It is what it is. I can only focus on the things that I can control.
I am part of the 92% that told this state/country/city what would happen. Before the election, I orchestrated a town hall about the dangers of Project 2025 out of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation. We set up rides to the polls and voter education classes in 11 counties in about 12 days in Nebraska. I lost entire days of sleep, my job was threatened, my motives were questioned, and I sacrificed personal finances that I didn’t have to educate rural communities, Native Reservations, and the inner city so we could fight this together. One of the canvassers I employed accompanied me across the state and worked so hard giving out educational materials in rural Nebraska that he had a stroke the day after we got back! (Love you, Ken, and thank you for your service!)
So, no. I am not surprised about what is now transpiring and am no longer fearful. I did my part. Now, I am decidedly resolute to watch the grandsires of the racists, sexists, and fascists that created this country destroy it from the inside out. I like my popcorn with butter and Lawry’s seasoned salt, ladies and gentlemen, because I have nothing else to complain about.
To be honest, 2025 is a karmic, poetic, comedic tragedy to many in this country and across the globe. The hateful spirit this country was built on is now its undoing, and watching this in real-time… is a chef’s kiss. Leopard meets Face. You don’t like that sentiment? That’s ok. I am the daughter of enslaved people who were hated, hunted, and unheard, and I still live in a Redlined Community that lacks vital infrastructure and resources. I emerged victoriously from the school-to-prison pipeline and have survived dislike, racism, poverty, and sexism every damn day of my life in this country. I don’t care anymore because what exactly do I have to fear?? Death?? Death by what... Racism? Death by Poverty? Death by Idiocracy? Ha!
Name one injustice being committed in this country now that hasn’t been committed to POC since the first Presidential Inaugural ceremony. POC has been there and done this, generationally speaking, since 1619. We have already died a thousand deaths.
WELCOME TO THE SYSTEM THAT AMERICA BUILT. Unfortunately, WE ALL may have to sit in the spiritual hot seat and stay awhile. As a country, we gluttonously ravish resources while being complacent with incremental righteous change on every level. We allow just enough change to assuage our guilt while we reap the literal fruit of others’ labor. We have allowed the illusion of the American Dream based on others’ living nightmares to sicken and infect our spirits. We all are guilty to some extent of not caring about an issue until it impacts us. Regardless of what side of the political aisle you are on, when was the last time you or I picked a zillion strawberries in 90-degree heat for slave wages and then watched folks use that as a rallying cry to stop immigration?
The United States is not going backward, friends; it’s being exposed like a Polaroid picture, showing its true colors like a Kodak camera commercial. This system is NOT BROKEN; it’s working the way it was initially designed. How could it even get to this point if it wasn’t?? The System isn’t broken because it’s the system’s job to do the breaking. It was intentionally designed to break people, our futures, spirits, minds, and connections to everything humble and holy, and it works splendidly.
So, my question, especially to my non-POCs reading this article, is... Are YOU scared? Are you waking up every day in anxiety and fear? Are you feeling helpless and scrolling aimlessly through one bad news report after the other? Why??
What exactly are you scared of? Losing wealth and privilege? Going bankrupt and being poor? Giving up your vacations, big houses, new cars and trinkets? Not having medical care or social services? Are you scared of losing the U.S. bipartisan originated immigrant slave labor class who is burdened with taxation with no representation, working the fields, cleaning the houses, with few benefits, while also simultaneously being part of the largest population of health care practitioners that keep us healthy? Is it all the above?
How ironic is it that even the THREAT of being treated less than human (in a country that historically produced the WWII blueprint on inhumanity) has folks crying in fear of the unknown but easily predicted?
WELL STOP IT! RIGHT NOW! Stop being scared and crying and trying to trauma bond with other people in other countries to manipulate them into saving us from ourselves. This is not the time for that! Stop using fear as the excuse to grieve the U.S. illusion of benevolence while truly just grieving the loss of benefits. Stop using fear to avoid facing the reality and responsibility of the millions that this System has Broken from its self-proclaimed greatest hey days until now. This is the time to Make Accountability Great Again for EVERYBODY. This is the time for Raw Truth, change, and COURAGE, not feeding into fear.
Fear will immobilize you and block you from creating and expressing yourself. Fear will prevent you from thinking out of the box. Fear will degrade your morality and have you COMPLYING IN ADVANCE like cowards to directives you know you should be ignoring or fighting against! Fear will cause you to tuck your tail and run when you are supposed to be standing on business and drawing lines in the sand!
Fear will replace love and reason in your mind and soul. Fear will have you turn on your neighbor and family. Fear, unchecked and unregulated, will eat you alive and turn you into something you never imagined. Fear will suck the life out of you, make you sick, inept, and eventually useless to everyone but your adversaries.
Now is the time for COURAGE, CLEAR HEARTS, MINDS, AND LOVE FOR OURSELVES AND OTHERS. Now is the time to take the power out of fear through preparation, information, and connection to the community. Now is the time to PLAN and EXECUTE PLANS. If you don’t have a plan... why not? Do you at least have concepts of a plan?? Where the hell is the People’s version of Project 2025!! WHY DON’T WE HAVE A PLAN FROM AND BY THE PEOPLE AFTER WATCHING CENTURIES OF INJUSTICE ON THE PEOPLE?? The U.S. has been shafting people since 1619! Oh, I know why you don’t have a plan... you thought you were safe, didn’t you? Tsk. Tsk. Well, this is our come to Jesus moment, isn’t it? Let the Church say Amen!
Are you scared of food prices rocketing? Now is the time to start that garden you have always wanted, or don’t want to start, but need to start. Are you scared of losing power? BUY CANDLES, solar-powered devices, and generators. Are you scared of prescription prices going up? Well... STOCK UP where you can! Learn holistic remedies that can aid in healing and prolonging life force. Befriend a physician or a nurse! Are you scared of losing wealth? Now is a good time to learn how to barter and trade to circumvent the fiat dollar bill. Are you scared of losing abortion access? Research what our ancestors did. Will these steps solve every problem? Of course not. Doing something, however, will always be better than doing NOTHING. At least help your neighbors and community members. Do you want to know where you would have stood during WWII, Germany or the Civil Rights movement? LOOK IN THE MIRROR.
Specific communities still exist without healthcare, electricity, and running water. So, if you are scared of something, find an elderly Black or Native woman and ask her how she did it. Then pay her for her time.
But what we are NOT going to do is cry, complain, and do nothing because of fear. We will not fearfully wait for someone else to save us, either! That’s how we got into this mess! If you love yourself, love your family, love your community, and love your country, resolve yourself to be courageous, unwavering, and thoughtful in your everyday life while at your job, while you spend your dollars, and while you contemplate your future. Tell yourself TODAY AND EVERYDAY... I will move with courage and love to protect myself and my community; I WILL MOVE WITH COURAGE AND LOVE TO PROTECT MYSELF AND COMMUNITY. Period, because it’s boots straps time.
All Power to the People.
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