Don't Give Up the Fight

I pulled this from my journal - a quick note that I wrote reflecting on the political climate 3 weeks after the election of Sweet Potato Stalin*.

"It has been 3 weeks since the election in the United States that resulted in Dump's upsetting win via the electoral college. In Canada, our 'feminist' Prime Minister mourns the death of a man who gathered up homosexuals and put them to work in labour camps for re-education, and who betrayed the people who claimed to represent by lavishing in riches at the end of his life, the product of decades spent as a capitalist dictator in a country who fought for a communist revolution. While he marches in the parades, and appoints a balanced Cabinet, our prime minister remains screamingly silent on the problems faced by indigenous women in Canada, and clearly indifferent to the more than just controversial history of Fidel Castro.

Anne Kingston wrote in McCleans: 'Where doubts are growing is over a prime minister who vocally identifies as feminist without calling out and drilling down into the hard intersections and injustices that underlie gender inequality, particularly those faced by women on the margins.'

The world is a scary place right now. I don't know how to move forward."

I was scared then. I was scared because it seemed as though all hope was lost. People didn't seem to give a shit that our public figures were crapping all over the dignity of women, people of colour, indigenous communities... Three weeks after the election my news feed was weirdly empty of anything political. The odd post from a friend or colleague about the most recent ridiculous post from Cantaloupe Kaiser gave me some hope, but mostly people seemed to turn off. In some ways, I understood. Politics got scary as hell, and lots of people just couldn't handle the pressure of staying active and informed.

But today the story is a little different. Politics is still scary as hell. But my hope is coming back. Yesterday, Black Bloc tore up the streets in protest. Today women - and many others! - march on Washington. Hundreds of thousands of people are in Washington, while across the globe hundreds of solidarity marches are being undertaken - from Tokyo to Toronto - people are standing up and demanding that women, people with disabilities, people of colour, the young, the old, the educated, and the under-educated and underemployed, religious minorities,  LGBTQ2+ people, be treated equitably (not just equally) under the law, and through social and economic programs.

Today I am hopeful, and I am letting myself get caught up in that hope. I am not allowing my usual negative, 'realist' thoughts overpower the power I see in the people. No matter what Tangerine Drumpf does during his presidency, I know that people will hold him accountable. People will not stop protesting, marching - whether peacefully, or via more violent, riotous means. He will be held accountable.

But the inauguration of the POS-OTUS (peace of shit of the United States) has - same may say, rightly - distracted Canadians from the problematic circumstances women, people of colour, and especially indigenous people continue to face in Canada. The Kremlin Carrot is not worth our attention if it means that we will not also hold our own government to account. Trudeau - since taking his place as the head of our government - has approved a $6.8 billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby. He has spoken sweet, moving words about the position of First Nations people in Canada, yet still lack of funding has led to yet another outbreak of suicide pacts among young people living in rural reservation communities. He promised to pull us out of active bombing of Iran - and yet he has openly stated that he is willing to keep support aircraft in play. He has promised to invest in education - especially for First Nations people. And yet now his government is more than $10 billion deeper in deficit than he promised - and the social programs that this country so badly needs are likely going to be swept under the carpet. 

We need to fight. We need to speak up. Not just today. 

We need to stand up for ourselves, for the underrepresented, and over, in the United States, across the globe, and in our own 'back yard'. Don't let today be the only day to read the ("real") news. Don't let today be the only day you march - whether you are marching literally, or marching with your words, typed, signed, or spoken. Don't let today be the only day that you are angry. Don't let today be the only day that you have hope for a future where your body, your identity, your ethnicity, your religion, your family, you skin colour, your genitals, your feelings, will be respected. 

Don't give up the fight. 

J

*Taking inspiration from some amazing nasty women, I have taken an oath not to help the Coral Cretin 'trend'. I will call him, instead, the Titian Twit, He Who Shall Not Be Named (but should be very ashamed), Carrot Craphead, Donny the Dump...but never POTUS.