To say that the last few months have been normal would be the understatement of the century. On one hand, things seem to be business as usual (BAU), with people going about their lives, planning summer vacations, and already getting ready to send their children back to school. The stock market is at an all-time high, blockbuster movies have come and gone, and people are getting ready for college/NFL football season.
But the reality is that it is far from normal. President Trump began his assault on immigration, climate change, environmental justice, and DEI from day 1 of his term. Many of his executive orders have been challenged in court, but at this point, they are only temporary stays, and more executive orders or statements from the Department of Justice have pushed the limits on executive power. No one was quite sure if Trump’s statements from his campaign would hold any water, but we now witnessed the full power of the government (executive, judicial, and legislative branches) working against ordinary citizens, law firms, universities, government agencies, foreign governments, and the US Constitution. In addition, wars in Gaza, Sudan, the DRC and Ukraine have taken the lives of many innocent victims (more below), and this has led to my despair.
A few months ago, I felt that there was enough power to fight and resist many of the daily salvos from the Trump administration. However, as time went on, the daily news became overbearing, and I often thought of completely shutting out the news. But I know that information is power at the end of the day. Even so, watching the news has left me unable to clearly express my thoughts in blogs (2 blogs were lost) or peer-reviewed journal articles. The friction of what is happening has been slowing down or shutting down my productivity.
Gaza and the starvation/genocide of 2 million people are very hard to face every day. Only recently has the main media talked about the food and other life essential items being shut off, along with missile and drone attacks that have impacted and killed many innocent people. I listen to democracy now in the morning, and it gives me a realistic view of what is happening on the ground in Gaza. I remember the day Hamas attacked Israel, and I spoke to my class about the injustice and brutality of the attack. After nearly 2 years, I don’t feel that Israel is justified in the resulting actions of killing more than 60,000 people, destroying nearly every single building, school, hospital, and starving 2 million people. The West Bank also has too much violence by settlers, which the government approves. The ultimate violence is the goal of annexing and displacing the entire Palestinian population.
Closer to home, universities have had their budgets reduced because of the changing priorities of the Trump administration. They have been playing bully ball by using student protests and DEI as reasons to stop funding research at public/private universities. They have also forced multi-million dollar settlements with universities paying the government. Some areas of research, such as climate change, environmental justice, and important medical and social research about minoritized persons, have been terminated. Many colleagues have retired, climate monitoring on the ground or by satellites habe been cut, and many websites are gone.
International students carry the fear of having their visas revoked and being sent home without the degree that they came to obtain. Those who have protested against the violence against Palestinians have been arrested, kicked out of school, and in some cases had their degrees expunged. We are now in the phase where student visas are revoked for petty incidents such as traffic tickets or DUIs.
Immigration policies have led to the disappearance of many innocent people who may have been fleeing violence in their own countries. Now they are stereotyped as violent, job-stealing, illegal immigrants who are making America weaker. We know that this is not true, because much of the food we eat, the roads we drive on and the nursing homes that our loved ones are at are handled on a daily basis by humans (immigrants) waiting to become citizens in the United States. The violence against our immigrant population has only expanded with the president using his executive powers to bring the National Guard and Marines into cities to support ICE arrests. In recent days, the president has used the National Guard to control Washington, DC, especially in black and brown neighborhood,s while also supporting ICE arrests.
I am not sure how a person paying attention could do BAU without going insane or becoming depressed at some point. While I have attended marches, it hasn’t had the effect of removing the despair that I feel. However, over the last 6 months, there have been individual leaders of light who have provided glimmers of hope for turning despair into action. I am going to call them out, but plan to write another blog about them.
Dr. Beverly Wright. Environmental Justice leader and Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. She and Dr. Bullard have built and anchored the HBCU climate change consortium meetings. More importantly, she has been supportive of communities that have faced environmental injustice over the last four or more decades. A true soul-sister.
Bernice Miller-Travis – a force and co-author with Charles Lee on the 1987 United Church of Christ report on toxic waste and race. She is part of the Metropolitan group in the DMV. She is soooo bright, filled with wisdom and insight.
Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr. – At the forefront of the Environmental Justice movement in the 1982 Warren County protest, which kicked off the EJ movement. His spoken words of “Black women being at the front of the EJ movement” and ” the completion of his Master’s degree in Prison” stay with me.
Brianna Craft – Climate Justice leader and author of “Everything that Rises” and “We don’t have time for this.” She breaks down the ingredients leading up to the Paris Agreement and key issues of climate justice in novel form.
Lakecia Benjamin (The Phoenix) – unbelievable jazz Musician and beautiful spirit. Her last album, Phoenix Reimagined, brings her ancestral energy to the forefront.
Calvin Macke – Founder of STEM NOLA. I am always motivated by his sheer will to fight on and innovate for the community.
Nemonte Nenquimo- Leader of the Worwani Nation and Climate Justice Warrior from Ecuador. She guided my spirit work by getting me to spend time in nature and my garden this summer. Author of we will be Jaguars.
Zoe Wooten – My granddaughter, who will live through the climate crisis. She often hears my rants about climate injustice, but I predict that she will care deeply about climate justice.
While I still feel the residue of all flying darts from the current administration, that is not a reason for despair and losing hope, but a time to find Active Hope. Joanna Macy (she recently transitioned) and Chris Jonstone have written a good book on about this – Active Hope: How to face the Mess we’re in with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power
Much of what this blog is about is what book Active Hope outlines- The Great Upheaval, Business as Usual, and the Great Turning. The Great Upheaval involves climate change, social injustice, the pandemic and the policies of the current administrations. Business as Usual is, in fact, driving some of the Great Upheaval, but it is a mindset that many of us have taken in this time. We choose to look away or not talk about the Great Upheaval happening right now because we feel helpless. People involved in the Great Turning know that action is necessary which, includes unifying people across space, class, religion and other differences. It also lifts us out of despair and turns us toward Active Hope. I hope that writing blogs will remove any lingering despair and replace it with positive thoughts.