Here we are in the last precious days of one of the most tumultuous years of my life.
As 2021 puts on its overcoat and opens the door to Tomorrow, the last five years of absolute hell cross my soul… the cruelty we have witnessed, the disgustingness of a president who talks about grabbing “pussies.” And steals election.
I fight every day to remember that We the People is not some arcane idea. We the People beat back an ugly attack on everything precious to me: human rights, rights for people of color, women’s rights, LGBTQ Rights, even animal rights. (It is a big deal that the numbers of cats and dogs killed in shelters in this country is down “hugely.”)
My strategic brain goes to work when my cosmic brain gets an overload of information: Nancy Pelosi, who I have asked to marry me, that’s how much I respect her. (My husband, Charlie, doesn’t care—he says if she agrees to the marriage we can just become polygymous. And yes, I see the irony!) Pelosi is the greatest fund raiser on the planet, but her pleas are often listed in my email one on top of the other, in a confusing way:
- It’s Nancy Pelosi, I have never been this desperate.
- It’s Nancy Pelosi, a miracle has occurred!!
I don’t read the emails. I give the $3 and find more Democrats to contribute to. Or an Animal Rescue group. Since I don’t go out as much, I save money on crap like Starbuck’s and I feel okay giving all my money to Democrats and four legged furry things.
Looking tentatively at the sliver of 2022 I can see, I am buoyed. We can keep fixing the ugliness that has been created. And we can do it together. There are so many good people, there are so many people waking up to the death rays we’ve been breathing in. I can see the Good People, taking hands and starting another endless march towards Social Justice. We’ve faced harder stuff and won. Together.
We stopped the Spanish Inquisition, even though we’re still fighting colonization. We stopped slavery, even though we still have a sickening amount of abused sweatshop laborers and domestic workers that we must continue to fight like hell for. We even stomped the AXIS powers with the help of the (soon to turn despicable) Russian government! (Stalin, nasty, cruel and without many brains, sweetly invited the invading Nazi army into Russia in the winter of 1941. The invasion lasted 5 months before the Nazi’s were frozen and starving and that theatre of the war was over.)
I believe that with the Internet, the consciousness of the world after Trump, the time in history, the pendulum is ready to swing away from Reaganism to a real form of democracy.
I believe we can join hands with John Lewis, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Reverend ML King, Gloria Steinem, Rosa Parks, William Kuntsler, Angela Davis, Frida Kahlo, Valerie Demmings, Frederick Douglass, and all the valiant humans on earth and their ancestors, and head down a shiny road to a new Day Dawning for All of Us.
I believe it in all parts of my brain and my soul.
And I believe we all have a part to play—and mine, over and over, has been with words. I’ve written documentaries about misogyny and plays about breast cancer. I’ve written comedy and political tragedy. And I’m not ready to stop.
I will write (more) feminist stories in 2022. That’s my resolution—and my part in the revolution.
What are your goals for the new year? How will you change the future? Tell me in the comments…
Happy New Year. And remember: The People United, Can Never Be Defeated. Take my hand, and let’s start marching.
Susan Rubin 