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| Dear 3 Flipping Things Comrades, We wrote postcards. Knocked on doors. Made phone calls and sent texts. Wrote checks. It wasn’t enough. We lost. There is no other way to say it. We are angry, sad, scared, disappointed. All the feelings. Except hopeless. We are not giving up on hope. Here are some words from Rebecca Solnit that have been making the rounds today, and bear repeating in their entirety: They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. You can be heartbroken or furious or both at once; you can scream in your car or on a cliff; you can also get up tomorrow and water the flowerpots and call someone who’s upset and check your equipment for going onward. A lot of us are going to come under direct attack, and a lot of us are going to resist by building solidarity and sanctuary. Gather up your resources, the metaphysical ones that are heart and soul and care, as well as the practical ones. People kept the faith in the dictatorships of South America in the 1970s and 1980s, in the East Bloc countries and the USSR, women are protesting right now in Iran and people there are writing poetry. There is no alternative to persevering, and that does not require you to feel good. You can keep walking whether it’s sunny or raining. Take care of yourself and remember that taking care of something else is an important part of taking care of yourself, because you are interwoven with the ten trillion things in this single garment of destiny that has been stained and torn, but is still being woven and mended and washed. As this regime change unfolds, there will emerge many opportunities to resist. To organize. To fight for democracy and human rights. Stay tuned. But for now, thank you for trying. For having faith in our democracy. For not giving up. |
| Mike, Gaen, Gregor, Lisa, and Erik |
3 Flipping Things . . . to Restore Democracy 
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