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Dear John,
This moment is not easy. Every day, it feels like there is another crisis, another moment to be outraged about, another loss to grieve. We went from trying to make it through a pandemic to just trying to survive another month, another week, another day.
I am typically a morning person, but lately, I struggle to get out of bed. When my alarm goes off, I pick up my phone and begin to scroll through the news and that leaves me stunned. Is all this real? The local and the global all happening at once. An explosion in Beirut in the midst of a political revolution, an exponential spike of a novel virus and pandemic in the US – where public health became politicized. A court ruling effectively banning legal abortions in Poland, a Supreme Court confirmation of a candidate who endangers abortion rights in the US. An authoritarian dictator who stole an election and refuses to cede power or office in Belarus, a US president not agreeing to uphold the ideals of a democratic and peaceful transition of power. And everywhere the punishing clampdowns of police states, the escalation of police brutality, the continued systemic oppression of black and brown people…
I know that I’m not the only one struggling and feeling a bit lost in this moment. I seek out moments of laughter and connection. I exchange messages of hope with family, friends, and movement colleagues. I seek comfort in solidarity, levity, and light. Finding small moments of joy and inspiration feels like a deliberate and intentional necessity now.
Hope is a precious commodity that doesn’t diminish when we share it.
Hope forces me up and into the world. Today, I will encounter stories to counterbalance the dystopia of our reality. Stories of feminists activists overcoming seemingly impossible odds and leading the way- teaching us all how to weave courage into the fabric of our resistance and resilience. Stories about what feminist movement leaders hope to change, hope to dismantle, and hope to build.
With every “Yes, we can” I exhale, knowing that one more human rights defender or organization is safer, has more resources to fight, and we can stand with them and beside them for the rights we all want and deserve. They remind me that, participation is key to changing the world. I thought about them when I voted. I think about them when I can say yes to an application that says, “I am fighting so that my people have the right to vote for our future.”
It is in these moments that I look to the feminist movements and the activists to remind me that another world is possible.
It is in these moments that I look to you – our activists, our funders, our partners, our movement leaders, and say, I see you. Maybe, like me, you’re tired of this too. But I see you intentionally and consciously choosing to keep fighting, dreaming, and praying for goodness. It does not feel easy. This moment is not easy but I see you fighting, voting, protesting, and dreaming. Hope is what we share.
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Deputy Executive Director at UAF
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