EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK: ‘Hope is an ax’

It’s okay to cry. It’s okay to scream. It’s okay to despair.

The re-election of Donald Trump has left a heavy cloud over many Americans who have fought for the rights of the most marginalized among us: poor people, people of color, trans folks, undocumented folks, people who need access to reproductive healthcare.

The re-election of Donald Trump is a blatant attack on all of those things.

It’s okay to be furious.

But do not let those feelings immobilize you.

Instead, let them thrust you forward into a new season of hope.

As the activist and abolitionist Mariame Kaba says, “Hope is a discipline.”

It’s an action, not a feeling.

And as writer and activist Rebecca Solnit says, “[H]ope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky…. [H]ope is an ax you break down doors with in an emergency; because hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal. Hope just means another world might be possible, not promised, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.”

Falling into a pit of despair and staying there is a privilege.

Right now, many people are continuing to fight for their rights and those of others they don’t even know. People are making plans to move out of conservative states for fear that their marriages will be nullified. People are putting themselves in the spotlight to advocate for undocumented people’s rights. People are volunteering at abortion clinics so women have access to the healthcare they need.

And if you look to the past, we know that our ancestors, the freedom fighters of the past, left echoes of resistance all around us. They are the reason we have affordable healthcare now. They are the reason why the conversation around an increased minimum wage even exists. They are the reason why we have same-sex marriage, trans visibility, housing advocacy. They are the reason why we have the good things in this world, even when they are hard to articulate in times like these. 

It means that somewhere, at some point, someone fought for those things. Because they knew what many of us have to remember now, in this moment: Hope is an action.

And if we are to resist and fight these next four years and beyond, we need everyone to take some sort of action, big or small. Volunteering, donating, protesting, letter writing. It’s all necessary.

Because we can’t do this alone. We do this for and with each other.

For you, for me, for them, for us.

It is the only way. 

So when you’re ready, it’s time to pick up your ax.