Politics
In Human Parts. More on Medium.
This Is Us
When you think the problem is the answer, you’re helpless to solve it
“You have to call it what it is before you can tackle it.”
Those words repeat in my thoughts, bounce around my skull, and buzz under my skin. “But I don’t know what it is.”
“Okay. Describe again how you’ve been feeling the past month?”
“Tired, sluggish. My life just feels monotonous, so I’m bored and restless. I can’t focus on my class assignments, like at all, which is new for me. I keep not being able to sleep, so I feel like I’m moving underwater the next day. I used to love school. I just don’t care about it…
This Is Us
On political discourse, abolition, performative activism, and real love
I have a physical response to the word “divisive.” This twisting sensation in my gut that comes up my throat all acidic. It’s shockingly similar to the feeling one might get after eating too much cheese. Apparently, my stomach has an issue processing both dairy and mistruths. While my brain might need a moment to catch up to the fact that I’m being fed something bad, my body knows better.
I grew up bouncing around the southeastern states, so I’m deeply familiar with the brand of suburban, Southern hospitality that prides itself on the performance of compassion. It prefers its…
Past Is Prologue
A photographer’s perspective on recent events at the Capitol
If the last four years were a Hollywood screenplay, January 6th would have been a scene in the series finale. The moment where characters of seasons past reunite in a climactic moment four years in the making.
Around me, in a sea of strangers, were familiar faces from earlier episodes of this administration: Proud Boys and street preachers, white supremacists and QAnon conspiracists, pro-lifers and anti-vaxxers. Seeing them conjured memories of years’ worth of news stories — Charleston, Pizzagate, viral videos of suburban moms being thrown out of grocery stores for defying mask policies.
Past Is Prologue
Hundreds of years from now, how will the story of this time in the United States be told?
As a kid, road trips were marked by dog slobber and historical markers.
We had an ’83 Jeep Cherokee with no heat and no air conditioning. The winters were fine in that car, but the summers were pure hell. Oberon, our Great Dane, would lean his massive head over my shoulder, his drool sliding in long shimmering strings down the back of the seat, pooling by my legs, and sticking my thighs to the vinyl.
We lived in the country, and I spent my elementary school years carsick as we drove up and down mountain roads, gravel spitting out from…
This Is Us
The beautiful world I am imagining has a place for you in it. Can you say the same about me?
Last night, election night, I stood on the precipice of today and embodied every inch of my being. There I was at the fence peering in at the White House while Beyoncé’s Freedom played behind me, wondering how many more moments I will get after this one. I wonder how many people out here voted for liberation. And liberation from what and for who. On my hand were five stories of love in my life I had written before I arrived so I would remember why I voted and who I voted for. …
When nothing is certain, focus on what you can control
As Jimmy Kimmel tweeted last night, “This is like being awake during your own surgery.” When will it end? Who knows! We’re caught somewhere between refreshing the same four websites, stress-eating what’s left of our election night snacks, and thanking our forefathers/mothers for blessing this country with the confusing mess that is electoral politics.
It’s a great system. Super easy to understand.
Our uncertainty will probably continue through today — and tomorrow, and the next day, and maybe even the next. Maybe this is the feeling we’ll remember when we think back on 2020, long after we’ve forgotten the names…
If 2020 hasn’t taught us this lesson already, we’re about to learn it: Humans have a hard time dealing with uncertainty. It evokes fear. Anxiety. An obsession with hitting “refresh” on [insert your rabbithole of choice] until the world makes even less sense than it did before.
But uncertainty also presents an opportunity. When the future is unknown, we can shape it. When worries compete for attention inside our heads, we can listen to them — or politely decline to take their calls. Most importantly, when the world feels out of control, we can control the only thing we ever…
This Is Us
Fear won, and I can no longer afford to hold onto my anti-gun ideals
“There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment.” — Hunter S. Thompson
There’s nothing fancy about it, but it’ll kill if I ask it to, which I suppose is the defining characteristic of a gun. In that sense, it’s perfect. If the shots are well placed, it can kill 18 times before it asks for any assistance in continuing. Ruthlessly efficient and rightfully terrifying, it represents protection in the most dangerous way possible. …
Past Is Prologue
White America may be meeting Donald Trump for the first time, but Black people have known him for centuries
“Wade in the water, wade in the water, Children. God’s gonna trouble the water.” — Traditional
“My soul looks back and wonders, how I got over.” — Mahalia Jackson
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Months ago, I turned on the TV and saw a white mom at a protest in Portland dragged across the pavement and abused by the cops who surrounded her, her white flesh handled with no more care than Black flesh is usually afforded in this country. For a moment, my mind flinched from a lifetime of conditioning. I thought, “You can’t do that to a middle-class white woman!” But under a…
— Meg Conley, in a tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s feminist legacy, her refusal to politicize justice, and the power of dissent
