E pluribus unum
We all got less safe this week.
If you’re queer, trans, a person of color, a woman, a leftist, or any other marginalized group, the election gave rise to the worst aspects of some of us. The bully was rewarded for his bullying. As much as I dislike his personal acts, it’s the policy that scares me.
The things the man spoke of on the trail were economically illiterate and morally cruel. This endangers all of us, voters, and nonvoters alike. We have seen that he and the people who gravitated to him are not able to lead. When crisis hits, fingers are pointed. And the crises are not all external; we will see those created — ones that we fear and some that we haven’t imagined yet.
Just this week we have seen fires on the east coast as red flag warnings have been in place and rain has been wanting. This year was announced as on track to be the hottest year on record, and the extraction industries are ramping up as they anticipate even more fossil fuel burning.
All we have is each other. The times to come will ask of us our love, compassion, and courage.
This week, I have been thinking about the Constitution. It starts “We the people.” I’ve been thinking about all those things in our national mythos claiming unity. I love the motto “E pluribus unum.” I love the end of the original pledge: “One nation, united, with liberty and justice for all.” At our best, we are united, fighting against those who will divide us.
I remember visiting DC a decade ago, visiting the National Archives and shuffling past the Constitution in the half-light they have to protect the document. It’s a totemic, religious experience. On that parchment is the hopes of men who wanted to make a better world. We can be critical — it was a nation born of the genocide of the natives and on the backs of the enslaved — but it also shone a light to the future. In part, it granted freedoms that had not been enshrined. We still have the legacy of those freedoms. We have freedom of speech, and religion, and the press, and assembly, and to petition the government. That’s just one little part of it.
I have twice sworn to uphold and defend that document and its freedoms. That is not abstract, but recent history has shown that it is a necessary, tangible thing. I will do my best to stand up to that pledge as an elected official and in my personal capacity. We all must.
All we have is each other.
