I AM THE OTHER

Today is January 21st, 2017. One day since that man became president, 12 hours since the White House website removed the LGBTQ, Climate Change, Civil Rights, and Healthcare pages, and only a few hours before women and men across the country join together in solidarity to protest the changes about to happen to this great nation. Because make no fucking mistake--America IS already great. Perfect? Of course not. But when I think about all of the wonderfully kind, accepting, intelligent, crazy talented people I know here, when I think about all of the loving families, and all of the grandmas and aunties and friends and people with fame and notoriety that are for the first time in their lives, finding their voices, I know we cant all be as bad as they say we are.

See, Trump and his flunkies, and the Republicans in congress, and the Alt Right Nazis all want you to believe that this place we live is unbearably broken. They want you to be simultaneously ragefully angry and paralyzed in fear. They want you to believe them when they tell you--sometimes directly and sometimes more subtly--that we are broken because of poor people. Because of brown and black people. Because of sex and hormone crazed women. Because of the gays. Because of the atheists. Because of  Muslims. Because of Immigrants. Because of the Native Peoples fighting endlessly for our planet. Because of Environmentalists. Because of Hippies/Hipsters/Freaks. Because your fear is money in their pockets, and they will do anything for more of it.

Once they've convinced you of these things, and more importantly, once they've convinced you that it's now ok to think these things and say these kinds of things outloud, it is easy to let your heart grow cold. To not even notice when that tiny flame of kindness and compassion quietly extinguishes itself. When the light that is the ability to truly see yourself in the face of another goes dark. And like a line of dominoes, everything else follows and comes crashing down. Now when you look, all your eyes see is OTHER, DIFFERENT, NOT LIKE ME. And you are afraid. Your fear can present as anger or disgust or arrogance or denial or indifference. But make no mistake, at your core, you are afraid.

I know there is nothing that I can say to make your fear/hate diminish. Like most good, true, important things, it unfortunately has to come 100% from inside of you. You need to notice your heart fire has gone out, and then you need to care enough to want to relight it.

But I want you to know this. Regardless of what the next four years bring, regardless of the things you do in the name of righteousness, regardless of the hurts you may cause us and our families and friends

WE ARE STILL HERE

WE ARE STILL HERE AND WE ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE

WE ARE THE LORAX AND WE SPEAK FOR THE TREES

WE ARE DEFIANT POTATOES

WE ARE THE GRANDDAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHES YOU WERE NOT ABLE TO BURN

WE RESIST.  WE RESIST,  WE RESIST

We will not go down without a fight. We will not shut up. We will not allow hatred to be normalized. We will always fight for love and goodness and kindness.

So turn away if you must. Pretend nothing has changed. But know that there are so so so so so many multitudes of us. Some of us you wont even be able to recognize at a glance as Other, but we are there. We have infiltrated your churches and schools and grocery stores and coffee shops. We are all around you. We are America and we are living right next door and we will not go quietly into that good night. We are here. We are here. We are here.



Thank you to everyone marching today. I love you. I love what you stand for. I send you light and hope for your safe return. Thank you for representing the Others.


~Maria