Turn Back the Tide
So, two things occur to me: we’ve already managed to make Pence’s life entertaining with the #periodsforpence thing, and Trump went on this big thing about reporting terrorism and hate, right?
So hey, report it. Report the fuck out of it. As soon as they take office, report the hate, the violence, the details of your health insurance problems and lost jobs and the actual effect of repealed rights.
He wants to build a wall? Build a wall of allies around POC and LGBTQ and women’s spaces and protests. Don’t insert yourself into those places, but listen and protect so that they know they’re not alone. Learn from the Middle East, where Christians shield their Muslim neighbors and Muslims shield their Christian neighbors, and hope it never becomes so deadly here. Make a wall of linked arms–literal and figurative–against those who strike out in hate.
Change the social media tone. Highlight the good. Bury repressive and hateful media voices with positives. Take away the platform and keep it. Every time a new initiative is launched to isolate and repress, find a way to make it inclusive and protective. Push for protection in online spaces. Boost marginalized voices without insisting that they educate you or listen to your voice. Just boost because it’s the right thing to do and because it is long past time for us to listen.
Stand up and roar in the face of oppression, not for yourself, but for the America we say we want. If you don’t have any strength to fight for yourself, fight for those you love. This isn’t a war of swords, but one of words and united action.
If you lose someone, use the grief and love and anger to tell their story. Tell the world why they died. Make the bigots earn every step they take, every life they end or ruin. Make them see the blood on their hands. They may not care, they may even relish it, but the people around them will see, and that will be enough.
Turn the hate back on itself, over, and over, and over again, until it is too tired to keep taking.
No, *you* move.
#YouMove