In which we go forward

I could probably go on at great length about you-know-what, but isn’t that what every person with an internet ID is doing today? How did this happen, why did it happen, what does it mean, what will happen the next four years? I would say that many of these people are better qualified than I to answer these questions, but then again, many of those same people were totally wrong about the election in the first place.

Sigh.

I mentioned earlier in the week my education as a result of being a part of the debate universe. Much of that education has come from people I know writing of their experiences or commenting on the experiences of others who are, in a word, different from myself. An old white guy like me has little to fear personally from an old white guy like Trump. I am not one of his demons or straw dogs or enemies. I’m just a face in his crowd. But debate has enlarged my community dramatically. The people I deal with regularly are any of the following, in no particular order, in various combinations: young and impressionable, non-White, non-Christian, transgendered, non-straight, female. I probably missed a few, but the point is that they were fearful for the protections of their rights long before this election. Now they are even more fearful.

They all will, no doubt, dedicate themselves even more firmly to the causes of freedom, driven not only by their personal jeopardy but their beliefs in freedom as a goal despite one’s personal jeopardy. As I say, I have no real jeopardy in this, at least not as palpable as many of them. But my responsibility to work for the causes of freedom and the protection of rights is not lessened by my lack of pressing personal need. Rights, and freedom, are absolutes that we may only abridge in aid of strengthening them (e.g., the classic giving up of an absolute right to our own property to pay taxes to benefit the whole). At the point where we abridge rights and freedom for other reasons, then we are we are not strengthening them but weakening them.

What can I do? Literally? Well, for one thing, I continue to believe that the education in debate results in the making of better, more moral, more informed, more fairness-minded citizens, so I will keep doing what I do there. I will continue to pay close attention to the narratives of my friends who are on the virtual front lines, and let them know that they have my support. I will contribute financially to the causes that I think will suffer in the future.

I am not a terribly political animal. I have always seen cultural change as being as important to societal benefits, and cultural change is where I’ve spent my entire life, one way or another. I have always hoped that the needle would move further than it obviously has, but I have to believe that, somehow, the needle does ultimately move in the right direction. More protection of rights and more freedom for everyone. Everyone. Period. The end. Finished.  

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