Hello all, this is a short extra note in the aftermath of the US election. Alt National Park Service posted this picture yesterday on their facebook page.
Images of plants growing through concrete can be cliched and motivational poster-esque, but this week I am choosing to find comfort and inspiration from these wild flowers. It doesn’t matter if I’m a bit scruffy and easily overlooked; this week I vow again to be on the side of beauty and kindness and resistance to tyranny, and fight the fash. No doubt there will be those ready to spray the weedkiller, but what the world requires more than ever is for us to stand up and defend the defenceless and persecuted against the racists, misogynists, xenophobes, thugs and fascists.
What that means in practice, I don’t know in full. I’ll start in my family, home and neighbourhood, but it can’t end there. I’ll use my creativity and nerdiness and brain power and my part in the world. I was already anxious about the world my daughter is growing up into. Now is the time to intensify my efforts to ensure it’s not a complete cluster****.
There’s nobody better to have the last word than the saintly Billy Bragg. This is from 11 years ago, but just as salient as ever. All You Fascists are Bound to Lose.
And still we will rise. Thank you for your post, so apt for today.