Are you old enough to remember December 31, 1999? It was the day before "Y2K" and there was widespread concern about what could have been a major technology breakdown to computer systems as the two-digit year changed from a "99" to "00". Would it impact our financial systems using antiquated computers and cause a collapse or a panic?
For most of us, less immersed in technology than we are now, only 25 years later, the idea lived in a somewhat mysterious and far-removed place, allowing fears to grow based on lack of actual knowledge about the real parameters of the problem and its solutions. The result was mostly a nothing-burger that didn't have long-lasting impact on the average person. Life went on and technology advanced. We were lulled back into a state of confidence.
I recall that night quite clearly. We were at our friends' house on that New Year's Eve, outside in their hot tub on a very chilly Minnesota night. We were watching our almost grown children run around with sparklers adding more twinkles of light to the night sky full of stars. Amid the uncertainty, there was so much possibility; hope and anticipation for the future.
Tonight, I will not look for sparklers in the night sky. I will not be holding wonderful possibilities amid the uncertainty. It is a different kind of precariousness that I anticipate--bad things will happen, there is no doubt, but the scope and scale of those bad things cannot be clearly delineated from where I sit today.
We have seen the capitulations to Trump by politicians on the right, starting back in 2015 and increasing day by day. We have seen their strongly-held principles fall by the wayside: Senator Joni Ernst? Once an advocate for women in military leadership and all aspects of military operations, including combat; working tirelessly for their protection from harassment and discrimination.
Now, cowed by political pressure to accede to support a candidate for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, that is the antithesis of all that she had worked for, she has abandoned her mission. She had been an abused woman who had regained her power, only to be put in her place by misogyny, with no one having her back. She was abandoned and found she really didn't have the right stuff on her own. How does she sleep at night? Does she think that maintaining her office will save her or give her any leverage? How strong was her fear to make her acquiesce so quickly?
Most of the women I know don't have combat experience or a position of power and prestige. If Ernst can fall so easily, what are the options for our sisters of color? The poor and the pregnant? The immigrant or the undereducated? I see women among the early and easy targets, along with the marginalized LGBTQ+ communities.
But...
I also know that women are stronger, smarter and more resilient that the ardently masculine give us credit for. I look forward to see the women's resistance movement grow. I look forward to being part of it. Perhaps, if we can get through the dark days ahead, equality can become closer to reality. It will take a lot of resolve and courage and there will be a lot of regrettable loss and pain.
If we were actually just watching a Netflix series, or a big-budget reality show, the next four years could be fascinating! The multitude of colorfully evil characters would be triumphant and the heroes would take time to emerge; they would be thwarted on every turn and we might give up watching, feeling the hopelessness of a happy ending.
We would also know that the series would continue to get high ratings from our neighbors who couldn't get enough of the bad guys' successes. Even it was only a show, neighborhood gatherings or meetings and lunchtime at work would be fraught with tension.
I can't imagine an easy scenario of the next few years. I doubt if Berliners in 1933 Berlin could either. They saw their cosmopolitan city lighted and draped with the flags and banners of the Third Reich. It glittered, it gleamed, and then it fell in ruins as the bombs fell.
Some days we'll want to grab our popcorn, but most days we'll want to cry. Let's stick together and make it through and help someone else through as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment