Seize the Time: We Have An Opportunity to Do Good Things

Every system we have is going to be tested at the same time. Every. Single. One.

By Eva Posner

I convinced my parents not to go to church today. It wasn't an easy or light hearted thing to do. It took negotiating and calling them after I heard about Steve Padilla and saying, "Mom, it's not hypothetical anymore. It's home."

This isn’t a request to stay home from brunch or not go to a bar. It’s as fundamental to normalcy for them as school is for children. It’s a societal shift that is a heavy lift for people.

Life isn't normal anymore. Not for a while. Maybe never again.

It's scary, frustrating, and sad. More and more of us are going to get sick and/or watch people we love become infected. Community spread is becoming more and more rampant.

We don’t know yet whether herd immunity is a factor. Or if this is seasonal. Or if it will mutate and wash back through the population a second time. Or a number of other things.

Make no mistake: This is the beginning of the wave. It’s a wave that will crash into all of our societal norms. It’s going to crash into our economy. It’s going to crash into the very fabric of how we organize ourselves as a community & how we function together in this world.

And, unfortunately this is an opening act, not the final chapter. The rise in authoritarian governments and austerity in the last decades have undercut our social fabric. The climate crisis is flooding, burning, polluting communities and disrupting the food chain.

This is the beginning of the global community undergoing huge changes all at the same time.

In all the fear and sadness, it cannot get lost on us that we have the opportunity— no, the responsibility— to reimagine some central aspects of our society.

Politics and policy is going to be more important now than at any point in my lifetime. (Maybe in several lifetimes? Pandemic + Economic Collapse + Refugee Crisis + Climate Change feels unique.) Every system we have is going to be tested at the same time. Every. Single. One.

To those that are governing through this— thank you. Thank you for making tough decisions and answering scary questions and panicked phone calls and creating policies that make it less painful for some people to function in this new world. I can't express how much it matters.

For those of us on the sidelines right now it may feel a bit helpless because we can’t really directly help our colleagues in the City Halls and State Capitals. But we have important work to do.

We are social engineers. Campaigners, Policy Wonks, Movement Leaders, Activists, Journalists, Nonprofits, Researchers, Teachers, Attorneys, Counselors, Social Workers. Now is the time when our imaginations can be set free from the limitations of “the way it’s always been”.

Now is the time we must fight tooth and nail to push the policies (and yes, candidates) that will rebuild/improve/replace the systems that are about to fall apart. The rot is being exposed. We must tear it out and replace it. This isn't partisan. It's humanity.

If it wasn’t obvious to you already: Donald Trump is a symptom of several much larger problems. If we don’t solve them, things will only get worse. No pressure.

People like us were built for times like these.

"We have a duty to fight. We have a duty to win."

Eva Posner is a Democratic political consultant and friend. Reposted from Facebook with permission.

Lead image: Henning Westerkamp via Pixabay