#justrecovery
We don’t want to go back to the way things were before. The coronavirus outbreak has emphasized the fault lines in American society and here we are in a moment in time where we can demand new outcomes and control the narrative for a new future.
I’ve been collecting articles that outline the changes we want to see: a serious response to climate change, economic equality, acknowledgement of the world that BIPOC live in everyday, serious discussions of universal healthcare and universal basic income. It is heartening to say the least that these discussions are happening seriously. The narrative that comes out of this moment in time will go a long way to determining the future. Will it be the future that we (anybody and everybody) want to live in?
When I was still living with my violent alcoholic and in the years of poverty and welfare afterwards I used to divide my decision making into two categories. Short term: if I do or don’t do the thing now will it kill me by tomorrow, and long term every other decision. There was a time when there was no bandwidth for anything but the short term. I learned how to function in that space. Now the world has joined me there.
Short term we need to figure out how to survive until tomorrow. We need social distancing. We are already building new community norms. We wear face masks in public not to protect ourselves, but to protect each other. My family is full of people in the hospitality business—now laid off or working part time, sheltering in place and hoping, hoping, hoping the government checks come. But, we’ve also been given time to think about what we want our future to look like when this is over, what we want our lives to mean. Those conversations are more important than ever, because that is how we control the narrative, that is how we move the Overton window and build political will. It is frightening and hopeful at the same time.