Your weekly encouragement thread: I know how stressful this all is. I know it feels I surmountable. I know this feels different than the America you thought you knew. The truth is, this is America. If you’re white, straight, a person of color born with a bit more privilege than

2) most, you likely have not seen or felt this America. This is scary to you. But let me remind you of your American history. This country was founded with an idea of religious freedom and equal justice for all. Yet the reality was that is was also founded on the genocide of

3) Natives and the enslavement of Blacks. Our stated ideals did not match are reality. They still do not. And along the way, Americans have had to fight the American government to make those two things align. And along the way, there has always been pushback from the government.

4) Whether we are talking about the Civil War and slavery, Jim Crow laws, segregation, women’s rights, Native rights, disabled rights, immigrants’ rights. There has always been these injustices, these systems that support the injustices. Once we take a step forward, they push

5) back. We get to a boiling point, gain another step and it goes on. Let’s remember that the Supreme Court has traditionally been conservative, pro-business and several steps behind the populace. Plessy v. Ferguson stayed that separate was equal. Pace vs. Alabama upheld

6) interracial marriage bans. It wasn’t that long ago that it was legal to discriminate against gays. I can recall police setting up stings to arrest gay men simply for engaging in consensual sex. I was born in 1971. I never thought it would be legal to marry my wife.

7) There are many Americans alive today who lived in segregation. Many women who remember when abortions were illegal or when the only jobs available to them were secretaries or care givers. The truth is, this is America. This struggle you are living in, is very American.

8) The struggle of aligning our reality with those stated ideals in our founding documents is the story of this country. And to be sure, it is brutal and unforgiving. But you should know there have been huge changes that you can see all around you. When I was a teenager in the

9) 80’s in the south, AIDS was only a “gay” disease. Television shows would not discuss it. I can recall never seeing an interracial couple while growing up in Alabama. We never talked about immigration. The terms “date rape” and “rape culture” were hardly used.

10) Today I see horrible abuses of our rights. I see us slipping back and in danger of losing many rights we’ve gained. But I also see that people are no longer ashamed to say they are gay. I see transgendered Americans running and winning seats in Congress. I see a gays running

11) and winning at all levels. I see this for Natives, immigrants, women and all people of color. Interracial marriage is prevalent. When Americans march for women’s rights, men are beside them. When Black Americans march for their lives, many many whites are beside them. When

12) gays march for rights, straights are there too. I don’t think some of you younger people realize how different this is than just 20 years ago. It’s huge! I can’t tell you how many old southern families are now racially mixed families or have LGBTQ members that they accept.

13) So yes, it’s rough right now. Some days it feels so bleak. That’s what they want you to feel. They want you to feel shame for your sexual identity, your race, your gender. They want you to stop talking about it. To go back into that closet. To know your place.

14) We are living in great times. Look around you. There are way more of us than them. Don’t despair, and if you do, give yourself some time to recoup. We will hold your place in line. Vote as early as you can, in whatever manner you can. I will see you in the streets.

15) As always, sorry for misspellings.