Thank you Mary Annaise, to you and your family who fought so much and carried you all the way here (and as usual thanks to James Baldwin for his words & wisdom). For me this is fundamental: the story of how we face down climate change is also the story of how we learn to stop being terrible to each other, and that we don’t lose (economically, socially, politically …) from lifting each other up. But to write and enact that story, we need to plunge into the hearts of darkness (pun intended) and be willing to open our eyes to the relentless and inventive horror that our past and present have enacted on others, (since I am white) in our name. Anyone unwilling to face this cannot be a real ally, cannot be trusted, can be corrupted by false comfort. Anyone not willing to delve and learn from the teachings of the oppressed will not have wisdom worth listening to. And anyone who thinks that progress is our present, and that these horrors are in the past, consider this: Black Lives Matter activists & their family members are ending up dead. Lots of them: Danye Joes. Deandre Joshua. Darren Seals. Edward Crawford. With utter impunity.
That ended up being long. Anyway, thanks Mary Annaise, and everyone else learn to see the past and present for what it is, and fight for each other, lift each other up.
