On This Day, My Friends

Today I woke up and looked out the bedroom window onto a beautiful landscape. Frost encrusted every surface, ice formed sculptures on the river bank, smoke puffed cheerily from chimneys, the sky was bright and clear, and everything from the ground to the rooftops glistened like crystal. I smiled.

And, then I remembered.

This beautiful countryside with its quaint villages of red tiled roofs, frost covered hillsides, and lazy river isn't my home. My home sits on the other side of the Atlantic, big and wide, full of lazy rivers, and frosty small towns and hillsides, and humming cities. Smoke curls out of chimney roofs there too. While I write this, the first slice of that country will be waking. They will be looking out bedroom windows too, as they rise to go to work or school or to whatever the day dictates. Home is where most of my friends dwell. Home is where my family makes their lives. Home is a place I only get to see once a year, twice if I'm lucky. Home is the place I cherish above all others. I think about it every single day. I love it and I miss it.

But, it is dying. In these few hours it's breathing its last rasping breaths. I won't be there when it closes its eyes and leaves this earth. I will probably never see it again. Home will be gone.

I, like so many of you, am grieving. The coming inauguration is the worst possible result I could have imagined of that horrible election cycle. There are still days I can't believe it happened. The thought of what it means still catches the breath in my chest. But, this is where we are now, my friends, and it is time to move forward.

To my fellow grieving Americans, now is the time to see what we're made of. Now is the time to live up to the hype. We had our three months to grieve and cope. Now we must pick ourselves up and face this day, face it in a way that our forbearers would be proud of. They created a government and system that is designed to resist tyranny. But, it cannot do that if we, The People, embrace tyranny or stay impassive and silent. Patriots aren't people who go to Fourth of July parades, or buy bumper stickers, repost impassioned memes, or wear patches and pins. Patriots get up and participate. They call their representatives over and over and over. Patriots march. Patriots give their money or- if they don't have money- their time to organizations that defend the rights and ideals of their nation that are under threat. Patriots look past differences in their fellows and they unite against their common foe. They discuss. They sacrifice and they give up their petty wants for the sake of others, their contemporaries and those yet to be born. Patriots are vigilant. Patriots pursue the truth. Patriots resist. Please, my fellow Americans who do not rise in celebration on this day, be patriots. The future depends on it. More than we know.

To those Americans who rise on this day with elation, go ahead. That's your right. I know there is nothing I can say that will change your minds. That is ok. But, I'm sorry for you. I truly am, and I do not say it to be patronizing. I was very angry with you for a long time. Sometimes I still get angry at you. But, my faith doesn't allow me to stay in that place so on this day, I've decided to set that anger down. Pity fills that space that anger left behind. I know where you're coming from. I know you. I understand your fears and anger. I'm from Akron, Ohio. I know what it's like to search in vain for work, to see the rot, to feel hopeless and forgotten. I know what it's like to be told your heritage and culture is not something to be proud of. I'm in agreement that a lot of this is caused by the decisions of our past leaders. Yes, the Left has done a lot of damage. I get it, I really do. I respect the fact that these are real problems. However, I in no way agree with your solution. I feel sorry for you because you don't yet understand what today means or worse, you do and refuse to admit it. We've all been in that headspace at one time or another and it isn't a good place to be. My hope is that you will be willing to step out of it and be a part of the movement to clean up the mess. We'd be happy to have you. Until then, know this: any attempt on your part to persecute or strip the rights of innocent citizens of this nation will be met with strong resistance. That behavior will not be tolerated. We will not tolerate it in the elected officials and we will not tolerate it from you. We will stand in your way. And, as much as it breaks my heart to say this, it will not matter if you're our friends or our family members. We will stand against you. This is going to hurt all of us, and I'm truly, truly sorry.

To all my international friends, those who are scared and nervous about today too, please lend a hand. Trust me, I have not been proud to be an American for several months and I get why it's so easy to blanket the entire country is far right fools. However, if you followed the US Election at all you know by now that this result is not the will of the people. This man did not win the popular vote. His victory, is the result of many factors- foreign actions and flawed internal systems. Please keep that in mind when things get scarier. There are many Americans on your side. They are going to be sacrificing a lot to stop this darkness from destroying our country and they will need your encouragement, words will do. The world is at a tipping point, and this day is a death knell. It could easily lead to the dark takeover of your nation too. The rumblings of coming thunder can be heard in the words of Farage, La Pen, and Petry just to name a few. The darkness is at every gate. So, please, please don't turn your backs. Don't mock and throw up your hands and resign us to our fate. We're in this together and we're all going to need to stick together.

Today is not a normal day. Tomorrow won't be normal either, and nor will the day after that and the day after that. In my heart I know no day will ever be normal again. But, I will not cry anymore. After I turned from my bedroom window, I did what I promised myself I would do on this day. I started my resistance. I purchased a subscription to The Washington Post. I donated to the Committee to Protect Journalists. We're going to need the courage of investigative journalists more than ever. I donated to local Akron arts and culture non profits. The arts are always some of the first victims of tyranny, and the new regime has already stated they plan on stripping support. Then, I hung the phone numbers of my elected officials above my desk so I can begin calling them. I promise I will be calling them, even from Germany. I will be sharing and retweeting information and news about what this regime will be doing to further destroy my home. I will do the best I can to keep speaking out against it. That's all I can think to do right now. And somehow, I hope that taking photographs will help too, even if it's just to keep myself sane.

We all have choices to make on this day, my friends. We all have to decide how we're going to go forward. I hope we can decide to move forward together, to not cower in the face of fear, to listen, to lift up those who cannot stand on their own, to learn, to speak, and above all to resist this darkness with some love and light.  Good luck to you all.

"Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light."