I don’t know about you, but I am feeling unmoored. After the wildfires and subsequent evacuations, then the disturbing new Federal administration’s actions, which are clearly meant to wreak havoc, the ever-solid footing underneath, feels like it could give at any moment.
Maybe it has already given way and we are just treading water hoping to stay awake long enough to not drown?
The only action I know of in this powerless moment, is to prioritize love. To nurture the communities, we each share in. To reach out to your friends and loved ones and make time to see them. It will get worse before it gets better, and community is what makes the unendurable somehow endurable.
But even the idea of community has changed so much in recent years. How many of us rely on internet-based communities, further isolating our ‘real’ selves? Traditional third places, like churches or clubs are somewhat in decline, so the standard places we might share in community are not so clear. This I’m sure adds to the feelings of disconnection.
I have like so many toyed with checking out of the national news, and instead focusing on local issues and the people closest to me. I hide from the New York Times and have permanently switched NPR off. In this, I know that I’m not alone.
The combination of events: the new administration’s intended chaos AND the monumental loss of our neighborhoods to the north; have put us in Santa Monica in an exceptionally destabilizing moment. Institutions we have grown accustomed to ignoring and taking for granted are now seemingly under threat. A whole neighborhood or swath of neighborhoods is simply gone.
Even the safety of the air we breathe feels uncertain.
“It will all be fine. Only the poor will suffer.” I am told. How does one even respond to such an awful sentiment, and yet I’m sure many of us have had the thought, that somehow, we, in our fancy little progressive ‘bubble’ city will be safe. Heck even my last column purported as much.
I’ll just look away and wait until it’s all over.
Ahh but we (and you know who I mean by “we”) elected a mentally ill reality TV star to run the show. And what a show it promises to be: High highs and low lows. Conflict and drama abounding. We know television here; we make it every day. There must be stakes and there must be suspense. Successful television makes a spectacle that one can’t look away from.
He has already affirmed his pattern of behavior will continue, wherein he distracts from some real evil or stupid act by creating an outrageous crisis then he magically “solves the problem” by removing the crisis he’d created and claims success.
It’s so exhausting.
With so much of the suffering that is coming, we have been able to look away. Like the recent airplane/helicopter crash at DCA, we can ignore it and it will not affect us.
But we can’t look away completely in good conscience: The I.C.E. raids that we are already seeing in other parts of the country, are promised to arrive soon. The gutting of our foreign service and inspector generals’ offices. The installation of loyalists in the military and in important federal posts throughout… Just to name a few recent actions.
I don’t want to give him my attention, because I know more than anything that that is what he wants. But if I insist on ignoring these outrageous and illegal actions, I risk being complacent to them—allowing them to happen.
I am sorry to say that I have no sure-fire wisdom regarding whether to watch the system slowly implode or ignore it so that you yourself don’t self-destruct. I am certain however that it will take community building and reasonability to survive this moment and rebuild from it.
We need to foster the constructive qualities that directly oppose everything we are seeing at the top. We need to be moored in the knowledge that Santa Monicans will continue to look out for each other and do what’s right.
I don’t know what our future will look like on the other end of the current madness, but we will need to make real changes to our society—that is clear. Technology is about to change how almost everything works and resources will become quite different. The one thing that will certainly remain stable is our love for one another.
The work, as I see it, is to continue to foster a mature and cohesive community. So please connect with your neighbors (in-person if possible). Check in on the old lady next door and see how she is doing. Have coffee with someone you love. Make time to see your friends. It is the only way I see us moving forward positively. It is how we counteract the hate and fear, with love.
Devan Sipher
