Don’t succumb to this
Negativity can mess with people in the worst of ways. During the Trump years, we were all in a sort of paralysis. We waited, and we waited for someone to save us.
Who will it be, we wondered endlessly.
Will it be Robert Mueller? Many of us thought that it would be. So we pinned upon him all of our restless fears, our unnerving anxiety, many of us convinced he was our hero riding into the darkness to bring us once again bright light. Only he didn’t. We were wrong. I was wrong. It turned out we’d been looking for saving in all the wrong places. The ones who ultimately saved us were us.
And with our votes, we yanked ourselves away from the gloom into freely falling sunshine. But now, as America faces so many challenges, many are tired. Many are convinced our Democracy is about to fail. I’m not.
Palmer Report and many of its writers have been accused of being dishonest — of peddling fake hope- of being too Pollyanna-ish. I say to hell with that. Here are the facts. I doubt there has ever been a Palmer Report article saying “the world is perfect.” It isn’t and never will be.
The difference is in our approach. We do not wallow. We do not write articles saying, “All is lost. Give up now.” This does not mean we do not worry. Of course, there is danger. Of course, there are serious and complex challenges. It all has to do with the way such challenges are presented.
Imagine if any of our past and present leaders gave a speech and said this: “Don’t vote. Things are never going to change, so just forget it. We are doomed, and we can’t win.”
I see this on social media all the time. I am convinced it is deeply toxic and so divisive. One can see danger but still fight. One can be aware of the problems but find creative ways to solve them.
And we must continue. Because at the end of the day, there are heroes who can alter history. And those heroes? They are you, my friends — and all of us who must keep fighting for a better, even more magnificent country.
