I’ve been in writing limbo for much of the past month. My computer needed repair, I went on yet another trip out of town, the weekends have been busy with shows. But mostly I’ve been mired in a series of false starts I’ll attribute to creative fear. This far along in life I’m not really a beginner at anything. And I’m that much harder on myself if I don’t “get it right” or quite hit my mark. I’m also all too aware of the prospect of failure. My past is littered with plenty of them. It’s all a recipe for inaction, which both gets me nowhere and adds to the paralysis.
But the consequences of inaction are much more dire when one is facing a crisis. And this week’s spate of debates and dubious Supreme Court decisions on top of heatwaves and red-flag warnings and compromised news sources add up to one big call to action, however imperfect it may be.
It’s easy to feel even more discouraged, but as the great Patti Smith sings (and which I’ve been reposting on social media) “the people have the power.” That’s you and that’s me, and that’s why I’m continuing to sing and make songs amid it all, and get to see what else I can do to help hold onto our increasingly fragile democracy. I’m connected to a grassroots group in Alameda who has been making get-out-the-vote postcard campaigning associated with Activate America easy. I’m already signed on for some campaigns later this year via Vote Forward, but I picked up a packet yesterday to get going on mailing now. It was too hot last night to do too much but not so hot that I couldn’t sit down and address some postcards toward the goal of holding the Senate and flipping the House from red-to-blue.
has been a bastion of sanity and real information for many of us over the past four or five years. Hearing her say “this is a disaster for democracy” on Monday sent a chill up my spine. I recalled her writing circa 2020:“Americans change politics first by changing minds. If this were not the case, Russia would not be swamping us with disinformation, and the right wing would not flood the country with talk radio and the Fox News Channel, which present fact-free stories designed to divert people from reality. And, of course, Trump would not bother spinning his own lies. People, and now bots, spreading those lies have been so assertive that a lot of folks who know they’re crap have stayed quiet, not wanting to start a fight. But speaking up to identify lies and to celebrate real American values is a crucial step toward changing the national narrative. If it weren’t, no one would be paying bots and trolls to shut us up.
Changing the national narrative is crucially important, but it is not enough to change our government. To do that, we need to complain constantly to our elected officials, even those who ignore us (because they do keep a record), and to support politicians who are advancing democracy. ”
I also turn to the wise Rebecca Solnit in times like these, who reminds us:
“When you assert that the future is already decided, you undermine the motivation to participate in shaping that future—which seems ridiculously obvious as I type these words, but doesn’t seem like it’s considered by these prophets of doom. Also when you turn your feelings into facts, you turn truth into fiction. Accepting defeat in advance is a curious form of self-protection. I want to see people protect the cause by distinguishing between these two things and maybe realizing that you protect the self by protecting the cause and the possibilities.”
Hear, hear to protecting the possible!
On Monday, I also found out that photographerRich Cruse had passed away. I first met Rich in the late 1990s when I was covering the St. Croix International Triathlon for Inside Triathlon where he cracked me up with his Jerry Lewis impersonation — yelling “Hey ladyyyyyyyy!” loudly across the plaza — and impressed me with his great shots. He was at once a total pro and a natural clown. After the race, he and another great independent photographer who became a friend, Karen Desjardin, and I went snorkeling at Buck Island and I recall much laughter. From then on, we kept in touch, even long after I’d left the world of multisport reporting. Just a week ago, we exchanged a brief communication on Instagram! From all the tributes that have poured in since his death, it's clear Rich kept many friends from the triathlon days and continued to make new friends wherever he went.
In recent years, his photography practice involved taking a nightly, often jaw-dropping, photo of the sunset near where he lived in Oceanside, CA. “To get great pictures, you have to show up, and he showed up,” another friend and photographer Alan Crosthwaite is quoted about Rich in the Coast News article. “To get great pictures, you have to show up, and he showed up.”
I want to be like Rich. Especially in November. I hope that all of us who care about democracy will be able to say that we showed up.