Day in the Life of a Photographer Day #16. I Am A Rowdy Hopeful.

Yesterday was a hard day for many of us. The reality of a Donald Trump presidency seemed ludicrous just a few days ago, impossible a year ago. It will be fact in a couple of weeks. We grieve. I grieved.

BLACK LIVES MATTER and environmental racism is real.

I was under no illusion that Hillary Clinton would auger in a new age of progressive politics any more than Barack Obama had. But I have no desire for a someone who so casually dismisses, demeans and violates people as Donald Trump and electing the first woman President would have been a major milestone.

It seems to me that the "American Experiment" has ended. Or, the facade of a single, unified country as the bastion of Freedom, Capitalism and Democracy is undeniably shattered. An apocalypse, if you will. One to celebrate and press into. Not a Walking Dead apocalypse, but the kind of apocalype where we get to dig deeper into our collective power as agents of transformation.

Yesterday I grieved. I felt numb. I got angry. I practiced positive self-talk and awareness. I retreated into my own emotional world. I watched Anthony Bordain and the Highlander on Amazon Prime. (I forgot Queen wrote the soundtrack for that movie!)

Today I took action. I (and we) have lots of work to do. We will have to work even harder at protecting basic human rights. At the exact same time we need to fight for our visions of a world where everyone is empowered and no one left behind. Where everyone has access to clean air, clean water, jobs that give a fair wage and meaning. Where people of different faiths, genders, skin color, and histories can be affirmed and celebrated and given space in unique ways necessary to thrive as part of a whole society that encompasses a love bigger than any national border.

So today I joined a group of rowdy hopefuls in direct action to make sure that my neighbours way down in South Philly have clean air to breathe, and that the economic strength of our future is built on renewable energy.