Our first cold front went through last weekend, about three weeks late. It was the warmest October on record here (maybe where you are, too). The ice packs at the poles are melting at a record rate, rising seas are drowning islands, and the government is finally beginning to notice. Meanwhile, back at Trump Tower, the president-elect has just picked a notorious climate-denier to enforce our environmental laws and is looking for ways to trash the Paris climate agreement.
None of this is normal.
This is not a normal Thanksgiving week. I am still stunned and angry, as you are, perhaps. Like many of you, I feel vulnerable, defenseless, helpless.
But not hopeless. I am grateful for the W. H. Auden poem that Neal Gabler quoted earlier this month on Bill Moyers' America:
Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
I'm grateful to be able to join the chorus of those exchanging messages. I'm grateful for organizations like Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, which continue to show an affirming flame. There are others, too. They give me hope.
Please. Find an organization that speaks for you, that gives you hope. Join it. Support it with your money and your time and your voice. Make it your aim to send your own message, wherever you are, however you can.
Please. Because none of this is normal.