Diary of a Dreamer in MAGA Country: Week 4

Crisis and Art

Originally published on Medium on Feb 12, 2025

“You will not be able to stay home, brother.You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.You will not be able to lose yourself on skagand Skip out for beer during commercials,Because the revolution will not be televised.”-By Gil Scott-Heron

Kendrick said “The revolution WILL be televised” and at this point i’ve heard so many takes about this that I am conflicted. I don’t know what he meant, but I know what I am seeing happen.

What is a constitutional crisis?

“a problem or conflict in the function of a government that the political constitution or other fundamental governing law is perceived to be unable to resolve.”

Well are we there right now? Some people are saying so, others are saying we are close but not quite. Who tells us when we’ve hit the brink of falling over? our own bodies as they hit the floor…

What is my job here? Where should my focus go? My state senator is the only one replying to me, telling me he can’t do anything, but my representative is part of the problem and our governer is sharing memes and tik-toks. They all have tough jobs, what do I know? Keep sharing posts, keep telling people what to sign, keep trying to convinve my father-in-law… at what point does it not matter anymore? I just stayed quiet when I heard a person say that Mexicans are dirty. I don’t know what stays and what goes.

Do I cry in my car again? Is this part of the revolution?

A few years ago, I asked on Facebook, whether there were any stories out there of the regular people that lived through authoritarian regimes… I had a hard time finding stories of the people who were genuinely uninvolved. People had to keep working and paying bills and taking care of their children and all the other mundane tasks that are living, right? I don’t want to hear the stories of the people who changed their mind and through themselves into the fight or the people who looked back with regret; I want to know what the experience was for the person who just often heard on the radio that a war was taking place and just saw less unsightly neighbors around, maybe shorter lines at the checkout, or the music and art just seemed off? Is that what some people felt when they didn’t understand the messaging during the half-time show? Aren’t, by definition, most people going to just keep living, unaware of the margins getting closer and closer to them?

I wonder if when MLK said that the “arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” he knew he might not get to see the other end? I know things have to get better at some point. There’s no way that they get worse for good because we know too much and we fight and fight for it but how many people will never get to see the goodness? How many people will tell their grandchildren 50 years from now that they shouldn’t worry so much about politics and social issues because things have always been the same for them. I’m sure they won’t listen to the other grandparents sharing their warnings from their experiences when they were shipped to guantanamo bay for having a nike tattoo and doing things “the right way”.

Things get better with time…and the stories of those who never get to see it happen are memorialized in songs and drawings and stories others will consume during the next revolution. It’ll be beautiful. Inspiring. Lauded.

Photo by Randy Tarampi on Unsplash