Red Dams in Our Blue Sea, You're Done

Our power is growing everyday, and there's only one way forward

I like to think of this year’s massive public protests as verification that everything I thought I knew about humanity wasn’t wrong. That there are, in fact, more decent people in the world than there are selfish, awful ones. That most people believe in common values of kindness, generosity, honesty, and respect. And that given the right circumstances, we will stand up to defend what is good and speak out against what is cruel.

I still think that type of human is the majority.

When I look at an aerial view of a protest, when I see all the little people that look like dots all coming together in a crowd, it really does look like a sea. All those things they say about “the blue wave” of democratic voters are extraordinarily fitting for this moment. The thousands of people moving together, finding a collective rhythm, have that kind of energy.

We see these crowds everywhere, too. In the reddest states and most conservatively voting districts, still throngs of people gather to spurn the horrors of this administration. Just like water, good-hearted people are pulled from every corner of this country, flowing out of unexpected seams in the ground levels to join the larger tributaries. The momentum just continues to grow and relentlessly shows me the best of us, in inspiring numbers.

And I don’t really wonder about the red voters and politicians in all of this. I see them as these pathetic red dams crisscrossing the country, trying desperately to hold back the vast seas. Much less organic and infinitely smaller, the hubristically man-made electoral college, voter suppression, and gerrymandered lines were created under the false pretext of being able to control nature. Of being able to tame the expansiveness of everyone in the country who believes in a just American dream.

I understand how those relatively small dams sometimes control and contain a sea of good, decent people. Swindlers with power have engineered the system to work out annoyingly well for themselves— in calm conditions. But our political climate is quickly changing, and their dams weren’t made to last through hundred-year storms. In the face of towering waves and raging rapids, they lose.

They can’t hold. I don’t see it happening. I can’t see another way.

Each one of us is a drop of water that can influence the whole, each one needed to create such an awesome, gorgeous, game-changing picture. We are mighty in our capacity to act, to come together, and to love others enough to fight. With our billions of comrades, we are a vast ocean, and we will overcome anything in our way.

Dams fail all the time.

With love and hope for the future,

Stephanie

Are you watching or going to protests? What feeling do protests evoke in you?