How did we get here? (And where are we exactly?)
When I tell you that there are a dozen other things that I should be doing on this Sunday afternoon at 1:11pm EDT, I absolutely am not exaggerating. And yet, here we are.
Let me start by saying that the thoughts and opinions that will be expressed here weekly (and yes, I am publicly committing to weekly… again, being very unsure as to how this will happen, but confident that I am going to figure it out) are in no ways connected to or reflective of my job or the nonprofit organizations that I am a part of (Lion’s Story and Philadelphia Youth Basketball being the main two). These views are mine and mine alone.
I’m saying this up front, because in my official roles at work and as a nonprofit representative, I am not supposed to endorse a candidate, or really engage in politics all that much. Part of me gets that, in a normal situation. This mess that we are staring at now is utterly and ridiculously abnormal. Still, I will play by the rules, and keep my political posts squarely in my personal domain.
Now that we’ve gotten that out the way, let me get into what brought me here today. I've had numerous thoughts and sent a handful of texts and emails to folks the past couple of weeks since the assassination attempt, the Republican VP announcement and convention, the change at the top of the Democratic ticket, and me making my first donation of this campaign season AND signing up to volunteer in some capacity TBD (which is something I did not do previously). I kept hinting (to myself, mostly) at writing some things, for whatever it may be worth. I was on the verge of sending another text about what I was going to write about today when I said to myself, “Stop. Stop waiting for the perfect time because you already know it ain’t coming. Just write.”
So let’s get to it.
I was watching the U.S. men’s basketball team play its first Olympic game earlier today. It ended with the U.S. winning 110–84 over Serbia, sparked by KD off the bench after a pretty sluggish first quarter overall by the starters. The pre-game featured players talking about how big it was for them to represent the country on this world stage. I then read a piece about South Sudan’s win over Puerto Rico. I thought about all of the layers and nuance in these stories: pride-filled Black American players who knelt during the anthem in the wake of George Floyd now playing again in the shadows of Sonya Massey, another Black life taken… South’s Sudan’s existence as a nation… Puerto Rico’s history and status as a U.S. territory… Serbia’s complicated political position.
This is the world that we live in. We get to make and remake it each day. Such a confounding privilege that’s so easy to lose sight of.
In this election season, I’m reminded of how easy it will be for us to lose this privilege. This has been top of mind for me for the last four years.
Our democracy is far from perfect. The Democratic party is far from perfect. The way we do politics in the United States is far from perfect. We need to do better, and we certainly have the capacity for such. We simply have to lean into our privilege and make the time to commit in our own unique and meaningful ways. That’s where it starts.
It’s not going to be easy — leading up to the election, and beyond. But I know this: the United States’ representation in this year’s Olympic games — just like so many other things in and of our nation — is the result of a multicultural democracy that has suffered from numerous missteps, wrongdoings, and outright injustices, alongside pivotal milestones and monumental movements. We have as much to celebrate and showcase as we do to learn, repair, and build, but we must commit to moving forward, no matter how painful and complicated, as the multicultural democratic nation that we are. This will require as many votes for Kamala Harris as possible, and must result in a record-shattering Harris victory. And that will require everyone reading this to get your talking points together and move well beyond your comfort zones. I truly hope that whatever I can pull from my mind and soul to flow through my fingertips to this screen can be of some help.
See you next week.
