Happy 2020! I feel a responsibility to think ahead for the new year and to reflect on this past year for this New Year’s Day column. Cut to the chase. In 2019, we experienced continued corruption, incompetence and deceit from the executive branch of government. We also experienced heroes in our midst. Environmental activist Greta Thunberg shamed corporate and governmental polluters, Jane Fonda’s Fire Drill Fridays in Washington, D.C., continue to bring attention to the dire consequences of anthropogenic climate change, foreign service professionals demonstrated bravery and integrity during the impeachment hearings, and Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff acted with tireless congressional leadership as they showed grace and fierce determination to do the right thing.
It is deeply disturbing that the tribal tendencies of the Republican party overshadow potential ethical and moral courage when its members know that the emperor has no clothes. Supporters of this madness are either motivated by their own greed as they are willing to ignore blatant evil or they are as racist, misogynist and heartless as the predator-in-chief. There is no middle ground when such extreme harm is wielded every day with no end in sight.
What do I wish for 2020? I wish individuals who know better will cease to cave in to peer pressure when they know they are participating in something that is wrong and immoral. Children and adults alike are put to the test on this throughout our lives. Tribalism keeps us separate and bigoted. Expansive justice keeps our hearts open.
The year ahead is a big one. It is the beginning of a decade where voters will decide on the continuation of degradation and totalitarian rule or decency and balance in the political system. This in turn will affect health care rights, how we take care of people who have fallen on hard times, prioritizing climate change mitigation, acting with compassion for asylum seekers and stopping the inhumane practice of taking children from their parents, and repairing our relationships with leaders and citizens around the world.
I continue to believe that Senator Elizabeth Warren would make the best president. She is a bridge-builder, she is reflective, and she has the kind of intelligence that reminds me of Barack Obama — that unique blend of confidence and humility. Warren is a servant leader who believes that each of us is responsible for our government as she empowers people around her to challenge and support her ideas. I was blindsided by the misogyny directed at Hillary Clinton when she won the popular vote in 2016 but not the electoral votes, and I hope sexist bias does not rule again.
Patriarchal rule is a failed experiment. In the form of organized religion, it has led to countless wars. As a capitalist creed, it has created poverty and injustice. As a racist tool to oppress and kill, it has decimated cultures. As a system that justifies various forms of violence against women, it has broken hearts, spirits and bones over and over again. It does not serve women, the majority of men or children. This paradigm is horrific and counter to evolution. I do not idealize women or people of color in power as we have all lived under this current system, but from what I have seen, sharing power is a far better mode than one little group having power over everyone else.
While we are experiencing collective trauma due to the fragility of our democracy and what seems to be a great divide in the United States, could it be that we are actually on the precipice of an evolution? Change is not easy in good times, and this dark period may afford us the welcome embrace of a remarkable shift. By and large, younger people support racial diversity, equal rights, gender parity, health care and environmental justice as normative.
In the coming decade, it is certain that our wild consumption habits will decrease as we address climate change. That may bring us closer together. John Lennon said it best: “Imagine all the people sharing all the world.”
I also wish for those small and important moments of joy for each of us. We need pleasure and relief from daily realities to re-charge and maintain our health. Family, friends and acquaintances are acutely important to me during these tumultuous times. The kindness of strangers is uplifting. And I cannot imagine life without dogs, good books and hope.
J.M. Sorrell is a social justice activist and trainer. She wants at least 100 more women elected in both Houses of Congress in 2020 — the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment!