This is one of the strongest articulations I’ve read—not just of where we are, but of why it’s supposed to be this hard.
A republic cobbled together through agony and contradiction, pushed forward inch by inch through blood, error, protest, revision. For a brief window in history, it almost held. Not perfectly. Not equitably. But function…
This is one of the strongest articulations I’ve read—not just of where we are, but of why it’s supposed to be this hard.
A republic cobbled together through agony and contradiction, pushed forward inch by inch through blood, error, protest, revision. For a brief window in history, it almost held. Not perfectly. Not equitably. But functionally. Enough to believe in.
Then we stopped believing it needed us.
You nailed it: We’re not even in the rebuilding phase yet. We’re still trying to survive the wrecking ball. Still fighting just to keep the lights on in the idea of shared reality. If we’re lucky we’ll come out the other side not to celebration, but to rubble. That’s when the real work begins. The harder work. The thankless work. The kind no one gets credit for in a news cycle.
We need to remember through action. Civic engagement not as a hashtag, but as identity. As habit. As the bare minimum of citizenship. Because you’re right—maintenance is lighter than destruction, but only if we don’t forget what happens when we stop maintaining.
This is one of the strongest articulations I’ve read—not just of where we are, but of why it’s supposed to be this hard.
A republic cobbled together through agony and contradiction, pushed forward inch by inch through blood, error, protest, revision. For a brief window in history, it almost held. Not perfectly. Not equitably. But functionally. Enough to believe in.
Then we stopped believing it needed us.
You nailed it: We’re not even in the rebuilding phase yet. We’re still trying to survive the wrecking ball. Still fighting just to keep the lights on in the idea of shared reality. If we’re lucky we’ll come out the other side not to celebration, but to rubble. That’s when the real work begins. The harder work. The thankless work. The kind no one gets credit for in a news cycle.
We need to remember through action. Civic engagement not as a hashtag, but as identity. As habit. As the bare minimum of citizenship. Because you’re right—maintenance is lighter than destruction, but only if we don’t forget what happens when we stop maintaining.
The easy days are gone.