Putting 2015 on a Pedestal: Finding Hope Among the Many Imperfections
As an empathetic person my energy is often spent processing the latest catalogue of travesties. 2015 was filled with so many locally, nationally, and globally, that I rarely got around to saying anything.
BUT 2015 was also filled with actual proper hope. People began to use digital tools more and more effectively to extend their real life activism, even if that sometimes meant just continually pointing out that we live within corrupt, failing systems that are often unaccountable and untenable because of outdated perspectives.
Were I to put 2015 on a pedestal it would be the battered bargain basement one above. Outside of my personal experiences, which are blanketed by the many privileges of being a white, middle class, hetero, male presenting, English, human living in the USA, 2015 was pretty terrible. Then again so was every year in history, recorded and, especially, otherwise.
What’s changed is that now more people have the tools, skills, and opportunities to share their first person stories, herstories, and histories, and now more people can see and hear those messages in formats and media not always determined by the dominant powers. These stories often clearly show the hegemonic narrative being undermined: authority figures doing bad things, catcalling, mansplaining (hey, like me now), lying, cheating, abusing.
2015 was bleak, but it began to show a wider audience that there were other ways to consider issues than the mainstream drip feed. Consider for example the reactions to:
- Columbus Day— hey, let’s call it Indigenous People’s Day
- Thanksgiving
- Global warming
- Political donor/ sponsor-ship/ Citizens United
- the TPP (Trans Pacific Pipeline)
- the surveillance state/ CISA (the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act)
- the entire Republican presidential field’s non-stop non-sequitors
Much of this knowledge, if not these specific events, have existed and percolated for years. In 2015 they began to coalesce, much like the Occupy movement, often because of the unfortunate omnipresence of horrifying first person stories about terrible events.
#blacklivesmatter stayed in the news because it’s utterly unconscionable just how often non-white people were, and still are, attacked, injured, or killed; often by authority figures, and often in circumstances that are far from clear or justified. This is nothing new. Black lives should always matter. So should those of everybody, no matter what apparent difference, otherness, and/ or prejudice a trigger happy officer/ news commentator/ bigot may choose to see, and act on whether with words or actions.
So fuck you 2015, for all your massive injustices, grievances, shootings, pedantries, and prejudices.
And thank you 2015 for helping the citizenry stand up to their oppressors, and have their voices heard so that they might occasionally get properly discussed, if not fully addressed or resolved.
I’m lucky to know a lot of wonderful people who spoke eloquently to these perspectives without the need for some white dude (like me) to say anything else. What we can do is be the pedestals for the people around us who have so much to share; by listening, respecting and amplifying the voices of all those who are muted by generic mainstream prejudice.
We can be supporters who recognize that even this allegedly apathetic populace can positively shape brighter futures for all that aren’t just a whitewashed fairytale, but realistic responses to the world’s outside and inside us.
When I taught humanities classes, I’d always end them with a simple maxim: “Question Everything.” I hope we all do more in 2016.
There are abundant sprouts of hope, so while 2015 might only make it onto this pathetic $10 excuse for a “pedestal,” it offered tangible signs of humanity’s positive progress. In 2016 lets share the voices and stories that speak truth to power, so we can promote love for each other and our planet.
