“We are entering a deeply dark period of American history”

We are entering a deeply dark period of American history. Some have called what we are watching unfold the Second Redemption, a reference to the period at the end of Reconstruction when black people were systematically stripped of political power and voting rights, often by violence and terror. It took many long decades, and many thousands gone, for those fundamental rights to be restored. But we are not now where we were then. There are many more of us who care to stop this–a majority of voters on Election Day, in fact–and, because of the demographics of the electorate, there will be more every year. We will have to work, and work hard, fighting a rearguard battle to stop destruction and unraveling, rather than fighting to advance. It is a disheartening prospect. But there is too much to fight for, too much at stake, to give up now. There are statehouse and Congressional elections to win in 2017 and 2018, and the time to begin working on that was yesterday.

Rivka Press Schwartz, “A Cold and Broken Hallelujah”, Tacit Knowledge (20 January 2017) [https://rpschwartz.com/2017/01/20/a-cold-and-broken-hallelujah/]