"That's how we're gonna win: not fighting what we hate, saving what we love." — Rose Tico, in Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
There’s obviously a lot going up in this country, but I’d like to take a minute to talk about saving what we love. Why we fight. What we’re fighting for. Which is why I love love love the Star Wars quote above.
We’re spending a lot of time focusing on what’s going wrong and fighting against. Fighting against people with dark, selfish, mean, cruel, and power-driven agendas who are working really hard to pull apart the society we’ve got to make it work better for them.
We spending a lot of time trying to hold on to pieces and parts. Working to hold the foundations — stuff like the rule of law, the US Constitution, federalism, the republic as a democracy. Just huge big stuff like that.
That is all very much super important.
But behind it all is our humanity. Loving humans. Kindness. Taking care of people.
One of the reasons democracy is regarded as one of the best forms of government to date is because it’s supposed to help us — all of us — have more agency. It’s supposed to give us tools and structures for more equality, more chances, and more justice. It’s supposed to help us take care of more people better. To give people voices. To protect vulnerable people from those who would take advantage of them or cause harm or any number of godawful things.
To be fair, democracies including ours don’t always do all of that or do it well, but they can be and have been better than lots of other forms of government. Assuming we can hold onto the thing, it needs like a whole overhaul and refurbishing once we get to the other side of this authoritarian mess.
But the people in power now are making major power grabs. They are attempting to take the thing apart (the country) because then they could do a whole lot more of what they want.
What they’re doing works in part by finding ways to pull people apart. To scapegoat and blame certain people. To drive hate and division. To keep people from unifying. But also to keep certain groups fired up and angry at other groups to help those in power stay in power.
We absolutely need to and can be fighting against all that.
But we can also absolutely be fighting FOR a whole lot, too.
Anyway I’m sure I am preaching to the choir. And maybe people think this sounds like a bunch of hippie dippy baloney.
But things are going to keep getting more intense-r.
The decisions we make will go better if they are more deeply rooted in love and fierce fighting for what and who we love… versus making decisions based on fear.
Which is of course part of why this nonprofit is shifting our focus to fierce community. We need it.
Okay. Well I’m headed back to work to finally get a garden in this weekend. We are going to get it done, for crying out loud. Sheesh.
Be safe and be well. Keep the faith — in us, in our amazingness, and in our fierceness. We will find ways through.
Onward and forward.
Vanessa Burnett is the director at Fierce Community. This nonprofit work promotes connection, community, coordination, creativity, engagement, empowerment, leadership, and resilience in an era of rising instability and societal disruption. Email fiercecommunityteam@gmail.com to set up a conversation.
Vanessa is a social entrepreneur, advisor, and empower-er for doing fierce community in a time of disruption and disaster. Ms. Burnett has a rare systems-level understanding of the pieces and parts that modern society needs in order to survive that can help people and groups navigate this era of fast change and unprecedented challenges. She has over 25 years experience in resilience-building, civic engagement, coalition-building, critical infrastructure, systems thinking, big disasters, catastrophes, wildland fire, emergency management, incident management, land management, park rangering, homeland security, continuity of operations (COOP), continuity of government (COG), technology innovation, public communication, and disaster information sharing.
NOTE: This Substack is renaming to Fierce Community from Shift the Country to better serve in this moment. More to come on that soon. We’re remodeling the homepage. Soon we’ll announce zooms to get going on this new direction, and to get back to building our own fierce community here with this work.