Potential Writers of the Resistance, Hear Me Out.
You need to be heard. We need your voices. Are you afraid? Me, too.
I thought about starting this off with FDR’s famous quote, “You have nothing to fear but fear itself”, but that would be silly. We have plenty to fear. Let’s start there.
But where? Where to start? You’ve looked outside, right? It’s terrible out there. The Trump ‘administration’ is now a full-blown ‘regime’ and the political climate has never been worse. The destruction is already incredible. It’s scary. What’ll we do?
I mean it. What’ll we do?
Well, okay, let’s think… We’re writers, right? That’s our skill. It’s also our weapon if we choose to use it that way. So what happens when our words become weapons?
When our words become weapons and we enter the battlefield we become warriors. How terrifying is that? Pretty terrifying. It means we’re exposing ourselves to an enemy just waiting to destroy us. They’ve discovered the power of words (they’re incredibly successful propagandists) and they’d rather we didn’t infringe. Not that they’re that polite about it. “Infringe” isn’t in their vocabulary. They’re tough guys. Remember that.
They’re proud bullies and they’ll step on you every chance they get. When you open yourselves up by publishing your ideas and then doing the unthinkable—cementing them with facts—they’ll be waiting for you. Intimidation is their game, and they’ve become experts at it. It’s all they have. Facts are not on their side. Their arsenals are full of lies. They won’t survive unless they keep the lies coming. They know you’re out to stop them.
They’re the predators and they see you as their prey.
But only if you let them.
I don’t feel like prey. In fact, I’m feeling pretty damned invincible right now. Call that folly, but I get off on what I write when I’m writing about politics. Every single time. I’m my own best cheerleader. I need me, the writer, to tell me, the scared American, that the two of us are doing what we need to do in order to help out.
That’s what writing in this climate does. It emboldens us. We need to do this, and the longer we do it the more emboldened we become. We need to see that other scared Americans are doing it, too. Then we can move as a unit, sharing what we know in order to protect our flanks, in order to give our warriors ammunition and encouragement.
Your words don’t have to be perfect; they just have to tell the story you need to tell. You have something to say. It may be what everyone else is saying, but these are your words. This is your story. You need to be here telling it, not just for us but for the world.
Oh, wait…the world? We’re telling the world?? That scares you, too? Don’t let it. The world needs to hear us. All of us. There can’t be too many of us all saying essentially the same thing: We choose democracy. We choose stability. We choose fairness and kindness, and we want—no, we demand our government’s reflection of that.
We choose this fight against tyranny, against fascism, against the ignorant lunacy of the present regime because it’s worth whatever it takes to put an end to it. If we can be a part of doing that, why wouldn’t we take it on? As Americans we do what we can with the tools at hand. And for us, our tools are our words.
Writers, artists, musicians—it requires all of us. We’re as necessary as any other cog in this wartime effort. We’ve joined forces before in order to vanquish enemies and we can do it again. The key word is ‘together’. If there are enough of us and if we’re loud enough, they’ll have to listen. Eventually, the forces who can stop them will have to listen.
We will not be quiet. This is who we are. This is how we speak out. This is why we’re here. I’m glad we’re in this together. If you still have fears, now is the time to talk about them. Right here, right now. This space is yours.
An example of what I’m writing these days at Constant Commoner, where it’s mainly politics, at least for the duration:
And another:
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They try to step on me, i’ll make ‘em get the point. https://open.substack.com/pub/adamcheklat/p/warning-to-the-oligarchs?r=4m50jk&utm_medium=ios
Right here writing with you.