A World that Will Last

     It's strange to think that less than a decade ago, social media felt like it was here to stay. I think the concept is here to stay, but I don't think that Twitter is going to be the only social media platform we lose. I was considering moving the blog to another platform, or at least finding somewhere to self promote, and I realized that I couldn't think of anywhere I wanted to move to. There are a million better options than blogger, but the problem is that I'm still not comfortable with the idea that people might read what I write. I realize that's stupid, but I can't help but worry about people not liking my poems and stories, or getting upset at my opinions. 

      I was writing the post for Tuesday, and I found myself reflecting on the huge amount of progress we made in the '00s, bringing about gay marriage, talking about how far we had to go on fighting systemic racism, and different forms of sexuality becoming more noticed. I realized that the reason that all happened wasn't that we were an enlightened species, it was that people felt safe enough to talk about it. I don't mean they felt the world was safe for them, I mean they thought that the world that didn't want them would last long enough, and be malleable enough, to change into a world that did want them. What we're seeing is the world that didn't want minorities collapsing, not because the minorities were vocal, but because of mismanagement and corruption at the top. When the new world is born, the minorities will once again have to go into hiding, once again have to wait until the world that wants them comes along. But it never will. Not because we're cruel, but because we're apathetic. We don't want to do the work it takes to build a world that lasts long enough for those at the fringes to feel that it's safe to try and change it into a world that will accept them. As a result, every time a world starts to feel safe and familiar, it will collapsed, and be replaced by a world that looks almost like the one we lost, but not be quite the same thing. So the people will have to wait to figure it out, and by the time they do it will crumble once more. 

     It took billions of years for the galaxy in a small part of an endless Universe to create us. Why do we keep building worlds that can't even last a century? Is it too much to ask of ourselves that we admit that our world wasn't, isn't, and never will be real? Is it so hard to ask our leaders to let us do the work it would take to make the world real, instead of sabotaging us every step of the way? Is it too much to hope that maybe, soon, things will calm down enough for us to build a world that will last?