Change = Risk + Massive Action + Hope

If you’ve ever made massive change in your own life; you know, there is a moment where everything feels like it’s falling apart. Where you get pulled back into the smallest version of yourself. It may be an illness, it may be falling off your workout plan, a rejection, or a reaction that you take out of fear to keep yourself “safe”.

Safe is in air quotes, because it’s never a reaction that actually makes you feel safe. It’s an action that brings you back into the known. The known is a place that makes your brain feel safe, but it could easily be hell on Earth. The worst place you’ve ever been. The unknown to our reptilian brains, is unsafe. And that’s why change feels so big and scary. Our brains tell us it’s not safe. Not because it’s actually unsafe, but because it’s unknown.

And I think we’re seeing that on a societal scale in the United States. Walk with me. Many of us are ready for real societal change. And many people are working towards massive change. And have been since the Declaration of Independence was written.

Like Elizabeth Freeman, who heard the words, “all men are created equal,” and sued for her own freedom in 1781. Her court case led to the abolition of slavery in the state of Massachusetts Bay.

Like Marsha P Johnson, a cofounder of STAR, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, a leader in the Stonewall uprising, and a person who demanded a better life for all LGBTQ+ in the United States.

Like Brother Flip - Charles Crowley, an Attica prisoner whose famous quote hits me very hard almost every single day fifty plus years later. He said, “if we cannot live as humans, we’ll at least try to die as men,” before they took over the prison to demand better for every prisoner.

Frank Serpico, who took on the NYPD and its corruption and almost lost his own life.

Fred Hampton, who crossed racial lines, and did lose his own life when he was murdered by the state.

Today, we see people like Chris Smalls, our modern day Amazon labor leader, who is one of the most influential labor leaders of our time. Taking on a giant like Amazon and getting the first union organized.

Malik Muhammed, a Black Lives Matter activist, who is currently in jail.

Mahmoud Khalil, a student activist, who was imprisoned falsely for speaking out about genocidal atrocities that our country is paying for.

There are and there have been people pushing for change since our country’s inception. We have them today, but we’re being drawn back. The “safe space” that we’ve known is drawing us back. We’re in the dark period before the dawn and that massive change requires risk, action, and hope.

Our equilibrium as a country is white men leading us. It’s our “safe” space. Safe in quotes again, because it’s not really safe is it? Look where it’s gotten us. We’re near total fascism, we have standing armies in the streets. We have detention centers that are for profit, popping up everywhere. We’re absolutely in an oligarchy, where the wealthiest among us have bought their way into our government. A small group of people are restricting our voting rights, our healthcare, our decisions we make with our own bodies. Our earth is being destroyed, we’ve been at war almost every single year of our 250 years of existence. We’re exporting hatred, right wing movements, and racism across the country.

And yet, earlier this week. There were calls for a woman who is a veteran and primary winner to step aside for a white man to run. If you missed it, a third party candidate jumped into the Montana Senate race. A white man, showed up with a million dollars in his campaign pockets. Ostensibly, a Democrat, running as an Independent because he “knows Democrats can’t win in Montana.” People called for Alani Bankhead to drop out, and I believe it’s not because she wasn’t qualified, and it’s not because she didn’t win her primary, but because Seth Bodnar, the white man, seems like a safe bet.

A “safe” bet. People said he’s got more money, he’s the only hope of a win. She must drop out. We don’t know where this man’s coming from. But people clung to him like he was the great white whale, the savior that would flip Montana Blue. I know it’s fear talking. I know it’s the moment where people say oh no, a risk is too great right now. We’ll settle for less because it may be safer. It probably won’t be. We don’t know him or have any inclination of what will happen between now and November or what will come out.

AND YET, multiple white creators demanded that Seth was the only option. People with hundreds of thousands of followers, under the guise of Alani being unelectable without the support and money he has. Between the handful I saw, they could have raised her about the money she’d need to get elected.

And the real irony here is we’ve tried this a million times before. We’ve put our blind faith into white men who are outsiders in the system, who don’t have a political background, but have the money to get elected. While it works occasionally, the VAST majority of the time, these men have made things worse.

AND I know we’re scared and I know that people want to win and change the trajectory of this country, but we need to actually change the underlying equilibrium. Which means taking the risk on a dark horse candidate. Showing up everyday with massive action and leading with hope not fear. It can be done, it has been, we know it has been.

Nothing changes if nothing changes - and while a candidate like Seth Bodnar seems like the change is there, we know he’s pretty much a carbon copy of the men who got us into the position we are in now. So dive in, make change at the level you’re at now, it will reverberate into the society at large, but do not fall back on “we need to do what we’ve always done,” it won’t save us now.

{post script}

I know I am walking contradiction. I want a new constitution, but I am working for a candidate that is running in 2026. I know we must turn the fire hose off. I know that and midterms are our opportunity to do it. We can all have short term and long term goals, and mine is a new constitution.

Ours has been loopholed into oblivion. It’s based in minority rule, and there will always be people using our founding document to disenfranchise people. To draw us back to our equilibrium of minority rule. Every time I think about the massive change our country needs, it draws me back to a new constitution. I don’t ever want to see generations of work upended by a supreme court case like Louisiana vs Callais. I don’t ever want to see Supreme Court Justices like Chief Justice John Roberts work for decades to rip apart section two of the Voting Rights Act. I want something new that protects ALL OF US. Protects our Earth. Maintains our Voting Rights.

We’re allowed to be scared, but we must take inspired action. Inspired by hope, understanding that change will come and we are stronger when we work together.