I've been busy! But I'm planning for a fun and informative 2025.
Leaving it all on the field
I took my cue from Vice Presidential candidate, Tim Walz. Coach Tim said we needed to leave it all on the field. “Leave it all on the field” is an American phrase meaning to give everything you have, to put in maximum effort, and to not hold anything back.
And that’s what I did, canvasing locally to flip my South Carolina state senate seat. Other activities included contributing to tight yet flappable campaigns, sending postcards to swing states, letters to voters in purple states in a Get Out the vote effort, text and phone banking. I'm proud to report one of my sets of 300 cards went to voters in Arizona to elect Ruben Gallego to the Senate was a success!
On November 5th, I served as a poll worker. Ever hopeful, even in my red state of South Carolina, I decided to keep hope alive and went to bed as soon as I got home. When I woke up in the morning, it didn’t take me long to learn the election results.
I’m still in shock, but I know I left it all on the field, as did many others.
Life goes on
While the election process brought division, uncertainty, and deep emotions, the aftermath offers opportunities for growth, reflection, and renewal in our nation, our state, and locally. It's a chance to regroup, to prioritize community, and to focus on building bridges rather than walls.
Life continues through daily routines, acts of kindness, and shared human experiences. We need to find ways to connect, collaborate, and support one another. I fervently hope the challenges we face in 2025 will serve as a catalyst for meaningful change, encouraging individuals to become more engaged. We should focus on shared values and work toward a future shaped by empathy, unity, and hope. Encouraging empathy is the overriding work to do in the next year.
Empathy has always been important to our society, I featured an essay written by my friend, Fred Eder, in 2023. The title (and link) Appreciating the Deep Connection Between Empathy & the Arts.
I believe Empathy is essential to being Human. Too much Empathy is dangerous, of course. You can't possibly grieve for every tragedy in the world. No one has that vast an emotional landscape. But, the inability to feel for others is, in my mind, the root of evil. You don't kill people, not because it's against the law, but because you can feel for someone besides yourself. You won't commit most acts of violence or cruelty for the same reasons. You can imagine how you would feel if it happened to you. You can't do something you believe to be evil because you can experience the emotions of Others. (Fred Eder)
Looking forward to 2025
I plan to write fun Boomer and/or Karen articles, yet I won't abandon attempts to present facts on scientific and political subjects. On the serious side, my priority will be climate change.
Climate change affects all the earth’s ecosystems and natural resources. Adverse change (such as our warming planet) has significant economic impacts, such as damage to infrastructure, loss of agricultural productivity, and increased costs related to disaster recovery. Even if this is a part of the planet’s natural climate cycle, we need to take action to adapt to these challenges.
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