The threshold that we stood on in 2016 felt like a launching pad- I didn't realize it was a plank. The last four years have been both the richest of my life, as I became a parent to an incredible kid, and the saddest as I witnessed the dismantling of so many of the structures that sought to build up social and environmental responsibility to provide equitable futures Americans from all walks of life. It is crucial that we look at the long processes that transform the American system. The power of the Trump administration is actually the product of expanding executive power over the last few administrations, and this reminds me that the American democracy functions best when we stay attentive to it. We cannot sit back and expect it to keep working all by itself. If we want the American democracy to protect us and our interests, we have to stay constantly engaged! It's hard work, but more necessary than ever!

As I lay in bed nursing my newborn daughter that night in November 2016, I saw the news about Trump's victory. It seemed so impossible, and led my mind down uncharted pathways. I looked over at my partner of almost twenty years, sleeping beside me, and I wished for him that his slumber would never end. That he would never wake to the horror we were surely facing with a Trump presidency. I looked back to 2004, and remembered my disgust at waking up to a second George W. Bush victory. This was worse. I felt paralyzed. I didn't get out of bed the next day. I reached for a gift some one had given us when our daughter was born, "Letters to my Baby" and I wrote to her about the world I wanted to give to her. I focused on the strength of her community, her village. The effort to write, to imagine a world in which she would find love and encouragement as a girl, as a woman, as a leader and independent thinker, made it possible for me to get out of bed again. We, the adults who love her, would have to create that world for her. I knew that if I could keep my sights local, limited, that I could do it. But as time has worn on, and I've narrowed my focus, I have also been reckoning with what it means to self-isolate, to empower and nurture local community, to deal with the challenges of the now, the immediate. Isn't this the same strategy that those who argue against global interconnection advocate? My self-protection is also exclusionary, narrow-minded. I needed it in 2016, nurturing that tiny, delicate baby. As she grows into a head-strong, independent girl, equally obsessed with camping and Elsa, I am reminded that I can, we can, and we MUST also be both. We must nurture our local communities, cultivate strength in our cities and schools AND be good global citizens: supporting the struggles of others, working to reduce our carbon footprints, and constantly resisting the efforts of those who would argue that singularity is strength. Our strength comes from connection, from locking arms and struggling together. For me, that is now clearer than ever.

We get excited about the presidential election, but the down-ballot races are perhaps even more important for our futures. It is there that we choose our FUTURE candidates, address the issues facing our cities, and ensure that justice can be served in our courts.

I always vote. No matter what. In primaries, mid-terms, local elections. The sustenance of the American democracy is the issue that motivates me to vote. (and also, Black Lives Matter, Climate Change, Immigration Justice, Housing Justice, Income Inequality, Women's Health and Autonomy... it's a long list!)

I am usually an optimist, and it stuns me how hard I am finding it to answer this question. I am hopeful that my daughter will get to live in a world with a brown woman as our Vice President (and maybe someday our President!). I am hopeful that we will soon be able to travel again to visit our family in Pakistan. What gives me hope? The active coalitions I see being developed amongst communities of color and others concerned with equity in the American democracy. I pledge to keep learning.