LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

Let me be the first to say that when I went to bed on election night 2024, I was done. Every demographic in the United States shifted towards 47, after his campaign promised violence, chaos, and bigotry. Even communities most at-risk for the deportations he so smugly promised. 

“Let these people get what they voted for,” I thought. Minus the expletive. This is what the country wanted. Who was I to deny them their all-time favorite abuser?

I tuned out of politics and current events altogether. “But that’s what he wants!” my friends told me. Well, whatever, I thought. If the last decade has taught us anything, it’s that this guy gets what he wants – and he has to put in a ten-thousand-thousandth of the effort the rest of us do to get it. John Stewart said it best: has there ever in the history of the planet been a person with a lower bar to clear?

What could I ever do to combat the agenda of the President of the United States when the Supreme Court can’t get him to follow the law? Why should I be the one to fix this? I was tired. Frazzled. I had nothing left.

And then I took a damn walk.

I saw a little girl walking down the street with her mom. A little Latina girl. And I broke. I thought about the hell that she finds herself in, living a version of this far scarier and more dangerous than I do. And I realized fighting this isn’t about ego or party or sides. It’s about her. About that little girl and all the people like her who never asked for this but are getting it anyway.

It’s so easy to get carried away in the grand terror of it all and just check out. But we can’t. Remember your neighbors, family, and friends. The people in front of us. They deserve so much better than all of this.

Until they’re safe – until we win – this isn’t over.