One year into California issuing the first stay-at-home order, we find ourselves on the slow but hopeful climb out of the severity of the pandemic, which has killed more than half a million Americans and wreaked havoc on the lives of countless more. While we spent much of the first year watching the federal government fail to meet the basic needs of the people they serve and witnessing incredible division and disregard for human life from the political right, we also saw communities come together creatively, voices rise from the rubble, and collaboration redefined. And in these last months we have seen rapid political shifts on issues that have long stood still.
COVID-19 has offered a window into what is possible. One where community connection and deep unwavering commitment to the survival and success of someone outside yourself can be realized for the many, not just the few. One where governments at every level say yes to the people they serve and start to prioritize people-first funding, recognizing that we don’t thrive until everyone thrives. This year we have seen devastating failures and a deepening divide. And still, there have been moments of hope, moments of recognizing ourselves in another—moments that help us remember that we can do more collectively than conventional wisdom would have us believe.
We still have a long road of rebuilding, reimagining, and reconciliation ahead, and right now is the time to ensure that the lessons from the pandemic become a part of our societal fabric, a part of our communal story, and a part of every policy and practice moving forward.
Yes, this looks like investing in affordable housing, strengthening the fair housing act, expanding Social Security, transforming public safety and the broken criminal justice system, increasing access to mental health services, passing the BREATHE Act, raising minimum wage, restoring the Voting Rights Act, adopting universal child care and equal pay for equal work, bringing to fruition the For The People Act, ensuring climate justice through the Green New Deal, reforming our immigration system, and enacting Medicare for all to provide everyone in America with comprehensive health care. And so much more.
People-focused policies are critically important to our resilience as a society. And it is the deeper and more complex work of confronting our disconnection, building relationships, and embracing nuance that is essential to our liberation and collective progress as a people.
White supremacy has taught us to stay separate, to stay above and outside of and disconnected from one another. It reinforces fear and doubt and dehumanization of the “other.” White supremacy has taught us to see only two sides of every debate, pitting people against one another with a deep belief that we already know everything there is to know, so we stop listening rather than acknowledging our uninterrogated biases and entering into the nuanced space that is so uncomfortable for America.
While policy has the power to radically redistribute wealth, and defend equity and justice, it is the ingrained and self-obsessed supremacy we uphold that ultimately holds us back from adopting meaningful policies and creating communities oriented toward progress and belonging.
The hard and necessary work of true progress requires confronting our deep roots of supremacy by pushing against its many pressures and having the courage to see another person as a person. Seeing each other as human beings allows us to recognize the polarizing systems and structures that have made it almost impossible to truly make space for humanity. If we can take the time to make the space in our communities, we will allow for a different perspective, questioning what we are missing and who is missing at the table, and creating room to be surprised by discovering something new and unexpected about one another. By pushing against false dichotomies and stepping away from either one side or a directly opposing side and stepping into the gray area, we can embrace the necessary both/and thinking required for long-term change.
This moment invites us to leave behind the antiquated ways of perfectionism and performance and welcome the nuance. Communities and individuals rebuild and reconcile by befriending uncertainty through both embracing radical accountability and humanizing the other. If we can meet this invitation, it will create space for and demand justice, empathy, respect, and listening like our lives depend on it, which in turn has the power to liberate everyone. I believe this happens around tables, in line at coffee shops, and in classrooms and parks just as much as in boardrooms and government buildings.
The lessons from COVID-19 show us that meaningful progress will take adopting Medicare for all, but also the work of staying in the nuance, and leaning into one another to move our communities forward. Whether the lessons learned through this pandemic become just a moment in history or provide a springboard for long-term change is largely up to us. Δ
Quinn Brady is a community advocate and organizer and mother of three on the Central Coast. Send a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Mar 18-28, 2021.
You are unlikely to sell your grand plan promising loads of “free stuff” to the people who actually work and produce, and will be forced to pay for your pipe dream. They are likely to wonder “gee, if I stop working and let the government support me, and all the friends and family do the same, WHO will be left to support us? There aren’t enough rich people to support us all, plus they’re likely to flee. Where will the money come from?”
The Republicans focus on producing. The Democrats focus on dividing up and allocating what others produce.
John, with the typical Fox News bullshit answer. No. No. Socialism doesn’t work. LALALALALA (fingers in ears)
The assumption that everyone will quit working and sit around and be nearly broke on the dole is simply incorrect. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/04/973653719/c…
Republicans don’t focus on producing. Want proof? They fixed the tax code, so that if I earn money by sitting around and collected dividends the tax rate is LESS, than if I earn it by hammering nails, or nursing the sick, or driving a truck.
People who can work are the only ones who produce anything. Except those people who are in medical debt so deep they can’t even get a job because their credit is fucked. Except homeless people who can’t afford to travel to the place with the job, so they can’t get the job. Except the black guy who’s in jail for the crime of punching a police officer who punched him first.
I am so sick of the “conservative” idea that the USA is perfect and can’t be improved.
“There aren’t enough rich people to support us all”
True, but if we return the top tax bracket back to at least 70% we can do many of the things this nation used to do, like win an entire world war, pay for millions of GI’s to go to college, build an interstate highway system, send a man to the moon and drop the wealth gap to its lowest point ever in 1980—at that time the ratio stood at 9-1, now it has grown to over 12-1, a 39% increase, meaning that the wealthy now have over 12 times the amount of income as those at the bottom compared to only nine times the amount before we elected Reagan.
Shouldn’t that 9-1 number have dropped? I mean, we’ve been promised by supply-side economists and politicians for years that dropping tax rates would mean more prosperity for all. Guess what, they were wrong, yet were still able to pull the wool over our eyes and do it not once, not twice, but three times with huge tax breaks for the wealthy in the 80’s, 00’s and 10’s. The last cut, under Trump was the “most undkindest cut of all” with the wide swath of tax benefits going to the already wealthy 1% and corporations, like Apple and Amazon, that have never been richer. Meanwhile, the middle class has seen their taxes go up in the most subtle ways, such as taxing unemployment and social security (went into effect under Reagan) or taxing tips for restaurant workers (another gem passed under Ronnie).
Wow….so much Libby jiberish that it would take so long to respond…that goofy quinn brady used so many words…I forced my self to read it all … he’s obviously has never WORKED for a living….no perfection???….no ambition????…what a lion….do you really think rich people will allow themselves to taxed to death????..has anyone ever worked for a poor person???…rich people make this economy charge.. creating jobs for everyone else…you libbies are morans,.thank you
What absolute BULLSHIT!!! If you can read crap like this article and actually believe in this, please collectively leave your wallet at the bus stop and call me. I will gladly invest it for you in your fellow humans down in the riverbed and don’t worry, I’m sure your return will be HUGE (like the LIE Quinn is trying to make look like compassion.) Quinn, the hippie bullshit you shovel and say “we” need to adopt in society is why we need to rid ourselves of liberal philosophy in our country and leave it in the smoke shops and massage parlors where it belongs. Community advocate?? Of what? Crap? Why don’t you advocate for personal responsibility or moral behavior in the traditional sense, maybe marriage between a man and a woman (not between a convicted felon, a goat and bag of cheetos.) Yeah we should TOLERATE that right? Inclusion in what? A fractured society of immoral, liberal followers afraid to say that much of what they are told is bullshit and WRONG. No thanks Quinn. And expect to never achieve the liberal Shangri-La you seek as long as almost half the country or maybe MORE than half agree with someone like ME. PEACE OUT…
@Silence Dogood: I’ll have you know that my Cheetos and I have had many years of nuptial bliss, and I have the orange fingers to prove it.
My response to SLO Tribune article yesterday about woke dangerous middle-aged sociopaths who victimize minorities – Quinn Brady’s meets with liberal environmental terrorists who stalk and assault everyone who disagrees with their political agenda. Cynthia Replogle is a liberal Democrat friend of Quinn Brady. Quinn Brady uses her soft voice, empty and often confusing rhetorical commentary about creating a fantasy gratitude utopia bubble for everyone, to brainwash others in our community.
HOW DO I FEEL ABOUT ESTRANGED OCSD BOARD DIRECTOR CYNTHIA REPLOGLE CRASHING A PEACEFUL CULTURAL INFORMATIONAL RALLY AND FOMENTING VIOLENCE?
NATIVE AMERICANS AND OTHER MINORITY GROUPS BELIEVED THEIR VOICES AND CULTURAL CONCERNS WERE BEING IGNORED AND CENSORED BY THE GOVERNMENT, LOCAL MEDIA, AND OCEANO BEACH COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION OF LOONS. THEY FELT THEY WERE BEING EXCLUDED. SO OCEANO DUNES RESIDENTS HELD A PEACEFUL INFORMATIONAL RALLY TO SHARE THEIR MUTUAL CULTURAL CONCERNS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF OCEANO DUNES. WELL, LOCALLY THE LIBERAL MEDIA DECIDED TO PRINT DIVISIVE STORIES (SLO TRIBUNE ET EL) TO INSPIRE LUNATICS LIKE ESTRANGED OCSD BOARD DIRECTOR CYNTHIA REPLOGLE AND HER MILITANT POLITICAL STALKERS TO BRANDISH MILITARY GRADE TASER WEAPONS AND INTIMIDATED MINORITY VOTERS WITH TEAR GAS GRENADES AT A PEACEFUL CULTURAL RALLY. I FEEL SLO TRIBUNE CREATED A MONSTER GOLEM WHICH FOMENTS HATE AND VIOLENCE AGAINST MINORITY VOTERS. HOW DO I FEEL ABOUT APPOINTED ESTRANGED OCSD DIRECTOR ALLENE VILLA, A GROWN WOMAN ROLLING AROUND SCREAMING ON THE GROUND, IMITATING A STUCK PIG, AND HOLDING UP A SIGN THAT SAYS DON’T RUN OVER MY CHILDREN? I THINK SHE IS A SOCIOPATH WHO USES HER RACE TO VICTIMIZE HERSELF FOR ATTENTION. I WOULD NEVER INVITE EITHER OF THESE SHAPE SHIFTING LIZARDS IN MY HOME.
Another one of Quinn Brady’s wokey white delusional girlfriends who I had to reorientate yesterday @ SLO Tribune-
Heather Mullin apparently Googled the word “scientist” and saw my photo. “Development Manager at SLO Land Conservancy” is not the same profession as an Environmental Scientist. Not even close, not in the same wheelhouse. Scientists do not Google static research answers to understand complex dynamic environmental conditions. “A Healthcare Aid” is not an environmental scientist- Appointed OCSD Board Director Allene Villa, “Jr. Mechanical Engineer/Unemployed Attorney” (allegedly collecting alimony) – Cynthia Replogle, is not a recognized Environmental Scientist. None of the members on the Air Quality Board are an environmental scientist, except one seasoned licensed environmental engineer, Jim Anderson, from Phillips 66 Refinery who was recently appointed by a Republican, Supervisor Lynn Compton. This man is a reputable environmental engineer. I know this because I am RECOGNIZED AND CREDIBLE world renowned scientist and inventor in multiple scientific disciplines including Environmental Science. I’ve actually invented, designed, tested and fielded environmental testing equipment. The US Government awarded me millions of dollars as a consultant to invent highly classified defense related hardware. This translates to program management of international government programs, published in multiple credible government agency libraries (DARPA, NATO, CIA, Library of Congress, Trade Journals etc.) recognized by credible international science and scientific trade organizations, referenced in multiple trade journals, body of scientific accomplishments and studies referenced and translated into multiple languages – all which which can be easily verified and vetted. Jimmy Paulding is not an Environmental Engineer nor a Scientist. Mayor Heidi Harmon is not an Environmental Scientist. So drop the sad face “Heather.” Successful Brown People don’t care what delusional White GIRLS think. Grow up, get a clue Heather, your participation ribbons mean very little in the valid scientific community outside of SLO roll County. Sorry to pop your vapid vanilla bubble, “Heather.”🧐
The Rhodesian
Quinn Brady is Mayor Heidi Mighty Harmon’s BLAVATSKY UBER DRIVER WITH A MOMMY DEAREST SIDE HUSTLE. QUINN MOSTLY PLAYS THE BACKGROUND YOGINI FIDDLE TO SUPPORT MIGHTY HEIDI’S FLYING YOGA MAT CIRCUS PERFORMANCE.
STARGATE PROGRAM 2003 SOUTH WEST ASIA REGION – “ALWAYS FORWARD” – Thunderbirds
Professional Frauds, Gypsies, with a side of South American & Druid Witchcraft.
Go back to the Shire.
Speak for yourselves, white people. You’ve spoken for yourselves, and I soundly reject to burden myself anymore with your inherent cultural illusions and fears.
You didn’t understand that when you received your DOCTORATE DEGREE, YOU REACHED MAXIMUM INDOCTRINATION BY A FORCE OUTSIDE OF YOUR PURVIS MAXIMUS. – THE RHODESIAN
All of a sudden Mr Donegan is in his best element. Good for you John Donegan, teach these lazy corrupt Millennials a thing or two about financial consequences of their vapid lifestyles. Thank you, The Rhodesian
Hmmm, seems the men on this thread are terrified of women. Stop crying, its embarrassing. It is ridiculous in this day and age that you guys cant understand how to make the world a better place. Start by not being a misogynist. (Big word, I know, look it up.) I think its time for a womens march. Yall are getting too uppity. So much misogyny and fear in one thread…