I feel a calm resignation.
Like that conversation where they tell you the cancer is back.
You have two choices. Give up or go on. I choose to go on and be the best human being I can be for myself and others around me.
Join me. Breathe in. Breathe out.
What I felt back in November of 2016 is as true now as it was then.
We are going to be stress tested for sure. Nationally, and globally. I remember a session we had at ORDCamp of current and former federal workers one year post Trump, and the anger, frustration, and dismay was palpable in the room. We are clearly in a global danger zone similar to what the world went through in the 1930s. This makes our work as neighbors, friends, citizens, and family all the more important. Someone said in that session that we need to remain happy warriors.
The lesson I took from that is that we have agency again, to try something new and lead through this impending period of chaos. There will be harm. I’m worried about the future of my career and the people in my laboratory given the likely negative influence upon the NIH and Health and Human Services. The GOP has slated for elimination the NIH institute that has funded most of our work in vision and blinding disorders, the National Eye Institute, and this terrifies me as a proximal threat. However, others are going to be at much greater risk. I’m thinking of Ukraine. I’m thinking of undocumented immigrants. I’m thinking of women of childbearing age. I’m thinking of all those on the margins who are going to have a tougher time of it than I over the next little while.
Our collective attention and efforts have just become more important.