Change Is Inevitable - We Must Make Sure It's Good Change

 The Trump supporters want to change this country. They dream of returning to a time when white men ruled the country, and everyone else was a second-class citizen (who didn't have the same rights as white men did).

They think after making that sick change, they can freeze time and not allow any more change. That is an impossible dream.

If there's one thing I have learned in my long life, it's that change is inevitable. It's going to happen, and cannot be stopped. The best we can do is to make sure the change is a good one -- one that benefits all the citizens of our country.

The following is part of an op-ed by Dan Rather at steady.substack.com:

Very little about what life was like when I was growing up remains intact. It is easy to focus on technology. I do video calls on my telephone with distant friends, even as I remember party lines when I was a child. (For those unfamiliar with the term, look it up. It wasn’t a party.) But the social changes are even more profound. 

I have witnessed broad recognition of systemic biases, injustices, and cruelties. But a lot of the necessary progress we need to make on race, LGBTQ rights, the environment, as well as many other issues, remains maddeningly elusive. For many in this country this lack of progress harms and even kills. We take steps forward and backward. . . .

We have just lived through an administration that sloganeered about going backwards to when America was “great.” Time travel is of course impossible. But the era they seek to return to was not one of unadulterated greatness. It was one of systemic injustices and white supremacy. 

We still live with the echoes of that era, of our past. The currents that haven’t changed in our country undermine our democracy. But we must all approach the present with humility. 

Things can change. They will change. It can be for the better. And for the worse. But what I have also learned is that change need not be a passive exercise. From climate change to changing and expanding the rights and democratic values of our nation, we can all play a role. Rather than frighten us, change can be a powerful inspiration for hope. 

There is so much about our nation in need of change that it can be overwhelming. But another lesson I have learned is that even small acts of change can add up. . . .

So perhaps we can all pledge today to endeavor this week to do something that we believe will change our neighborhood, our community, our city or town, and thus our nation and our larger world, for the better. Change need not be destructive. It can be just what we need to put us on a more peaceful, inclusive, and productive path into the future.