Like the rest of the country, we watched the results of this year’s election roll in last night in a state of confusion and disbelief. We have refrained from engaging too deeply with politics at FLOOD—not because we don’t think they matter, but because we believe that they matter in a profound way, and that the last thing the world needs is another entertainment website banging the drum for a progressive political platform.
Today, people across the United States are worried about their futures: those who have relied on the Affordable Care Act to provide for their healthcare; Muslims who have spent the past eight years knowing that, if nothing else, the commander-in-chief was dedicated to protecting their lives; women who have endured sexual assaults and a culture of toxic masculinity that teaches young men that they are entitled to female bodies; African-Americans who have spent years trying to justify their existence to an apathetic (and at times hostile) public; refugees from countries run by brutal regimes who believed the Statue of Liberty’s promise to take in the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses.
Good music, profound film, a well-made meal: there will be time for all of this, and, to be sure, many of us will rely on the strength that art can provide as we face down whatever happens next. But for today, we are choosing to mourn with those who mourn. And tomorrow, we will begin to face the future.
