This is a re-post of sorts. I first wrote and shared this on January 20, 2021, after the inauguration of President Biden & Vice President Harris. I shared it with friends only at that time, but two years on, I feel this is important to share again.
At the time, I compared our nation to an open wound; true healing cannot happen until we clean the last of the debris and contamination from it. Trying to close a wound without this painful process will only lead to festering. In order for this wound to truly heal, we need the debridement to go deep, allowing oxygen and light into spaces long closed away in darkness. Debridement isn’t comfortable and we, as a nation, need to sit with this in order to create a better way forward for all of us.
My first year of teaching was more chaotic than most. At the end of April, Jackie, one of our guidance counselors, said to me, “You only have 30 more days. You can do anything for 30 days.”
She was right. I have used that line on many people (and myself) since then. It has become my mantra for ‘you can do hard things’ before that was a thing we said openly to each other and ourselves.
We have now gotten through 4 years of a very chaotic time in our country. There is now a new level of ‘you can do hard things’.
We have just survived 4 years of a Trump presidency, which culminated in an insurrection on our capital and the National Guard of all 50 states being activated to protect our democracy.
We have many hard things ahead of us. This last four years has revealed just how much unrest and hate we have among our citizens. It will be a hard thing to move forward and work through that and heal.
We have the continuing work of equal rights for all of our citizens, regardless of ability, gender, sexuality, nationality, identity, or culture. It will be hard to continue campaigning for these rights while hoping to educate those who enjoy privilege that equal rights for all truly do not mean less rights for you.
We have systems that are biased, prejudiced, and racist that need to be confronted, dismantled and rebuilt on a foundation of fairness, not oppression. This will be hard work.
We have a pandemic that is still raging, taking the lives of our citizens, taxing our health care workers beyond their capabilities. Getting this under control will take hard work from all of us.
But we can do hard things. Look at the last four years. Look at the progress we made in some ways, in spite of the rhetoric we faced from our leaders.
We can do hard things. And we must.
I cried that day as VP Harris took her oath of office, much like I had cried watching former Secretary of State Clinton accept her nomination from the DNC 5 years earlier. While I am not an unequivocal supporter of either of these women’s policies, I cannot understate how powerful it was watching someone I could identify with – another woman – accept such a powerful mantle. Representation matters.
Donita Westman 
Yes, we can and must!
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