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Nostalgia

I don't have particularly good memories of my childhood; I'm a strange person with little interest in the things most people care about and fervent geekdom about obscure topics.  It took me longer than most I think to find a place where I felt that I fit in.

Once I did I then had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. I schooled at a research university and knew that research was not my passion so much as understanding and explaining things. Eventually I landed at my current job and have felt very supported with it.

This is to say that I am happier on a day-by-day basis now than in my youth and that nostalgia has never really had a hold on me.

Things in the world are bad now; a sadist is president and our country's support for people in need dwindles further each day. But I know as a white male that things have been bad for women and people of color for quite some time. It is hard to think of a golden age when all of God's children were treated with their due respect.  Looking back isn't how we make things better.

I was a child of the 60's and the civil rights movement affected me deeply in my formative years. When weary of all the injustice of a president issuing Executive Orders as if he were king and folk taking them seriously, I draw upon my histories of those who fought and fight to make citizenship of equal value to all. They did not look back to a golden age; there really was none. They always looked forward to what might be. The words of Bernard Lafayette are always on my mind; every setback was an opportunity.

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