do n't know if I have anything left in me to say about...¶

I don't know if I have anything left in me to say about COVID. What else could I possibly say at this stage that would change anything in the minds of anyone reading? What new data could I show? What new ways could I implore? We've all said it so many times already. We can't just drop it. It's still a crisis. Its impact is still expanding, creeping into every sector of social life. This debilitating, persistent, pervasive affliction is still hard at work, undermining everything else we could to build, as we work toward a better world. But what else is there to say? What use is a writer out of words? Should I convey rage? Scorn? Despair? Apocalyptic visions?

Maybe hope?

Because despite it all, I still have hope. Putting it into words, it almost rings insincere, but I do have hope in the real movement. If you can't sense that cracks are forming, that the present state of things is in turmoil, that a movement to abolish the old world is rising to meet it, then there are no words available to me to change that. But if you can sense that, then I can at least make one thing clear: The health of our people is paramount in all of this. This isn't just a question of "justice" or "equity" from some moral basis. This is the center of our movement's entire reason for existence. We are here to build a world of life, health, and freedom from all exploitation. Whether it is protection from infectious disease and environmental contaminants, the full social inclusion for all, no matter their ability, the end of colonialism and the enclosure of means of survival, or the restoration of the biosphere of which we are an inextricable part. Health is not just part of our mission: it IS our mission. The fundamental nature of the struggle for liberation is the struggle for wholeness of body and mind. We can only achieve this by destroying the social structure which profits by our diminishment. If you can't see the convergence of COVID with decolonization, with anti-imperialism, with national liberation, with queer liberation, with climate change, with the abolition of capitalism... If you can't see how all of these are one struggle, I could never hope to convince you.