Dear Reader, this post is somewhat of a follow-up on my last post, America and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad 2020. But in this post I’ll address an issue more in line with what I normally babble about. HEY! C’mon! Wake up! I see you nodding off!
With regard to current events in the United States, I remain deeply, deeply sad. As sad as I’ve ever been during my lifetime. To be clear, I’m 100% in favor of: (1) the peaceful protests currently taking place (and I appreciate the anger that has spurred some otherwise well-meaning people to violence, even if I don’t condone that violence), (2) governments’ robust responses to COVID-19, and (3) what I hope is the majority of my fellow citizens’ indignation regarding deep and systemic failures starkly exposed over the last several months. And I and the rest of The Family are doing our parts to bring about positive solutions.
But none of this makes current events any less painful. I expect to be sad for a good long while more. That makes me even sadder.
Hope and glory
But I’m also hopeful.
Wait, what?!
I have hope that the current crises will result in positive changes. Why? Because nothing concentrates the mind like a gun to the head. And good golly, Miss Molly (RIP, Little Richard), do we currently all have metaphorical (at least) guns pointed at our heads or what?! Mother Nature’s brandishing one. The other’s wielded by the fast-broadening group of concerned people, and business and government interests and leaders, demanding reasonable and shamefully long-overdue changes.
I know, I know, the nation’s attention has been trained on these issues before. Many times. For decades. Centuries in some cases. I’m generally a hard-core pessimist and cynic. And I’m not naive. But it’s been a long while not only since these current problems have been so clearly exposed, but since their breadth and depth has been so clearly exposed. And in many cases, I think, appreciated by both the suffering and the nonsuffering.
So yes, we’re in the throes of a painful time. But it’s such an opportunity.
And I think we are seeing the green shoots of positive changes that in some cases otherwise were all but impossible now but for the respective “guns” to the head.
For example, earlier this week, Iowa’s racist Representative Steve King lost in his district’s primary election. And Ella Jones was elected the first black mayor in the history of Ferguson, Missouri, which only six years ago was the site of protests that captured the nation’s attention (sadly, it turned out, only briefly). Also, cities and public entities across the country are seriously reevaluating or addressing long-neglected and/or perceived-to-be intractable police-related issues. And companies around the world seem to be closing in on COVID-19 vaccines. What’s more, recent COVID-19-related legislation has been impressive not just for the eye-popping numbers of dollars involved, but for the scope of people to whom they’ve been deployed and/or extended to help.
Small changes in some cases. But positive changes.
And although I’ve been almost entirely and consistently cynical about progress on race-related and social-safety-net-related issues for most of my life — even as some of those past “this-time-is-different” moments unfolded — this time really does feel different to me. I won’t be surprised if I’m ultimately disappointed. And even if changes continue apace, I don’t expect them to be anywhere near sufficient anytime soon. But I’m as hopeful as I’ve ever been that significant progress is coming.
You do the hokey-pokey and you . . .
Hey! What about the personal finance stuff you promised, Mr. Blogger?! Oh yeah! Right, right!
So here’s the thing: positively turning one’s personal finances around for the better sometimes also only happens after a metaphorical gun is pointed at one’s head. Maybe the “gun” is the effect of a job loss or the failure of one’s business. Maybe it’s the realization that one’s debt is unsustainable. Maybe it’s getting cut off from mommy and daddy’s trust fund. Or maybe it’s reading an inspiring blog post on FI for the People. I can relate to “guns” one and two. “Gun” three, I’ll have to strain to allow myself to extend some sympathy. And “gun” four? That’s just crazy talk.
It’s unfortunate that these sorts of gun-to-the-head events have to happen. But they’re sometimes a necessary precedent to identifying and implementing corrective measures. And those changes are no less positive — if not truly and positively transforming — for the painful event(s) that brought them about.
I don’t know how much longer this painful period will last, Dear Reader. But if my hopeful predictions pan out, a change gonna come, oh yes it will.
