KNEEL.

My routine is nearly the same each morning.

Wake up.

Shower.

Attempt to make myself look like a semi-respectable adult.

Breakfast.

Out the door and to the office.

And then I read the news. I read NPR, because I feel like it is the least sensationalized news platform available. And, NPR does not just focus on the bells of doom tolling in the deep. Their website is a mixture of headlines, cultural pieces, environmental coverage and tech. Even so, each morning I am left blown away and disheartened by the state of our world.

I recently finished watching the first season of Westworld. In it, the main character, a robot named Dolores, says, “Some people choose to see the ugliness in this world, the disarray. I choose to see the beauty. To believe there is an order to our days. A purpose.”

She is innocent and a bit naive. She is the girl next door, full of hope. I used to be like her.

But I wrote in this blog on November 10^th, the day after the presidential election, that I felt like I had awoken to a world changed. Overnight, there had been a referendum on liberalism. And in one fell swoop, white men and their well-behaved wives had turned back the clock on social progress because they were angry.

On November 10^th, I woke up and realized the world I thought I lived in didn’t exist.

And every morning I read the news and I am reminded of that. Donald Trump publicly refers to African American football players as “sons of bitches” and for whatever reason, that is ok. He calls out to silence people’s right to peacefully protest, and that is ok. He does not denounce white supremacism and that is ok.

A man who openly, and consistently, insults and degrades women publicly on Twitter, on telephone calls, and at campaign rallies is the President of the United States – the supposed beacon of freedom in the world – and that is ok.

Every morning I read the news and I almost cry. This morning, as I scrolled through pictures of NFL players kneeling in protest, I did.

In a world that seems so big, plagued by nuclear threats, with plastics inundating the ocean and unprecedented storms ravaging our shores, crumbling education infrastructure and a healthcare system that doesn’t work and takes a master’s degree to be able to navigate, what can we do? What can any one of us do?

Kneel.

Kneel even when it is hard.

Keep fucking kneeling.

Keep speaking out.

Keep standing up for what is right.

Keep voicing your discontent.

Keep helping your neighbor, keep helping strangers.

Speak out for others who might not have the ability.

Kneel.