Sunday thought: Five Years, Today

Friends,

Five years ago today we began this journey.

In my first letter to you, I summarized what we had been through until then — “a traumatic few years — Donald Trump, the pandemic, a racial reckoning, an anti-democracy insurrection, environmental devastation.”

And I warned: “The tempest isn’t over. If anything, the forces of authoritarianism, inequality, corruption, climate change, and injustice seem to be intensifying.”

The tempest has been far worse than I ever thought possible.

I embarked on this daily letter to you five years ago because, as I wrote, “I’ve grown ever more convinced that the only way our society can improve and our democracy can function is if people know the truth, and understand how the system functions and what actions they can take to improve it.”

And I wanted to help build “a community of learners, activists, reformers, and organizers” who would change the system for the better.

***

And now here we are, five long years later.

I’m grateful to you for reading this Substack — even on days when I’ve bombarded you with several posts, even when you’d rather not read another word about politics or economics, or about the megalomaniac in the Oval Office.

Thank you for sharing it with friends and family and others. I appreciate your jumping into the comments. And enormous gratitude to those of you who have been able to support this effort.

But mostly I’m thankful to you for helping make this little corner of an infinitely vast and often dark and sinister world into the community of learners, activists, reformers, and organizers I had hoped for five years ago. A community of people determined to change the system for the better.

You have validated my purpose five years ago.

In return, I’ve tried to give you facts and analyses to fortify your understanding of what has been happening, and reassurance to strengthen your resolve.

Even though the forces of authoritarianism, inequality, corruption, climate change, and injustice have worsened, we have become stronger through our activism and solidarity.

Earlier this year, one of my former students, Phillip Cryan, wrote from Minneapolis:

The horror, grief and fear we are all experiencing every day, watching our neighbors get hauled away by reckless, cruel, masked paramilitaries; trying to protect one another; and knowing that what they did to Renee Nicole Good could happen to any of us, is generating this: unexpected, heartfelt new connections of not just solidarity but real love. At a massive, simply-incomprehensible scale. Good people coming together in all our fear and vulnerability and care and kindness and bravery, discovering the transformative power of our love for one another.

You, too, have come together with care and kindness and bravery. You, too, have discovered the transformative power of love and caring for one another.

I wasn’t sure five years ago, but I am now: We will get through this. And we’ll be stronger for having resisted and fought it.

Five years from now I hope we will still be gathering here. And by then I hope we’ll be rebuilding and reforming what has been so wantonly destroyed, and creating a new future for this country.

I hope we’ll be celebrating an American democracy that has made it through these dark and dangerous times and emerged sturdier, fairer, and more hopeful about the future.

In the meantime, I hope you and your loved ones stay healthy, and continue your kindness and bravery.

I am grateful for these five years, for this community, and for all of you who have made it possible.

Breathe deep. We can and will keep going.

Together.

Thanks again for everything.

Robert Reich

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Thanks also to Heather Lofthouse, Michael Lahanas-Calderón, and Alessandra Bosco for helping me see this through.