I groan whenever someone, especially someone under 30, moans about the sad state of affairs in this country and how they will just give up if things don’t happen fast.

Two Words.

LONG GAME.

Not even instant coffee is instant. It takes time to boil the water.

If the prize is worth it, the fight lasts as long as it takes.

The GLBT Community in Massachusetts may have pretty much the same rights as non-GLBT people, but it hasn’t been that long that it is so, and the fight to get us here was a long, incremental process that actually began in the early 1950s with the Mattachine Society that was replaced by a more militant approach after Stonewall, and considering we just celebrated the 50^th anniversary of that rebellion this past June, simple math shows that made for a 70 year fight.

And even then, Transgender people here had a longer fight.

You might have been born when the goals had been reached, but it wasn’t that long before you were born that conditions were not, as some assume, as they are.  

The Civil War was supposed to end slavery and give full citizenship to the former slaves and their descendants. It took another hundred years to make most of that actually happen, but it is not fully realized.

Women got the vote in 1920 after a long struggle and decades after Abigail Adams had advised John Adams not to forget the women, but the Equal Rights Amendment has yet to be ratified, and that battle goes back to the 1970s.  

These battles have been multi-generational with most of the warriors never seeing the victories they sought.

Factor Leading to ED: The factor that brings people to the online pharmacies and free sildenafil samples and you might sit deploring not knowing whom at fault. Sometimes, non-maintenance of hygiene level more info here order viagra from canada around genital part can invite erectile dysfunctions. On an end note, although the condition is not fatal in any way, individuals suffering from ED issues can easily overcome this problem by taking djpaulkom.tv viagra sale. The proper advice should be followed in regarding to the consumption djpaulkom.tv cialis without prescriptions mastercard factor.

The majority of those who benefited never had to fight, and, sadly, have no idea what it took and, unfortunately, assume things will always remain, or, forgetting it was never easy in the first place, give up at the first obstacle if they have to fight to regain what they should have never lost.

If a preferred candidate does not get a nomination, as has happened, that’s it for the election. If a proposal is not given a go-ahead, or a rejection letter arrives in the mail, progress  ends and a career dies.

When the March for Our Lives did not produced an immediate change in gun laws, for some that was it.

We have an election coming up, and there is a 50/50 chance it can go either way for any number of reasons. If it goes one way there will be a need for fighting to preserve and defend followed by work at restoration and rehabilitation in four years; another way and it will mean a few years of planning and working toward a better world after.

Either way, it means work, and much of it.

We either throw in the towel and meekly accept, or pull up our big boy pants and get to work.

Previously a school department suggestion I had assumed would be accomplished in short order as it was a no brainer, took 12 years to be realized after many opportunities and excuses to just walk away.

I have been involved for the last three years in a major project to right a wrong. Those of us who were doing the work, the research, and informing the public had the gnawing feeling we were those voices crying in the wilderness until recently when another group took an action that not only showed they had been paying attention, but they had based future actions on what we had done.

I know people fighting the never-ending battle for social justice who have been doing it for decades, celebrating their successes or regrouping when necessary. Their progress has been slow, but steady. They know they will never see the final results, but they still work for them for the sake of those who will benefit.

Simple advice.

Don’t throw in the towel. Fold it, put it away, and get back to it after a break from it.

Regroup, keep fighting.