We still have power

That was the last thing I wrote in my 2023 journal (which I kept going until my birthday before starting a new one). There was some severe weather was expected. 

The power lines on our section of the grid are underground, which really helps protect them from fallen trees and things. I remember one time the power being out all of the nine miles between Jones Farm and 170th. Crossing that last street, everything was light and bright. 

Because of that, I was not worried about this particular storm, until a friend of Julie's insisted that we needed to be worried. This storm was going to be really bad.

Of course, he was on a different section of the grid.

It was, in fact, a really bad storm. We know people who had to go to hotels because of the loss of heat, or because a tree took out their roof (and car). 

Driving around a few days later, we were amazed at all of the downed trees and damage. A lot of it is still there. What fell across roads and onto houses was cleaned up, but if it just went down an embankment or across a ditch and snagged with other trees and branches, it's still there.

For that night -- without knowing what would happen, just where we were so far -- that phrase has stuck with me.

We still have power.

In writing about protest, one thing I have written about is the difficulty of exerting power, especially with increased concentration of wealth. I remember years ago trying to figure out how one could possibly exert any economic pressure on the Koch brothers. I did not come up with much.

We still have power.

To exercise it, we need to understand it.

The continued flow of electricity to my neighborhood was made possible by protective action, not by a show of force.

You can try building stronger and stronger power lines, but there are limits to how practical that gets. 

You can try cutting down all the trees surrounding them, but you lose the environmental and cooling and aesthetic benefits.

A show of brute force is only going to make the world uglier.

If we are going to do anything good, we are going to do it by taking care of each other. We will do it by caring about each other.

We will protect the most vulnerable against the most powerful.

We will care more about doing right than being right.

We will care more about being kind than being vindicated.

I'm not saying it's easy, but I am sure it's the only way.

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