As our country marks its 241st birthday, this year of all years is especially ripe for reflection. Where we’ve been heading and where we are right now - politically and socially - is disturbing to say the least, but we can still change course. If nothing else, as Americans we can be proud of our track record of change and progress. It may be made with two steps forward and one step back, but eventually we get there. 

Just because it feels like everyone knows how utterly awful this dressed-up bill of tax cuts for the wealthy is, doesn’t mean it won’t become law. The pure fact that it is a reconciliation bill was a strategic way to get this through the Senate with only 50 Republican votes. 

The recent horrific events on a train in Portland, Oregon have left us all unnerved. And while there is kindness and love in this story, there is also the reminder that this is not an isolated incident. Across the country, hate groups have been rising and growing in their ranks for the last decade, and having Trump in the White House has only emboldened them.

In case you missed it, on June 8th, the House of Representatives voted almost entirely along party lines to rollback most of the financial regulations put into place by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. In typical Republican dog whistle code, they had the audacity to call the legislation the “Financial CHOICE Act” and make claims that it was, at heart, a “jobs bill.” You have to wonder sometimes how much of their own bullshit they believe. 

We live in polarized world where hard-lined political ideologies make it difficult for us to talk, let alone hear each other. So, when faced with the existential crisis of climate change, how can we make any progress? Turns out there is hope.

There was some good news for voting rights in North Carolina this week, thanks to the Supreme Court. But the existential crisis still continues.

Remember that time before the election when politicians on both sides of the aisle were finally talking about - and actually agreeing on - criminal justice reform legislation? It may feel like a distant memory, but it really wasn’t that long ago and it’s still in the works. 

They haven't repealed Obamacare. Not yet, anyway. And that horrifying bill that pandered to the extreme tea partiers is receiving a cold shoulder in the Senate. Now, behind closed doors, 13 old white men in the Senate are working on their own version of a health care bill. We can’t imagine that’ll be much better.

It’s easy to criticize a budget or tax plan entrenched in corruption, cronyism and pandering to corporations and political donors. The op-eds and think pieces practically write themselves. But unless we offer a strikingly better alternative that lifts up all people and proves a peaceful and prosperous world is truly possible, all the criticism in the world will be for naught. 

For those of you not living the day to day oppression of black people in America, it’s possible you didn’t notice right away that The Movement for Black Lives has almost entirely dropped from the mainstream media headlines since November.