Here’s Why You’re Not Actually Moving to Canada

Why are you indulging this little fantasy of pulling on a parka and learning to say “keh-BECK” instead of “KWI-beck”? Just because the country elected a man who represents the very worst in us? Now is not the time to cut and run. That’s weak-kneed bullshit. That’s fear. That’s what got us here in the first place. No, we’re gonna have to dig a little deeper, work a little harder. It may feel hopeless. But the only time humans ever visit any good upon this cruel world is when a brave few decide that there is something more important than fear.

You’re not moving because it’s just an election, not a funeral. There will be other elections. Unless Donald Trump cancels elections, which is less funny to say today than it would have been yesterday. That’s just a little gallows humor. Lighten up. Shit’s about to get real dark and real weird. We’re going to need to make more bleak jokes. So yes, you will close that AirBNB tab with “Vancouver” in the search bar, stand up, and join the goddamn resistance. Fascism must never be accepted. We’re going to resist. Our great-grandparents had World War I and our grandparents had World War II and our parents fought in Korea or Vietnam or Desert Storm or—dammit, are you Snapchatting yourself as a sad dog right now?—Afghanistan. We have Trump. We have a purpose. We have a battle. It’ll be fun, if constantly heartbreaking and occasionally terrifying.

Let me tell you a story about Republicans: they’re real street-fighters. They play to win, even if they end up winning rubble. Remember George W. Bush? That guy wrapped the economy around a tree and sent tens of thousands of young men and women to die in poorly conceived wars of choice. And we fought. We pushed. We protested. We upended his mandate and rewrote his legacy.

This man, Donald Trump, our new president in name only, wishes ill upon those who are different than him and his adoring mob. But this is not the time to go wobbly. Pull on your combat pants—no, not the ones with the cargo pockets, the other ones—and stand with Muslim-Americans. Stand with Mexican-Americans. Stand with Jews, and gays, and trans people, and women, and African-Americans, who do not all live in the inner city, though yes, many do. You can even stand, still, with Hillary Clinton. Stand with the rest of us. We’re going into the trenches, where it’s gonna get real ugly, but you’re damned sure not moving to Canada.

Article Appeared @http://www.gq.com/story/why-youre-not-moving-to-canada

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