A Letter from the Editor: Kicking off 2022

Anyone still looking back at 2021 and thinking, "Wait, did that really just happen?"

Yeah, same.

2020, at least for me, was a surreal year, one that seemed to drag on like molasses. Maybe it was because every day felt the same; no entertaining commute stories, no quippy exchanges with the morning barista at a favorite coffee shop, no more fun nights with friends—fun was canceled in 2020. For some, the days were just an endless sun up and sun down of work from home. For others, it was the omnipresent dread of another day at an essential workplace, and nights left wondering, "Did I contract COVID today?" And then, for yet many others, the days were an equally endless expanse of unemployment as the job market contracted. Interestingly enough, I experienced all three of these circumstances during 2020, and I am sympathetic to many of the lived realities derived from these experiences.

Yet while some American life circumstances during the pandemic varied, others were familiar to many—if not all. Zoom became a household term. Numerous parents stepped into the role of teacher, nanny, or professional child wrangler in some capacity. And, if anyone reading this escaped searching store after store for toilet paper, panic-buying essentials, or wondering when frozen broccoli became such a hot commodity, well…consider yourself lucky. And then there was the dread of tuning in to the evening news to listen to what seemed to be an ongoing series of quasi-apocalyptic news headlines—between the developing status of COVID, the summer events that roused the BLM movement of 2020, and the California wildfires, 2020 was quite a year. And yet, it was also a year that seemed to plod along at a weary pace.

2021, on the other hand, felt the exact opposite—a whirlwind year during which time blended together, one that went by in the blink of an eye so quickly that when I found myself reflecting on it, I struggled to remember what in the world happened in 2021. Answer? A lot.

A presidential election, a riot at the capitol, and a vaccine roll-out at an astronomical scale and pace, expanding disinformation campaigns and intensifying culture wars, a final US retreat from Afghanistan—which had heartbreaking consequences for social progress in the country, particularly for women and those known for rejecting Taliban rule during US occupation; Juneteenth becoming a holiday, more deaths from COVID than I care to report a figure for, and to top the year off—the passing of the iconic Betty White, who championed equality, and gender and civil rights, as early as the 50s and 60s through simple actions in her everyday life. (See here and here)

Empower to Change is very much so a forward-thinking, change-championing, action-oriented organization. But as E2C launches its first blog posts for the 2022 calendar year, these first few are not as much about looking forwards as they are about looking backward at what happened in 2021. This is because change is just as much about reflecting on the improvements made and the places where improvement is still very much lacking as it is about looking at how and where to make change happen in the future.

Over the next few weeks, E2C's blog will be sharing articles that highlight a notable current event in each of four areas where E2C focuses its work and activism: education-based strategies, DEI in tech, civic activism, and mutual aid and activism rooted in community. I hope you stay tuned in the coming days and weeks to read more about:

• How social media and hashtags can be used as avenues for civic activism,

• How Elon Musk (a white man in tech) superseding Jeff Bezos (another white man in tech) as the richest man in the world epitomizes just how deeply lacking DEI in tech remains,

• Whether or not the 2021 law passed in California which mandates ethnic studies in K-12 education is actually a positive advance in education-based strategies, and,

• How gerrymandering across the country, backsliding approval ratings for the current president elected in 2021, and the potential of a republican majority in the 2022 midterms demonstrate, more than ever, how important it is to invest locally and support leaders that know and represent their communities.

I hope you enjoy,

Signed,

The Woman Still Marking Her Meeting Invites with the Year “2020.”

(And just in case you need a more lighthearted 2021 reel: 21 Heartwarming, Feel Good Things that Happened in 2021.)