"It Hurts" - Michael Brune post election message

 

This hurts. There's no way right now to ease the shock and dismay of what we're facing this morning. The pain is real - and so much of the people and places that we love - and the values that we hold dear - are now threatened. I called home late last night to hear that my kids cried themselves to sleep, and I know that for millions of people the fear is even more visceral. 

 

I'm in DC and will be speaking with reporters, policymakers and donors all day, and look forward to our staff meeting this afternoon. In advance of that meeting, I wanted to reach out to encourage everyone to create an open space for each other. We cannot give in to the hate and vitriol spewed these past few months and blame ourselves or our community. We win together, and we lose together. 

 

It is more important than ever that we stand in solidarity with our friends and allies. The attacks will come, I can promise you that. They will come on the communities and individuals that were already targeted during this campaign. They will likely start with the most politically vulnerable and may come in ways that we don't expect. We need to stand together, the first time and every time. 

 

We will fight and we will resist, but we will not cower in a defensive posture for the next four years. I'll remind everyone that our Beyond Coal coalition defeated one coal plant proposal after another - during the entire Bush Presidency. And though Trump-McConnell-Ryan is a poisonous combination, they can't stop regulators from choosing clean energy when it's the cheapest option. They can't stop cities from going to 100% clean energy. They can't stop the private sector that wants to be part of the climate solution, not the problem. We'll have to adjust many of our strategies, but we won't let our progress on climate and clean energy to be stopped. 

 

But it all starts with taking care of ourselves and each other. The labor activist Joe Hill famously said, "Don't mourn, organize!" That doesn't seem quite right to me. We need to be our best selves in the days and weeks ahead. Mourning AND organizing feels about right. 

 

Talk with you all soon.