Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1302808
What is your voting plan? Make plans to mail in your ballot, vote early or vote on Nov. 3. "Dissents speak to a future age. It's not simply to say, 'My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.' But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that's the dissenter's hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow." - Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg IF WE ARE LIVING FOR THE HERE AND NOW, we are continuously starting over. But if we are creating for the days and lifetimes ahead, we are making real, lasting contributions. Planning is more proactive, less reactive. We avoid more heartache, breakdown oppressive systems and save more lives when we plan for the end game. What if we made more decisions based on their future effect? Hire a woman. Make plans for the new year. Do that project you've been saving for a rainy day. Vote for the presidential candidate and every other candidate who preserves our democracy and decency. Follow the stories of effective people and programs. (You will find some in these pages.) Give up some of your privilege to make room for another person. Recognize how our past has unjustly shaped the lives of our people. Teach a child to love their neighbor. When making my case for a certain opinion, desire or need, my sister often asks me, "Is this the hill you want to die on?" It almost always makes me laugh, and it absolutely makes me come to the right decision every single time. Find the work that you would die for. It might afford someone else a more fulfilled life while saving your own weary self and dare I say, soul. When I die, I will not be known for my work as an extraordinary planner. I far too often live for the here and now. I'm not proud of that truth. But, the times they are a-changin', and it is high time for me to live up to my potential to be a better human. We do not have to wait for our appointment to the Supreme Court to dissent. For we know that the real change happens locally – and right in our own hearts. May we all know the power of dissent, for now and more necessary: for our shared future. To dissent is to be exceedingly decent. Be the dissenter's hope. Spinning it forward, SUSANNAH C. MADDUX susannah@maconmagazine.com EDITOR'S LETTER Not for today, but for tomorrow 6 maconmagazine.com | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2020