Delight in the Time of Decline
by k.e. harloe
Last month, I drove four and a half hours from Albany to Wellsville, a small town in western New York, to attend the first-ever celebration of Pride in Allegany County, organized by the grassroots Cattaraugus Allegany Liberation Collective (CALC). I’d found out about the event through the writer and activist Barbara Smith, who’d be reading there, and who joined me on the drive.
We set off on a Saturday in mid-June. Times were bad, as you know. We moved, as we move now, through a hall of mirrors in which what is reasonable is repackaged as insane, and vice versa; in which you are deemed mad for suggesting that maybe we should not massacre people; in which, as Aaron Bushnell said, the extreme violence upon which our nation’s way of life depends “is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
I headed to Allegany County preoccupied with thoughts like these, and found they stood in dramatic contrast with the drive. Weaving in and out of lush farmlands and mountains laced in mist, Barbara and I talked about how bad things are and also how beautiful. Towards the end of the drive, I exited the main highway and turned onto a two-lane road. No more than 20 minutes later, I noticed a cop car flashing its lights, trailing me into a town. I pulled over, and was ticketed for doing 45 in a 30. Driving away, we started to laugh, and laugh, and laugh some more. Then, I rounded a bend, and a valley opened up: On the right stood a tiny fawn with a fluffy tail. I slowed to a stop and the fawn bounced before us, prancing its way across the road before hopping into the woods. Barbara nearly leapt out of her seat, arms in the air with joy.
Keep us breathing fire!
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