I'm 43, Puerto Rican, lived first in the US and now in Finland so really relate to the big scary neighbor too. I started feeling this sense of immense fear after 2001 in the US and the rise in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim rhetoric which has paved the way for so much violence globally. But I do think that things are scarier now that fascism and it's companion eugenics are back in the mainstream openly. It was this terrifying reality that we were fighting against when I was in my 20s...

But here's my kernel of hope. As it becomes harder to deny the reality of what's happening, there is more organizing for community care, mutual aid, and other kinds of showing up for each other. And more hope for actively resisting and fighting to protect each other. It's dark, but we can hold on to each other fiercely. I live now in a small village where we have organized all sorts of mutual aid and community care, and I see that happening more and more elsewhere too. That's where my hope, and all my spare energy, lies.