Our theme for the month of March is “How to.”

In accordance with the policies of the government of the █████████████, the following document has been declassified with redactions. No individual or governing body may seek to further declassify this material pursuant to the safety of ████████████.

█████ was never enough. It was catchy; it felt like ██████. In that way, perhaps, it was its own downfall.

I have yet to see a compelling argument that anything less than █████████ stands a chance at saving us from the multi-pronged ██████ facing humankind: the ██████████████, the rise of ███████, the threat of global ███, the utter contempt we have for our fellow humans.

We’ve tried voting. We’ve tried ██████████. We’ve tried ██████████. We’ve tried ███████, ██████████, and ███████████. Where has that gotten us?

Two places: complacency and █████.

It’s completely terrifying, obviously. I can’t █████████████████ without potentially █████████████████████ and ████████████ my ██████████. That fear of ████████████ wins. Most of you probably have similar ███████████. It’s convenient, isn’t it? Getting to say no. To see the urgency and ██████████████████████████. Because in █████ terms, you are. ███████, you are powerless.

I don’t know if I believe whether we have power ██████. Even if we █████████████. If we █████████ our freedom for the ████████████. But maybe we don’t need to believe █████████████ to try.

We need people who will ███████████. Who will ██████████████████. Who will ███████████ on █████ and █████ and █████████████. Who will █████████████████. We need ████████ and █████████ as much as █████████████ and ██████████. Heck, we even need ████. The powerful acts of individuals and organizations spark ███████████ in their time; these same ██████████████ can be etched into history as █████████████.

Or they are ██████. We like to look at history and believe the █████████ lost, not that they ████████████ our every ██████ and ██████████. Our textbooks gloss over ████████████████ in ███████████████████ and ███████████████████████████. We use history to argue that the world is better than it ever was. ████████████████ and all.

███████████████ may be ███████████. More likely they are ███████ from the narrative. Only a few ████████ their █████. Is that enough? Can that still ██████ a new █████?

We can’t know. We just have to try.

Gwyneth Findlay

Gwyneth Findlay is an editor living in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where she mentally and physically collects world maps. She graduated from Calvin in 2018 with a degree in writing and minors in French and gender studies.