Hey Reader,
​
Yesterday, Cory Booker stood on the Senate floor and spoke for 25 hours and 4 minutes.
He broke the record set by Strom Thurmond—the longest filibuster in history—turning it on its head, reclaiming it.

He did it to disrupt business as usual.
He did it to disrupt the news cycle.
​
He did it to speak up and speak out.
To give voice to the millions of people steamrolled by policies, profits, and power.
He did it to do something to push back and say: enough is enough

And almost immediately, people started saying:
​ It won’t change anything.
It’s performative.
What’s the point?

I get that impulse. It’s easier to critique effort than risk believing in it.

But here’s what’s been rattling around in me since I watched him stand there hour after hour:
We keep waiting for one person to fix this.
One person to lead us out.
One perfect action that will finally be enough.

That’s not how any of this works.

The same systems we say we want to dismantle—the ones that gave power to a handful of people while the rest of us learned to shrink—those systems are sustained every time we sit back and wait for someone else to show us the way.

We don’t tear down the pedestal by looking for a better person to stand on it.

Real change is messy. Disruptive. Uncomfortable.
It doesn’t move in straight lines or elegant speeches.
It happens when a thousand people try a thousand things, most of them imperfect, many of them conflicting.
​It’s chaotic by design.

That’s how systems of control unravel: not with one big no, but with a million tiny yeses.

So I’m asking myself today—where am I still waiting?
Where am I quietly hoping someone will show up and fix it for me, instead of stepping in, even when it’s messy?

You can ask yourself too, if you want.
​
xoxo,
​
Julie