Sherah Beck

“Don’t Panic — Autocracy Takes Time

President-elect Donald Trump’s return to power is unnerving but America will not turn into a dictatorship overnight — or in four years. Even the most determined strongmen face internal hurdles, from the bureaucracy to the media and the courts. It took Erdoğa well over a decade to fully consolidate his power. Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Poland’s Law and Justice Party needed years to erode democratic norms and fortify their grip on state institutions.”

“Following the first time I lost my home and everything in it, I had a vivid and intense dream about a tiny sea turtle. It felt like one of those dreams that was more than just a dream, so I paid attention to it. I thought to myself that sea turtles carry their shells—their homes—with them, so I began to collect sea turtles in the form of figurines, pictures, and stuffed animals. My sea turtles gave me great comfort for a while. However, as I found out, I had taken away the wrong message from the dream. I know this because the next time I lost my home and everything I owned, I lost my collection of sea turtles.

Eventually, I learned that sea turtles’ shells are not something external they carry with them but are part of their very skeleton. They literally build their home from within themselves. The meaning of my dream had not been to embrace sea turtles as a symbol but rather to live like a sea turtle lives. The message of the dream was I needed to build home from within myself.”