Shaping Destiny: Election Season, Before, During and After is our response to the realities of the most important and frightening election of our lives, whether we are old or young. Whether it be talk of widespread violence or control of election machinery by partisan manipulation, the integrity of the election is already threatened. Be prepared for conflict regardless of who wins. If Trump wins, we will have years of autocracy with further and aggressive loss of rights. If Harris wins, the election results will likely be met with organized violence and accusation of rigged elections.
In this issue we present poetry, prose, and graphics that investigate present conditions, address the election itself, and explore how we must live afterwards. The prose is displayed by sections (“before, during, and after”), the poetry somewhat less so. A very special part is a collection of life stories by inmates at Parchman, Mississippi State Penitentiary, which grew out of a semester-long creative writing workshop taught in the spring of 2024 by Ann Fisher-Wirth.
Our intention with Shaping Destiny was to present links between current events and matters of social justice, the earth, and the spirit arising from each. The work is intended to provide direction and places to find comfort, as well as to explain, strengthen and prepare. It addresses major issues and rights gained and taken away, including women’s rights, civil rights, ecological issues, and many others—some rights that we still have, and others we have lost already. Each of the Presidential candidates in this election promises to address these issues, but in ways that are starkly different. One path stands for overtly violent organizing to take us back perhaps to the 1920s, as in the identification of Christian Nationalism with white supremacy. The other path stands for regaining rights and providing an economy that will very likely allow a decent life. International issues also confront both candidates. These are sharpest about the necessity of a cease fire for Gaza and now for Lebanon. Ukraine’s struggle for identity and clear independence continues.
I want to congratulate and extend my gratitude to the Contributing Editors: Ann Fisher-Wirth, Jacqueline Johnson, Richard Cambridge, and Pamela Uschuk. For months I was unable to take on daily editing and they stepped up and took over the daily and final editing. I also want to thank Assistant Editors Kate Sutter and Ellie Coleman.
Most of the time, readers choose an author that they know or is widely known. I ask that you please scan through the content of many artists. We have prepared art that will be needed and will sustain. Take it in and you will be strengthened and prepared to help build a different world.
Michael McDermott, Director, Black Earth Institute
Managing Editor, About Place Journal
