Despite the media’s successful attempt to convince me to fear the future of this country, to question the sanity of my neighbors or the pride of our women and other suppressed voices, I can rest today, beaming with the solid proof… that we got this.
Hateful rhetoric, racism, sexism, homophobia and pure bigotry have filled the airwaves for the past six months(at least). And sure it’s still out there, but last night it was silenced for now.
Yesterday this country showed its true colors – its new colors – as the election results came pouring in. State after state showed that people didn’t fall for the bullshit about Obama, but instead believe in his commitment to do the right thing. State after state showed that they want senators who are just as committed. States decided loud and clear that they want to give their neighbors the right to marry who they want, smoke what they want and generally have the freedoms we should all have.
Last night this country voted in the first openly gay senator, the first Asian-American senator, more women senators than ever before and we re-elected the first Black president.
By voting – not talking shit for six months- we showed what we stand for and what we won’t tolerate.
We declared that we won’t tolerate lies and greed. We declared that we won’t tolerate people trying to enforce their radical religious beliefs on us. We declared that we won’t tolerate racist white men trying to keep people of color out of power. Women declared that we won’t tolerate men making decisions about our bodies for us. We shut that shit down. (Take that, Team Rape.)
These historic votes showed the decency, the empathy, the acceptance of diversity and, thankfully, the I.Q. level of the majority of this country. It is such a relief and it is extremely exciting to think that this is the way forward.
HOWEVER, allow me this cliché: There’s still so much work to be done. California losing on Prop 37 (requiring food to have GMO labeling) proves that corporate dollars still win out no matter how hard we fight. So we keep fighting. Climate change getting just a quick mention in Obama’s acceptance speech is an effort to end climate silence, but not even close to enough. So we keep fighting. Black and Hispanic communities targeted by suppressive voter laws and abortion and healthcare attacks proves we still have a long way to go to eracism. So we keep fighting.
Armed with the results of yesterday though, the future of the fight just looks a little brighter.
Brown. Girl. Farming. 