Democrats Got Stomped: What Do We Do Now?
Like many others, I started last night full of hope, joy, and optimism that America would finally elect its first woman president and that our first woman president would also be a biracial woman of color.
As I watched the results roll in on my TV last night, I began to feel the same feelings I had in 2016, when as a 13-year-old, I went to bed anxious and unsure of my future only to wake up the next morning and find out that Donald Trump had won.
Watching North Carolina, then Georgia, and then finally Pennsylvania get called for Trump, I began to feel unsure of my future yet again. I saw my ray of hope get slashed into smaller and smaller pieces.
I’ll admit that when the race was originally called for Trump, I shed many tears on my couch. I sat there alone, numb, and scared for my future.
But then, I realized that I’m still ready to fight. I’m not ready to go back.
It is okay if you need to take time to process the results. It is okay to take time to breathe, cry, scream, yell, whatever you need to do to process your emotions.
But then remember, our work has just begun. We owe it to those in our lives who we love and cherish the most who might not be able to fight for themselves to fight for them and create a world that is better for them.
We owe it to those who came before us who fought for a better nation to continue their fight so that future generations will inherit a world that is better for them.
I am fighting for my mom, my grandmothers, and my aunts who entered this world with more rights than I currently have now. I owe it to them to continue this fight so that I may pass on the equal rights that they have fought so hard to gain.
I am fighting for the senior citizens who I worked with who deserve expanded social security benefits and lower drug prices so that they may retain their joy for their final years and be able to have the care they deserve at prices they can afford.
I am fighting for my teachers and professors who shaped me into the person I am today. They deserve to have higher pay and to be able to teach America’s correct history and whatever books they desire without the government rewriting the narrative and overreaching into their classrooms.
I am fighting for my friends and fellow journalists who are terrified of what this new administration will do to press freedoms but who still bravely persevere to report on the truth and demand accountability from public officials.
But most of all, I am fighting for my little sister. Lily, I want you to know that I will always fight for you and your rights. You deserve a better world than what I was handed and I will never stop working to try and make sure that you have it. I love you and I am so proud of you. We are not going back because you deserve better.
I urge everyone reading this to remember that it is okay to take time to process your feelings about this election. But then remember, chin up, shoulders back, it’s time to get to work. Who are you fighting for?
I will patiently wait to see how the SCDP reacts to the almost total wipeout of Democrats running for State Senate and Assembly seats, and for many seats on county councils. The Democratic Party's performance is getting worse, election by election. Why? How can this be fixed? We have truly hit bottom. A thorough house-cleaning is in order, starting at the top. Who is going to convene a gathering to discuss the way forward? Those who have been in charge of our election efforts are clearly not part of the solution.
The Century’s Decline
Wislawa Szymborska
Our twentieth century was going to improve on the others.
It will never prove it now,
now that its years are numbered,
its gait is shaky,
its breath is short.
Too many things have happened
that weren’t supposed to happen,
and what was supposed to come about
has not.
Happiness and spring, among other things,
were supposed to be getting closer.
Fear was expected to leave the mountains and the valleys.
Truth was supposed to hit home
before a lie.
A couple of problems weren’t going
to come up anymore:
hunger, for example,
and war, and so forth.
There was going to be respect
for helpless people’s helplessness,
trust, that kind of stuff.
Anyone who planned to enjoy the world
is now faced
with a hopeless task.
Stupidity isn’t funny.
Wisdom isn’t gay.
Hope
isn’t that young girl anymore,
et cetera, alas.
God was finally going to believe
in a man both good and strong,
but good and strong
are still two different men.
“How should we live?” someone asked me in a letter.
I had meant to ask him
the same question.
Again, and as ever,
as may be seen above,
the most pressing questions
are naïve ones.
Wislawa Szymborska, born in Poland, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996 for her poetry.