What If
A just world
In a just and true society this isn’t close.
As I walk around the city and see lines at the polling places I think about how important every single vote is.
That person who is number 2,374 in line somewhere can be the difference in the lives of so many. I am reminded of the power we have…the power the vote gives us, and the sacrifices it took to have this power afforded to some of us.
One of the people on the ballot couldn’t vote in the past because of her race, and because of her gender. But now she is on the precipice of becoming the President of the effing United States of America.
That is a glow up!
But we have to make this happen and there is the fear. Plenty of people of voting age RIGHT NOW were alive before some of us were allowed to vote. Those same people still harbor the belief they are above us and we should be relegated to second or third tier status— definitely NOT elected as President.
Those people also have kids who they raised to believe the same or similar as them. People who grew up in urban and diverse areas often don’t think about the people who, sometimes through no fault of their own, haven’t encountered people who look differently, talk differently, think differently. They grow up being taught and believing the things they are told by the aforementioned people who saw us as less than and cannot believe someone who is less than thinks they should be put in charge.
So that is where the support for the copper colored convict is seemingly justified. They can forgive the hate, the vitriol, the us vs them mentality because they may agree or they may see it as okay because at least he isn’t one of…them.
Looking back at Halloween last week we saw a lot of what is currently empowered:
These people are voting today— are you?
Today we have opportunity to move past a lot of this. To show people in those unfortunate households that a better and less spiteful world exists. To show that the worst is actually behind us and we can keep our finger on the pulse of progress.
On this day, in 1968 the United States elected the first Black woman to Congress, but today, in the United States of America, we are in such a scary place that our friends down on Sesame Street are taking to social media to try to help us cope:
In a just society this isn’t close. But this is America, and for now— we are anxious, scared, and hopeful. Maybe hate doesn’t win this time and we take the next step from what we did when we elected Shirley Chisholm—from Congress to the White House.