An Open Letter to My Friends
Nov. 9th, 2016 01:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tairakoTonight has been a night of emotions that I can't remember feeling in years. Up and down, back and forth, panic and anxiety, and now that the end is here – barring any miracle – I feel beaten down, wrung out, like a limp rag that's been used and dropped on the floor because it didn't matter. Because I feel like I didn't matter, like my voice and my opinions didn't reach anyone that didn't already agree with me, that I turned up to the polls for no reason. Because I got my hopes up and they failed. They failed hard, they fell far.
My throat is burning with the screaming I've done this night.
No other election has been like this. Every time we come back around to this selection process, everything seems new and terrible. Romney's comments about the 47% seemed unspeakable in 2008, yet here in 2016 I'd give anything to have another controversy like that instead of what we were handed, a race that was nothing but vitriol spewing and where the focus on the actual issues of running one of the most powerful countries in the world was on the docket. Instead this election focused on rousing instincts that most people would prefer to forget, the primal frenzy felt when we're threatened, a fight-or-flight directed at something that should never be a target for such feelings and thought processes. As a country, we've failed to act rationally, and that is on us to carry.
But.
But.
I can't say enough how amazing it is to see people pulling together. This election has been a mess from the beginning, but through it all people have found each other, people have taken each other by the hand and arm and dragged them to a place of safety. People have talked to people they'd never spoken to before intelligently and rationally, and when things were bad, people were there for each other to support those in need.
I am so proud of everyone of you right now. Each and every single one of you is different, unique, amazing, and a shining light in the darkness. You open your hearts and your souls to others whether they share your opinions or not, and your only requirement for that openness is showing respect for others and treating people with common decency. This has strengthened all of you in ways that I don't think we'll understand for awhile, but that strength is still there, and still magnificent. You are all magnificent, each and every one of you.
Continue to support each other. Share helplines, offer a shoulder, give a hug, even if you can't reach a person. We know there's someone on the other end of that connection, and that someone will be helped just by knowing there's someone there for them. And when we've mourned, when we've picked each other up and dusted each other off, when we're able to walk on our feet again, as a team, together, we will fight. We will fight for everyone threatened by policies that could take friends, coworkers, and loved ones away from us by saying they don't belong in this country. We will fight for love that does exist and will definitely flourish with or without presidential say-so, and we will fight for the right to continue celebrating that love at the marriage altar. We will fight for the women who are scared to leave their homes or even just to say “no” because of the repercussions they might face to their health, physical or mental or both. We will fight for the peace of our world, for our brothers and sisters and friends in other countries who are fighting to keep us safe against people who would do us harm, or cousins and loved ones who offer us safe haven when times are dark.
We are together. We are powerful. We can change this.
We can be each others' lights. Share your light with someone you love.
Share your light with the world.
My throat is burning with the screaming I've done this night.
No other election has been like this. Every time we come back around to this selection process, everything seems new and terrible. Romney's comments about the 47% seemed unspeakable in 2008, yet here in 2016 I'd give anything to have another controversy like that instead of what we were handed, a race that was nothing but vitriol spewing and where the focus on the actual issues of running one of the most powerful countries in the world was on the docket. Instead this election focused on rousing instincts that most people would prefer to forget, the primal frenzy felt when we're threatened, a fight-or-flight directed at something that should never be a target for such feelings and thought processes. As a country, we've failed to act rationally, and that is on us to carry.
But.
But.
I can't say enough how amazing it is to see people pulling together. This election has been a mess from the beginning, but through it all people have found each other, people have taken each other by the hand and arm and dragged them to a place of safety. People have talked to people they'd never spoken to before intelligently and rationally, and when things were bad, people were there for each other to support those in need.
I am so proud of everyone of you right now. Each and every single one of you is different, unique, amazing, and a shining light in the darkness. You open your hearts and your souls to others whether they share your opinions or not, and your only requirement for that openness is showing respect for others and treating people with common decency. This has strengthened all of you in ways that I don't think we'll understand for awhile, but that strength is still there, and still magnificent. You are all magnificent, each and every one of you.
Continue to support each other. Share helplines, offer a shoulder, give a hug, even if you can't reach a person. We know there's someone on the other end of that connection, and that someone will be helped just by knowing there's someone there for them. And when we've mourned, when we've picked each other up and dusted each other off, when we're able to walk on our feet again, as a team, together, we will fight. We will fight for everyone threatened by policies that could take friends, coworkers, and loved ones away from us by saying they don't belong in this country. We will fight for love that does exist and will definitely flourish with or without presidential say-so, and we will fight for the right to continue celebrating that love at the marriage altar. We will fight for the women who are scared to leave their homes or even just to say “no” because of the repercussions they might face to their health, physical or mental or both. We will fight for the peace of our world, for our brothers and sisters and friends in other countries who are fighting to keep us safe against people who would do us harm, or cousins and loved ones who offer us safe haven when times are dark.
We are together. We are powerful. We can change this.
We can be each others' lights. Share your light with someone you love.
Share your light with the world.
