I’ve been extremely busy lately and haven’t taken time to write down any of the multiple thoughts I’ve had for posts in any way. I’m doubtful that I’ll have an opportunity to do so again between now and November 3rd and wanted to just jot down a couple of thoughts I have regarding the extreme chaos that is swirling around our upcoming national elections.
Our country is 244 years old. With the exception of Franklin D. Roosevelt, no President has served longer than eight years. After Franklin D. Roosevelt, it was adopted into law that no President COULD serve longer than eight years. Every four years in that history, a vote for President has taken place. Our laws are set so that we have that opportunity and that no President will become a dictator.
Every two years, some of our Senators and Representatives are up for election, keeping a continuously moving body of people within Congress. And within either of those years, our cities and states have opportunities to elect new mayors and governors.
What I’m trying to say is that there seems to be an extreme fear wrapped around this upcoming election. I have very firm beliefs regarding how this has came to be, but I won’t expand on this for this post. I just want to say that liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, or anything outside of those two, we are all afraid of something and I want to put into print that we shouldn’t be.
Why?
Because this year has shown that we, the people of the United States of America, are not ready to give up on our Democracy. We are not ready to give up on our country.
We certainly disagree with what we want it to really look like and our challenge is to find a way to disagree peacefully and find ways to understand we must give up a little while we get a little so that our extremely large and diverse country can find a way to move forward – together.
We are vocal because we are passionate and we care.
My fear is that those passions have been ignited inside misguided and misinformed and heavily armed extreme groups who may pose a physical threat to my fellow Americans over the next few weeks. I have faith that those groups may be violent, but they may also be a very small fraction of our overall population. I have to have faith that they will be silenced through our laws and through the lowering of our collective temperatures as we all find reason and calmness amidst chaos and fear.
I am afraid if some people are allowed to remain in office or are elected into office that our democracy could be challenged fundamentally. That those individuals, who I personally believe to be mentally and emotionally disturbed, may find ways to fundamentally alter the foundations of our democratic laws and chip away at the balance of power within our government.
I must find a way to acknowledge those fears and not let it overtake my emotions. We must all find a way to acknowledge what we’re afraid of. When we do, that fear loses some of its power. If we’re afraid that our courts will overrule laws that were hard fought for, we must acknowledge that can happen and then find paths which will allow us to legally reinstate those in the future should that fear actually come true.
Most of all, we must realize that our country is not static. Democracy IS change. Democracy must BE change. Countries which do not continuously evolve and reevaluate their own laws and accepted social norms, are those countries which live under dictatorships and where citizens live in fear for their personal safety.
One time in our history, our country held a law that slavery was legal. Our country wouldn’t let women vote or hold office. Thousands of citizens are still alive who can vividly recall when black people were not allowed to drink from the same water fountain as white people. These things have all changed.
We are in a great moment of change. I’ll liken this to marriage counseling. If we the citizens of this country were to consider ourselves in one great relationship, we’ve managed to live with one another’s misbehaviors for a while. We’ve tolerated them and let our resentments build up until we’re no longer able to stay silent. But we let that build to a great boiling point instead of confronting the issues before they became too big. We could use a really good counselor at this point to help us learn to re-communicate with one another and help us interpret the miscommunications we’ve been picking up on for years. When personal relationships hit this point, it becomes an opportunity to get stronger together because of the realization that our relationship may actually be fragile. We may have come to the realization that our democracy may be fragile and we’re fighting like hell right now to save it. We have an opportunity to come out stronger on the other side if we can see that as an opportunity and not give up on one another.
I think we can do it. I think that if we actually start to listen to one another’s fears and realize that there is a way to compromise so we can all feel safe – and free – we can get to a place that’s better.
This last year has ripped open some wounds that weren’t healed. They were sitting there, partially scabbed over, festering under the surface and we’ve been forced to face them in many ways. Notice I said wounds (plural). Sometimes the best way to get a wound to heal is to open it up and get all the infection out of it. We know it takes time for it to close back up. We know there will be a scar when it’s all done. We also know that scars will fade over time, even if they never really go away. But that’s the outcome we need and that’s the outcome we can achieve if we find ways to work together.
If we find ways to listen to one another.
This election has shown an even brighter spotlight than usual on the importance of making our voices heard. We the people…there’s a reason the Declaration of Independence starts with that. We the people.
Democracies aren’t perfect. They need constant attention and tweaking. They need diverse voices and intelligent leaders who feel the call to serve, over the call to power.
We the people need to vote for those individuals who have chosen to step into a thankless job and face endless criticism yet who feel they are there to serve as a voice for others. We need to vote for people who may be flawed but who try every day to unite our country and bring people together calmly. We need to root out those currently serving who have revealed themselves to be divisive, hateful, power-seekers with agendas largely skewed to their own personal benefits.
We need to vote.
Regardless of affiliation, my hope this year above any other is that we shatter records nationally for registered voters and we shatter records for the number of registered voters who cast ballots. Day of, absentee/mail-in ballots, or early voting at the election commission, it doesn’t matter.
We need to vote.
