This election wasn't decided by hockey moms or middle-aged white men.
This election was decided by the members of the PTA and the social justice committees in churches across America. It was decided by the veterans pleading for an end to war and health care for their injured comrades. It was decided by the women's groups determined to save our option for abortion and our access to birth control and emergency contraception. It was decided by the organizations of nurses outraged by a health care system that leaves many to die without needed treatment. It was decided by immigrant rights groups looking for justice and not exploitation. It was decided by environmental activists passionate about saving our planet from global warming, about preserving the life in our oceans and on our lands. It was decided by the organizers of small coops distributing garage-made biodiesel to members of their community.
In short, it was decided by all those millions of people who for the past 8 years have been looking for a voice in Washington. And who have been stunned and dismayed that no matter how they pleaded, they were ignored by an incompetent President proud of his ignorance, and by deluded Republicans who thought they had the power.
Most analysts are pointing to the implosion of our economy as the decisive factor in this election, and surely it made the need for change more urgent than ever.
But when the Republicans disparaged Obama's experience as a community organizer, they insulted just those people with the knowledge, the ability and the passion to take them down.
It was all those folks, with experience in a wide array of grassroots organizations, who saw in Obama the person who seemed willing and able to listen and be reasonable. And with faith in him, they put their organizing skills to work on his behalf, traveling to the embattled states, making phone calls on his behalf, contributing the massive amounts of money he needed to overcome the smears and the constant babble of right-wing bloviators on radio and TV.
So on this day, I'm celebrating because we the people, the people who work to make our communities, our country and the world better, we won yesterday. We won.
I, for one, will take this day to enjoy our victory. Power to the people!
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5 comments:
Obama's win has given me a profound sense of joy in my heart with a hope for better times ahead for everyone, not only here in America, but around the world. This may sound corny, but as a species we need to remain hopeful that we can affect positive change, even when the situation seems dire.
It's going to happen any time now. We have watched this world be brutalized by backward, pathological forces year after year, decade after decade. The feeling of powerlessness and hopelessness has been pervasive. But it’s going to happen any time now. I am numb but tingling and have, months ago, revived my determined sense of hope – against the jaded, worn out admonitions of friends, neighbors and big mouths. He may be constrained by the ancient politics, he may be the biggest fraud in history and he may not even live to be inaugurated. But if nothing else, my hope is absolutely fierce and I will soon come to terms with what happened last night and will break down and weep uncontrollably till I have nothing left. Then I will do as he asks and get to work.
I have never felt so inspired in my life. I am not naive, but I truly believe in this man. No, he is not the Second Coming. But he very well may be a Lincoln, a Martin Luther King, a Gandhi...he couldn't be as openly "liberal" as people like me, and that's ok, because he never would've gotten elected. It's time we realize that we need to compromise at times...not all the time, and not on some issues. But we will never get anywhere if we aren't willing to find agreement where we can, which he has said so eloquently. I believe in him. And I believe he believes in us. It's the first time in my adult life I can say I am actually proud to be an American. I may even put a flag up outside my house! Thanks Frances for your eloquence. Indeed, this is a turning point in history. Let's pray (or whatever we do in our own way) that he stays safe, healthy and focused.
I can brerathe again.
The Oval office is in the hands of a constitutional scholar who believes in our Democracy, and is living proof that it works.
I am so proud of all of us who worked so hard to make this happen.
As the son of the blogger, I can tell you that I have been raised to believe that even small efforts on a local level can lead to change on a global scale. I have also grown up in a time when it has been at times difficult to see the truth in that wisdom. Obama's victory is inspiring to me, and makes me sure that small efforts can bring big changes.af
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