I voted on Tuesday, was depressed, shocked, and in an altered state of consciousness on Wednesday. I kept trying to figure out how so many people could have voted for Bush, despite all the readily available information about how unAmerican and unConstitutional his actions and policies are, how harmful for the people and the planet while being so helpful for big businesses and big bank accounts. Then I remembered,
You can't figure this out. There's no logic to it. That's the point about religious fundamentalism. And that's what we've got, a religious fundamentalist in the White House, setting policy and courses of action based on a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible, and on pro-corporate, fundamentalist politics.
So on Wednesday, in the middle of my grief and disbelief, I called my friend
N who spent the entire month of October working for the
League of Conservation Voters' (LCV) campaign for Kerry. I knew she'd be more down than me and that she needed a call. Amazing what small acts of connection and comfort can do for us. She cc'd me on an email she sent out yesterday:
The most wonderful thing that happened yesterday is that Sage (a good friend) called to console me. She was feeling down, but knew that I was probably feeling even lower. That really made a difference for me. So I tried to figure out which woman I knew had given even more of her time to this election, then called her up, thanking her for what she had done and encouraging her to grieve. Then I called the young people at LCV to thank them for giving up their lives for the last three months in the hopes that Gaia would have a better American steward as a result of their efforts...passing along the comfort that Sage gave to me.
N won't stop with grieving and thanks and comforting. She's already thinking deeply about what she can do to "change the dynamics of this country so that when a President lies to us, cheats us, scams us, steals from us, scares us, depresses the economy, makes women's lives harder and chips away at the health and beauty of our mother Gaia that Americans will respond out of outrage, not out of fear at a threat that is (mostly if not wholly) created by the same people who are perpetrating the rest of the CRAP?"
Yes! I think my job will be to support
N. She's got the energy, time, resources, heart, mind, and spirit for this. I'll also take in at the next deeper level how important encouragement, support, and connection are for our well-being.
As for the rest of the world, there's an interesting piece (
GOD SAVE AMERICA) from Brian Reade at the Mirror (UK), giving an international perspective. Reade says:
This once-great country has pulled up its drawbridge for another four years and stuck a finger up to the billions of us forced to share the same air. And in doing so, it has shown itself to be a fearful, backward-looking and very small nation.
This should have been the day when Americans finally answered their critics by raising their eyes from their own sidewalks and looking outward towards the rest of humanity.
And for a few hours early yesterday, when the exit polls predicted a John Kerry victory, it seemed they had.
But then the horrible, inevitable truth hit home. They had somehow managed to re-elect the most devious, blinkered and reckless leader ever put before them. The Yellow Rogue of Texas.
Haloscan:
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Blogger:
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Heather, you are a beacon of blue light in a field of red. We really are everywhere, and knowing that helps.
My state went for Kerry, but my native Texas is, well, the home of the Yellow Rogue. It is so strange -- for most of my four decades in Texas there just weren't such things as Republican governors.
Is this rise in Republican religious conservatism the "last gasp of the patriarchy" as so many have opined? It sure is a long gasp, if so....