One of my favorite "good citizen" activities has always been volunteering on various political campaigns. I've been doing this since I was 17 and handed out flyers for Mark Warner's first Senate run. It's fun, despite the horrible things old ladies in Southwest Virginia call you (rhymes with punt), and I like having the backstage look at what happens in state or local campaign offices. I was so excited in 2016 to campaign for Hillary Clinton. I canvassed, I phone banked, I registered voters, and I worked as a poll place greeter. I felt energized in way I hadn't felt since that first campaign 20 years earlier. It wasn't that I didn't feel like part of something bigger in other campaigns (Obama's first term comes to mind), it's that this race felt uniquely personal.
And then I woke up on November 9th.
I was gutted. I couldn't believe she didn't win. I knew I it was going to happen before I went to bed on Election Night; I stayed up until Florida was called, but I had this hope that I'd wake up the next morning and it would all be revealed as a horrible joke. And here we are, almost four years later, living in the most messed up timeline in a long time. Trump's America in 2020 is a disaster and he is an embarrassment. Existing in this country at this time is exhausting. As Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (NM) said during the DNC, Trump's presidency is "an existential crisis." I don't think I've ever agreed with a statement more than this. I feel it in bones how exhausting it is. I have never in my entire life thought about the presidency more than I have since he was elected, and none of it is good. I'd like to return to a life where I don't spend so much time thinking about what disaster is going to happen next. Or what stupid, racist thing he's going to say next. Or worry that the Post Office is going to collapse and one of my neighbors won't get his medication on time (I'd go get if for him if I could, but that's not the point and it comes from the VA). I legitimately can't think about what another four years of this will do to all of us.
And so I did what good citizen me does, I stayed up late on two school nights and watched nights three and four of the Democratic National Convention. I figured that the convention, which I've watched every presidential election cycle since 1996, would cheer me up a bit, or at least give me some hope. I missed the roll call vote from night two, but watched it on YouTube. It's amazing; take the 40-ish minutes and watch the whole thing. Then go watch Michelle Obama and Jill Biden's speeches from the first two nights. They're wonderful.
I opted to watch nights three and four so I could watch Joe Biden and Kamala Harris accept their nominations. There were times when I was moved to tears: Gabby Giffords's speech, the segment on gun violence victims, young climate change activists, domestic violence survivors discussing Biden's role in getting the Violence Against Women Act (which needs to be reauthorized now), anything about Beau Biden. Other times, the speeches and videos were energizing and made me so proud to be a citizen and a member of this party. Yes, I was annoyed Mike Bloomberg had any time and Julian Castro had none. I understood why some speakers had more time. Elizabeth Warren will always be my candidate (excellent BLM message in background). I loved President Obama's "fiery" (you know, Obama fiery) speech, and cannot wait for Vice President Kamala Harris.
The moment I was most moved by and have been sitting with since Thursday was during Joe Biden's acceptance speech. It was probably the best speech I've ever seen him give; he wasn't a candidate, he was a President. I forgot what a having an articulate President looks like, what a leader looks like. It was overwhelming to watch (in a very good way). The part of the speech that hit me the hardest was when Biden offered his condolences to those lost to the pandemic. I started crying; that was the moment that did it. We haven't had any sort of national mourning or memorial for those lost. Unlike past national tragedies, we haven't come together as a nation to mourn. I could rationalize that because the pandemic is still raging in the US, it's hard to nationally mourn, but that's only part of it. The problem lies with the person currently occupying the White House. Biden did, in a few minutes, what the president should have done, but hasn't. The contrast between these two men could not be any clearer.
I know I'm being a bit of a broken record these days, but I can't stress enough how important it is for everyone to vote. It's not just about being a good citizen; it's about fighting for the soul of this nation. I can't stress that enough. Please don't stay home or vote third party because Joe Biden wasn't your candidate. He wasn't mine either, but I understand, and I think a lot of people grumbling about him understand, he's the candidate we need right now. What I saw during the DNC was a unified party, something we haven't had in a long time. We need that to defeat the Impostor in Chief.
I really want to go back to a time when I wrote about movies, my ridiculously handsome cat, and day trips to Dinosaur Land, but I can't do that right now. I hope that sometime in 2021, maybe around the middle of January, I'll be able to return to our regularly scheduled Island. Until then, this is what you get. Reminders to vote, be decent to one another, and wear your damn mask.
(This photos are from an embroidery piece I finished a few months ago. One side is a song lyric, the other side is a graphic representation of the lyric. This lyric is from "People Have the Power" by Patti Smith.)
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