It was about 2/3rd into Kerry’s concession speech that I lost it, a little. Oh, I looked it up. This made me teary eyed
I was watching it in the Government Dept lounge with Favorite Professor and a few others. She was like “Rachel, you didn’t even vote for him!”
This is true, but watching Kerry made me realize that despite my cynicism, despite saying over and over that there was no way Bush would lose there was a teeny tiny part of me that was holding out hope. I dont’ know how I would have felt about a Kerry victory because I have so little political attraction to the man, but I guess there was a piece of me that didn’t want to give in to four more years of this nonsense.
And then there was this: And of course I get all teary again. This woman is the only writer who wrote something about September 11th that made me cry. Hell, that STILL makes me cry when I re-read it. Anyawy, for posterity’s sake, Sarah Bunting’s response to “What do we do now?” in regards to the results of Election 2004 is behind the cut.
“This is Not Over” – Sarah Bunting, Tomato Nation
Yeah, I know. No…I know. Listen: This. Is. Not. Over.
The United States is about potential. No other country has a dream named after it, a dream about improvement and achievement. The results of this election fill me with dread, frankly, but also with determination, because the dream is not dead. This country is, to my mind, in some serious fucking trouble right now. It’s a big job to fix it, the guy in charge is wrong for the job, the legislature is wrong for the job — it’s depressing and shitty. But millions of people thought Bush sucked and tried to vote him out — millions! It didn’t work, which is a grave disappointment, but — millions! Think what millions could do if they applied themselves — in any direction! Writing letters, protesting, raising money, organizing, educating themselves and others. Stubbornly staying put and refusing to back down. Improving the country. Achieving something.
Yes, Bush won. Yes, I want to barf until my stomach lands in the bowl and I die. Yes, I hate that I live in a country where more than half the citizens think that dumb-ass is a good leader. But I also live in a country where I nicely asked people to give some money to public schools, and those people raised more than ten grand in a week. Yeah, it’s a contest, but y’all didn’t do that because you wanted a tote bag, for God’s sake. You did it because you give a shit. And my readership is not composed of Fortune 500 types, either. (As far as I know. Fortune 500 types welcome, of course. Hi, Mr. Soros! Call me!) It’s just folks. It’s just you guys, people trying to get by, who did something nice and tried to help and became a part of something. I can’t tell you what that’s worth.
So, no, it’s not a good day, but this country still has so many good people and good ideas in it, and I can’t imagine that the good in this country won’t prevail. And until that happens, I won’t leave. There’s work to do. There are faces to get up in, which I’m happy to take the lead on, because I already have an FBI file so what the hell, right?
Senator John Edwards just said that “this fight has just begun.” That’s goddamn right, cutie. So, readers, get drunk, kick something really hard, scream into a pillow, cut that photo of Karl Rove out of The New Yorker and stab it with a pen, but — stick around, because I’m telling you, this show is about to get good.
This is not over.
