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It's damn' hard to have any kind of hope under the relentless barrage of bankster-funded anti-change propaganda.
It's damn' hard to have any kind of hope in the face of the frighteningly dumbed-down level of "civic discourse" holding sway in America today.
It's damn' hard to have any kind of hope with the fear being monged wholesale, 5-for-1 at a 95% discount on all sides these days.
But I still have hope.
Two years ago, I VOTED FOR A NON-WHITE CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
And he WON!!!
Those of you who weren't alive to see black people being chased away from polling places with vicious dogs won't understand just exactly the strength and depth of the feelings that brought tears to my eyes on election night, 2008.
The pace of change is slow. Too slow for the millions hurt by Things-As-They-Are. But change continues.
My uncle, to whom I'm pretty close, turned 93 this spring. He's gay. He grew up in a world that wouldn't let him be himself. He had to force his soul into a tiny little box designed by others who hate what he is, for almost his entire lifetime. I look at him today... he's a cranky old coot, but the vestiges of a scarily ironic sense of humor are still there. His health deteriorated over a long time and I have to wonder how much the stress of being a person playing an unnatural role for so many years contributed to that. And I wonder what it would have been like if he'd been allowed to be himself, all his life.
My sister, seven years older than I, is also gay. She could at least come out, in the 1970s, without fear for her life. She was beat up a couple of times, her stuff was vandalized, she was denied admission to crafts trades union apprenticeships and given no end of shit when she took Voc-Ed courses to learn what the crafts unions wouldn't teach her. She's seen some. And seeing some has had its effect on her, too. She's had a better chance than our uncle. But in her case, too, I wonder what she'd be like today if she'd been allowed to be herself all her life.
The baggers want to haul us back to some mythical golden era when people like them were treated right. Newsflash, baggers: You were never, EVER "treated right" by the corporate oligarchs who own us all. You were just allowed more people to look down on, so you felt more up than you ever were.
Anyway, it ain't gonna happen.
The corporate oligarchs are still in charge. They've made a lot of scary gains in the last thirty-five years, true.
But what's thirty-five years against the arc of history? With all the economic devolution and suffering inflicted on us today, things are STILL better than they were when I was born. They are even better, in many ways, than they were in the early 1970s when the economic situation for non-oligarchs was as good as it ever got. The early 1970s were when my friend BJ got beat up and nearly killed in a park by "fag bashers," and the police shrugged and said there wasn't anything they could do, really. There was still conscription in the early 1970s-- not only were we waging a stupid, costly war, but unwilling non-volunteers were being sent there against their wills to die in hundreds and thousands. In the early 1970s you could damn' near kill yourself breathing the automobile exhaust in LA and several other large cities. The Cuyahoga river had just burned and Love Canal was killing hundreds.
Yeah, some things are worse. A lot worse. I'm not saying we're doing great.
I'm just saying that the arc of history is indeed long. And yes, it bends toward justice.
We may or may not have a chance to stave off a little more devolution based on this year's election results.
Myself, I think there is hope.
I think the worst-case scenarios are not going to materialize.
I think they're going to be surprised.
I think a lot of people --some of them here on DU-- have been quietly, under the radar, ignored by the propaganda machine, been working to make sure that the triumphalist boasting of the bagger wackjobs is going to look just as stupid as it is.
There isn't going to be a huge reactionary wave of nutcakes ushered into statehouses, governor's mansions, and the US Congress.
There will be some.
It will continue to be hard to hold any ground at all against the oligarchs and devolutionists. It will continue to be agonizingly difficult to make tiny steps toward a better future.
But it will continue to be possible.
If we care.
If we stop waiting for conditions to be ideal, our leaders to be perfect, our fellow-citizens to have a blinding epiphany about how correct we are, have been all along.
If we just keep working, day by day, in the natural direction of history, however slowly it may progress.
If we rest and refresh ourselves with humor and irony and a touch of resignation at the absurdity of it all, and don't get sidetracked or let our energy be sapped in fighting amongst ourselves.
Hope will win, in the end.
This I believe.
NOW GET THE HELL OUT THERE AND VOTE, IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!
And to those of you who are putting time and energy and shoe leather and vocal cords and sweat and eyestrain into the GOTV effort, my profound and heartfelt thanks. YOU are why I continue to hope.
determinedly,
Bright
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