DANCING IN THE STREETS

It's over (ish).  The election, fraught with so much discord, distrust, and disarray, has been decided.  WE WON!  Well, "we" if you were supporting the Biden/Harris ticket, which I most certainly was.  

On Election Night November 3rd we sat glued to the TV watching returns come in.  Nothing was decided by the time I went to bed at 10:00 PST.  Hub stayed up until 1:00 a.m.  We were back at the TV on and off on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  I couldn't take hours upon hours of hearing nothing but the trickling in of votes and ongoing commentary that was nothing more than speculation, so I went to bed early and then was awake at 4 a.m. tuning in to the overnight results, which continued to come in agonizingly slowly.  I did learn the names of important counties in Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia and could recognize all of their election officials by sight, for what that's worth.  I also know what the vote counters were wearing and how long they each worked and where they sat/stood to count.  I saw the current president's supporters chanting "Count the Votes!" in Arizona and "Stop the Count" in Georgia, depending on how their candidate was doing.  It was ridiculous, but pretty typical of his whole regime.

We had been warned that we might not know the result for many days given the Covid-induced numbers of states allowing mail-in ballots, with all of them having different rules on when votes could be counted and for how long.  We had been warned, also, that there would be a "red mirage" of early same-day vote reporting that showed the GOP candidate ahead, but that lead would disappear as the Dem. votes came in later from mostly mail-in ballots.

Still, by Thursday night we were no longer patient and no longer remembering that the "red mirage" was not reality.  We were, many of us, relieved to be ahead but dismayed, angered, and saddened to find that there would be no "blue wave" of overwhelming repudiation of the man in charge of the chaos of the last four years.  Some of us raged, sobbed, stomped our feet, and sat in mute disbelief.  (Well, at least one of us did.)  This was not how we had hoped it would go.  Nor was it what the pre-election polls predicted.  We are now finally and truly OVER listening pollsters.  Something has gone awry with their methodology.  

So, when all major networks announced a winner at around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday November 7, my overwhelming feeling initially was just relief.  Finally!  Then it sank in and euphoria arose.  WE HAD DEFEATED HIM!  After 4 years of his abuse, of a slide into deeper authoritarianism, of resistance and work and worry and oppression, of chaos and dismay and disbelief, we had said, "NO!"

Spontaneous parties erupted throughout the United States with video of major metropolitan areas showing people taking to the streets in joyful exuberant (masked) cheering, dancing, and singing!  And not only in the U.S.  -- people in European capitals joined in, with one correspondent musing that it felt like his experience of seeing dictatorships toppled.  Indeed.  Saturday was a day of celebration for sure, especially when we all settled in to watch Kamala Harris -- first woman/woman of color Vice President -- take the stage in her Suffragette white pantsuit, then Joe Biden after her to deliver a beautiful and moving speech about healing the soul of the nation.  Tears, joy, relief.  Overwhelming relief. Many, including me, described the feeling of as if a great weight had been lifted from our bodies.

Not all of us were joyous, of course. And that part is very troubling.  Here are the vote totals today:  Biden 76,408,662 (50.8%) 290 electoral ; Trump 71,495,756 (47.5%) 214 electoral.   A week later, only North Carolina (leaning Trump) and Georgia (leaning Biden) are still outstanding.   It was a record-breaking turnout, over 66%, with Biden winning more votes than any candidate in history.   But what that also indicates is a country divided along party lines that shows no sign of healing, yet.  

The current president has refused to concede, is pursuing a zillion simultaneous lawsuits in a variety of states (all defeated or thrown out so far) and has instructed the Justice Department to investigate voter fraud (with absolutely zero evidence of such) and will not allow the GSA to give permission to the Biden campaign to start the official transition process.  So there's that.  A bunch of his administration and Congressional sycophants and his citizen supporters are "all in" on this move to stage an electoral coup.  They won't succeed, but they will keep us mired in anger, chaos, and confusion -- and will play up the "stolen election" lie to keep their supporters violently and rage-fully blaming the "socialist democrats" for taking over their country and their rights.  It's scary.  And sad.  And infuriating.

And yet, something wonderful and important has happened.  We fought back against a credible threat to our democracy.   A majority of Americans chose experience, decency, and hope.  We chose a man of character and empathy, with vast experience in leading.  

And we chose a woman to be at the top (or near enough for now) -- a dynamic, intelligent, capable, joyful, charismatic woman of black and East Indian descent to be Vice President.  This is a phenomenal thing for me to finally see in my lifetime.  I had been an early and ardent Harris supporter for her presidential bid until she dropped out.  I happily switched my allegiance to Elizabeth Warren, whom I also adore.  But to have Kamala back and in charge is a gift I didn't expect to get.  There is a person in power who knows my lived experience as a woman, who is a role model for my granddaughters who will grow up in a world where it will seem impossible for them to believe this used to be unheard of...a woman at the highest levels of our government.  I feel like dancing.

At least, that's the view from here...©

THE NIGHT BEFORE...

 I don't really know what to say here.  It just seems like some thoughts, however confused and incomplete, should mark this occasion.  Tomorrow is Election Day.  But really we have been participating in an "election season" for weeks.  Tomorrow is merely the last voting day, not the first or only one.

Many states have done early voting for years either in person or by absentee ballot. Our state has been a vote-by-mail state since 2011; we receive our ballots about two weeks before election day and can vote up to midnight (postmarked or dropped at Dropbox) on Election Day. This year with the pandemic raging many more states have gone to vote by mail, some for the first time.  There are various new rules in place about when the ballots must be returned: some postmarked by election day and some returned by election day.  

Voter suppression tactics are rampant.  

Republican party bosses are taking counties and states to court to try to curb counting some ballots they deem 'late' or in defiance of some silly rule.  For example, even a Republican-appointed judge in Texas ruled that they cannot throw out nearly 130,000 ballots they say were returned inappropriately at a drive through dropbox location, which had previously been approved.  The Republicans then took the case to appeal at a Federal District Court where the conservative judge also ruled against them.  These lawsuits are frivolous and meant to slow the process down and sew seeds of doubt in the election process.

Tactics like these are happening especially in swing states and in areas where there is a majority people of color -- those who typically vote Democratic.  Closing polling places is also a favorite gambit -- creating geographical and time barriers to voting.  Voters must stand in long, long (6, 8, 10, 12 hour) lines to cast a ballot at the one remaining polling place.  Famously, an Administration hack was appointed Post Master General recently and he immediately dismantled sorting machines in certain post offices and removed street corner mailboxes as well.  He declared no more overtime to get mail delivered on time and the mail delivery has slowed to a crawl in some areas of the country to thwart mail-in voting.  

All of this and so, so much more is providing a greater, not lesser,  motivation for folks to be sure to vote, to be sure nothing stops anyone from casting their ballot, to be sure not to wait until election day to have their say.  Nearly 100 million people have already voted!  This is nearly 2/3 of the total vote in 2016.  We don't know what this means for the outcome, of course, but it bodes well we think, and at least demonstrates the determination of voters this year.  Why? 

The past four years have been a nightmare of chaos at the top levels of our government.  Norms, laws, values, traditions have been denigrated and turned on their heads.  Hate speech, name calling, lying, deception, gas-lighting, and corruption have been daily occurrences.  Americans are divided by ideology, culture, and deep dislike for one another (not to mention the casual and overtly intentional acting upon the racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia some thrive on.)  Many of us feel exhausted.  Many of us are not sure what to do if he wins another term, or even if he refuses to leave in defeat, as he has stated.  

On the other hand, many believe the lies they've been told that Democrats are closet socialists and are out to destroy America.  So they are motivated to "save" their country too.  

But here's what I'm thinking tonight, from my perspective:  

I'm amazed at the way so many have fought for a chance to vote him out, to vote early, to stand in long lines, to be undeterred. 

I'm grateful for wise, articulate, caring, compassionate people who will not give up, who will lead, and follow, and create, and keep going.  

I'm grateful for the people I've worked with to write letters and postcards to Get Out TheVote and for those who have made calls, sent texts, waved signs, reached out via social media, made contributions -- who have sacrificed their time, talent, and treasure to try to ensure a change for the better.

I'm grateful for the Facebook groups, the historians, the commentators, the people I will never know but who make up those with whom I am aligned and from whom I've gained knowledge, strength, and support.  

I'm grateful for the free press, for reporters who have been denigrated and threatened every single day and have still done the hard work of unearthing all the wrongdoing and letting us know about it.  

I'm grateful for Democratic elected officials who did every single thing they could to thwart this administration's wrongdoing even knowing they did not have the political power to really stop him; they fought with what they had and made sure everyone knew what was happening in spite of their best efforts.  

I'm grateful to know there are millions of American citizens who are just fine with a racist authoritarian in the White House.  I need to stop living in a fantasy of believing we are all in agreement on values; we are not.  I'll never again believe in the inherent goodness and rightness of the United States of America, believing as I did until 2016, that good people would not let a bad government survive and thrive.  They will and they will cheer for it.  

I'm grateful I now know how fragile our democracy is and how easily it can be lost. 

I'm cautiously hopeful about Biden/Harris winning the election.  And like many, the PTSD of 2016 kicks in like a bad luck charm the minute I express that optimism.  There is so much pain to overcome.

So, bottom line, I am grateful to believe, still, that fighting for diversity, equality, compassion, and democracy is a courageous act and that no one I know is giving up on that.  No matter what happens tomorrow, we are in this together.  We will get through and we will persevere.  No matter what happens tomorrow good people of goodwill will not be defeated.  Love wins.  Eventually, always, love wins. Let's start tomorrow.

At least, that's the view from here...©

THE SACRAMENT: UPDATED

In October 2012 I wrote most of what follows as the Obama/Romney election drew near.  I am updating it for 2020 with just a few tweaks.  For example, then I said I didn't like the new idea of mail-in ballots.  Now I love voting at home.  And this year, with the Covid 19 pandemic raging, there will be more mail-in voting in more states than ever before.  I also thought that 2012 was a very important election, and of course it was.  They all are.  But nothing in my lifetime compares to 2020.  

The hyperbolic declaration of "the most important election in our lifetime" finally lives up to the hype.  This is definitely it.  Our United States is anything but united and our Republic is in a world of hurt, as the tether to anything resembling democracy hangs by an ever thinning thread.  The current president, elected by the Electoral College -- not the majority of the people, has snubbed his nose at norms, values, laws, precedents, and the very Constitution, abetted by leaders of the Republican party such that we are now seen as pitiable by many countries, not mighty.  Our allies have gone silent, our enemies emboldened, our people violently divided.  Many of us feel we've been living with an immature, cruel, gaslighting, lying, psychologically abusing president and those who should be there to stop him and protect us have turned a blind eye at best, aided him at worst.  Yes.  This is important.  

My ballot arrived on Friday and I voted, as I did in 2012 when I wrote the original version of this post, but this time I sent up an extra prayer to go along with my sacred ritual.

THE SACRAMENT:

We are 16 days away from the 2020 Presidential election.  Everybody is pretty much sick of politics at this point.  Me included, even though presidential election years are like Mardi Gras to me.  Spectacle, tradition, ritual, absurdity, and at base deeply important – even “religious”.  I treat voting like a Sacrament.

Our state went to an all mail-in ballot voting system in 2011.  At first I didn't like it because I had loved going to the polls on Election Day.  It was high school civics class come to life.  My polling place was the local elementary school where my boys were students.  I saw familiar kids, teachers, neighbors, and poll-workers – a true sense of community.  I loved being handed my ballot and walking to the booth to cast my votes amid the hubbub of activity around me in the school cafeteria.  It reminded me why I was voting at all.  I loved getting my “I VOTED” sticker, which I wore proudly the rest of the day, like ashes on my forehead.

Now I have a different voting experience.  My ballot arrives in the mail about 2 weeks before the election.  I don’t open it until the day I set aside for voting.  At that point I sit at the dining room table with my Voter’s Pamphlet and a cup of coffee.  I become quiet, focused, and intent on making my final decisions.  I might read once more about each initiative, the “for” and “against” arguments.  I might read once more the candidates statements.  And then I fill in the bubble next to the name of the one I’ve chosen to vote for with great care, ensuring the little oval is completely filled in with no extraneous marks.  I feel like the altar guild ladies preparing for communion.  Everything just so.  Because I want to be sure my vote will count – no errors.  Then I put the ballot in the envelope and sign my name carefully where indicated.  Instead of mailing it, which I could, I drive to County Building Dropbox downtown, to slide my envelope into the slot, ensuing my vote is delivered by my own hand.  Amen.

This may sound seriously neurotic.  To me it feels seriously patriotic.  Voting is a right, a responsibility, and above all, a privilege.  I think it is the most amazing thing, this representative form of government of ours.  It’s broken now, I know that.  Money, lies, betrayals, foreign attacks, gerrymandering, voter suppression, apathy, cynicism…it’s all in stark evidence this year.  That makes me sad for our country, for our democracy.  But I won’t give up.  I still believe my vote counts.  The only way we lose this grand experiment, this model of democracy that people in other lands are literally dying to emulate, is to stop voting.

My vote is my prayer of thanks for our nation's flawed, but visionary founders; for those soldiers who fought for independence and freedom;  for the women who marched and were jailed and tortured to win me, their sister, the right to cast a ballot alongside men; for the Freedom Riders who stood shoulder to shoulder with their brothers and sisters to desegregate the south and eventually win the right to vote for all.  Our history is about preserving – and serving – this big, messy, majestic United States of America.

My vote is also my prayer for hope for the future.  It really does matter who is in the White House and what that person’s vision and leadership will manifest.  It really does matter who is in the Congress and whether their positions on issues, which will become the laws we must all obey, are those which will benefit all Americans.  It really does matter who sits on the Supreme Court and is the final arbiter of dispute, interpretation, and enactment of those laws.  Our vote is our voice, representing our values and world view.  Who we vote for says almost everything about who we are and what vision we hold for future generations.

How can we do anything less than to cast a vote for those who are most likely to embrace the inherent dignity of every person within our borders and set policy that will respect, uplift, and benefit every one of us?  How can we do anything less than to take this right seriously, cast our vote joyfully, and shout “Halleluja!” on Election Day? 🙏🏽🇺🇸

At least, that’s the view from here…© 

Photo Credit: www.pixabay.com

SMOKE GETS IN MY EYES

A few years ago I went through a period of reading YA Dystopian novels:  The Hunger Games series, the Divergent series.  I loved them.  Great characters, stories, settings.  Now, though, I almost feel like I am in the midst of one of those novels and it's not nearly so much fun.

For one thing, it's hard to breathe.  Not just because the current president and his minions continue to take my breath away with their slash and burn march to an authoritarian state, but because there is so much smoke in the air my eyes burn, my throat feels raw, and my chest feels a bit heavy.  I realize I'm taking shallow breaths, trying not to take in too much particulate matter with what life-giving oxygen is also available.

This is the second summer of weeks of low-hanging smoke, blotting out what should be the Northwest's best weather -- bright blue skies, sunshine, breathtaking (in a good way) views of mountains and water.  Summer is so precious here, I am feeling cheated from days I look forward to all the rest of the year.

Again this year the western United States and Canada seems to be on fire.  Forest fires are everywhere and the smoke drifts into this area from as far away as Siberia!  Why so bad?  The short answer is that summers are hotter and drier, making forests even more vulnerable to fire (due to careless humans or Mother Nature).

Climate change is REAL.  There is no "I believe in or don't believe in" climate change.  It's not a belief statement.  It's a fact.  We've been warned of the harmful effects of our love affair with fossil fuels for decades.  It's all escalating now and the effects are being visited upon us with more frequent and devastating forest fires, more frequent and devastating hurricanes, tornados, and torrential rainfalls and floods.  It's all escalating now with ice caps and glaciers melting at an alarming rate, causing sea levels to rise.  People talk about warmer winters, less snow.

People get confused about the difference between "weather" and "climate".  Short-term changes in the atmosphere is 'weather' and yes, it can be super cold in the winter, or there can be a big snowstorm and still we would be in the throes of global warming because long-term changes over time is "climate".  Scientific studies prove that over time, and rapidly escalating, the earth's climate is warming.  That's not good for the living things that are currently living.  I suppose there might be adaptation over time, for awhile, but not in our lifetimes, nor our grandchildren's.  I wonder if one day humans will be living a Waterworld or Mad Max life?

We are living this week under an "Air Quality Alert", with the pollution currently at a level in my community listed as:

169

Unhealthy

We are to limit outdoor exposure, to stay in with doors and windows closed.  My granddaughter's childcare/preschool is not allowing the kids to play outside -- on a midsummer's day.  That makes me very sad.  We will continue to be impacted as the air quality worsens, as it's predicted to do by tonight through Wednesday.  Some people in Eastern Washington, where Very Unhealthy and Hazardous air quality warnings are stretching into many days, are looking into home air filtration systems and respirator type masks.  Parents are getting desperate to find indoor activities for their housebound kids.

We are on an unstoppable train right now, but we can slow it down and maybe even reverse this trend if we, as a collective human family, have the will to do so.  It feels lately like we don't, at least in the US where the current president was elected on an "anti-regulation" promise and went on to choose Cabinet Secretaries who are happily dismantling their agencies, including Energy and the EPA, and who also exited the US from the Paris Climate Accords, which strives to address global warming concerns.  We stand alone at this point in being outside the Accords' world family.

In Washington state we have a chance to be national leaders on addressing climate impacts on the local level by passing I-1631 which will levy a fee on the most egregious corporate polluters.  The money would go not into the State's general fund, but into a designated fund overseen by a non-partisan citizen's group of environmentalists, health care providers, business leaders, faith groups, and communities of color coalitions.  Over 100 organizational endorsers are on board.  Hundreds of volunteers, including Hub and I, are door belling and reaching out via email and social media to Get Out The Vote.  The opponents are throwing millions of dollars at an "anti-1631 campaign" with advertising and attack ads.  Still, we remain hopeful.


So, as I sit writing inside on this 80-degree day, looking out at the smoke obscuring my usual lovely summer views, I have to wonder if there are any super fashionable respirator masks on Amazon.  I would like a purple one.

At least, that's the (smoke-obscured) view from here...©

TRUE CONFESSION

I've been putting this off for awhile.  Well, for 45-1/2 years to be exact.  But this being a new year and me leaning into Fierce Optimism when it comes to our political situation right now, I'm going to reveal one of the deepest, darkest secrets of my adult life.  Brace yourselves.

I voted for Richard Nixon in 1972.

Dear god, I already feel everyone in my circle fleeing in horror.  When I sign back onto Facebook, I will discover I've been unfriended en mass.  If I hadn't already stepped away from my Unitarian Universalist church, I'd be shunned on Sunday morning. (Not really -- they are a very welcoming group, but they'd be shocked nonetheless.)  My bonafides -- Progressive, Liberal, Feminist, Peace-Loving, Diversity-Embracing banner-carrier -- are now called into question and found wanting at best, lies at worst.  I fear being drummed out of the Resistance.

But you see, this admission also allows me to take a long, hard look at my own judgementalism.  (Is that a word?  Well, it seems another "ism" to fight against.)

I have railed against, denigrated, and blamed every single person who voted for the current president for their ability to accept, or overlook, certain aspects of his demonstrably piss-poor character and outrageous racism and misogyny.  I still hold some blame toward those who were "I hate Hillary enough to vote for an unfit, unhinged, inexperienced reality show host to lead our country".  And toward those who STILL support him, after the year of living dangerously we've just endured, I am speechless and we can probably find zero common ground, ever, on this topic.

But to those who were willfully, lazily, ignorant; I guess I offer grudging understanding.  Been there, done that.

I first knew of Richard Nixon during the 1960 election year, when I was just shy of 10 years old. I'd spent the campaign cycle amongst my fellow 4th graders, whose parents were predominantly former "I Like Ike" Republicans and just transferred their allegiance to Nixon.  I recall only one little girl in my class who was "for Kennedy".  She was seen as weird and sort of exotic, even after JFK visited our blue collar factory town whose visit, in my family, was characterized as merely an annoying traffic tie-up downtown.  We little girls even gave our Girl Scout leader the endearing nickname, "Nikki" -- short for Nixon!

My parents never discussed politics; I didn't have a clue where they stood on the issues.  I just knew we were Republicans -- like every single other person I knew except that one little girl.  Nixon lost in 1960 (robbed by that scoundrel Daley, mayor of the big, bad city an hour east of us).  But he went on to win in '68 and it just seemed natural.  I grew up with the idea that Richard Nixon was Presidential.

In the 60's I had awakened to the horror of the Vietnam War, which seems awful, but I didn't really question it or take the initiative to understand it.  I was drawn to the appeal of the "hippie culture" and flirted with that by listening to "psychedelic" pop music, wearing bell-bottoms, hanging out with long-haired guys, and smoking a bit of weed.  I'd come to find the Kennedy clan exciting and good-looking and I watched Bobby Kennedy with some modicum of budding interest in politics.  I cried when he was killed and the world seemed to be moving out of it's familiar orbit.  But mostly my life was still comfortably conservative, small town, and unworldly.  I did not "fight the man".

So when Nixon ran in 1972, I was a month shy of turning 22 and four months into being a newlywed.  I had mostly left my counter-culture flirtation behind and turned my concerns to "keeping house" like a grownup and perfecting a chicken fried steak recipe prepared in my new avocado green electric frying pan in the yellow-walled kitchen of our second story walk-up apartment.  I was also on a bowling league.

Still, I was excited to vote for the first time (voting age was still 21 then).  The polling place for our precinct was, oddly, in the basement of a private home as I recall -- that does seem weird, but it's how I remember it now.  I stepped up to the voting booth, closed the privacy curtain, and voted for Richard Nixon, because he was already president, so he must be a good one and he'd been around most of my life, so yeah....that was that.   I never gave it another thought.

Until late 1973.  We'd moved by then into Chicago for Hub's med school adventure.  I was working as a secretarial clerk at the medical center, a virtual United Nations of docs from all over the world.  I also started college for the first time at age 23.  The world around me suddenly went from black and white to color.  YOWZA!  There was so much to learn!  By the time Nixon resigned in 1974, I had a year of college under my belt, was a newly-minted Democrat, liberal, feminist and cheered his departure with my supervisor, sitting in front of a small TV she'd brought into the office for the occasion.  She was my first political teacher and I was the model student at her knee.

Was I willfully ignorant in 1972 or just disinterested?  That's where it gets tricky in my judgementalism.  I think disinterested ignorance, especially in this day and age of internet access to a wide variety of thought, opinion, and information is willful.  These days ya gotta actively avoid being educated about the political landscape and that is a choice.

But didn't I make the same choice in 1972?  I was so immersed in my own life of work, friends, and newlywed-ness; so surrounded by a conservative, Republican community; so sheltered from  diversity; so immune to critical thinking, that I just went along.  I may have glanced at the one local newspaper and may have switched on Walter Cronkite in the evening, but none of it seemed relevant to me.  I was working my way through my new Betty Crocker cookbook and trying to improve my bowling average.

So, I get it.  I get that some people are still just like I was at a certain point in their lives and since I forgive myself, I have to forgive them too.  Immaturity, self-absorption, and/or lack of experience in the wider world all contribute to choices that later on seem impossible, even grossly embarrassing.

My optimism comes in the form of hope that just as I found an awakening through education, experience, exposure to diversity, and even maturity, others will too.  They will discover that an informed and active populace, with critical thinking skills, is essential to a functioning democracy.

I'm not saying everyone will follow my lead and vote Democratic.  But my FIERCE OPTIMISM is that the disinterested will awaken and that never again will the voters elect a wholly unqualified, dangerous, authoritarian-wanna-be to the White House, nor tolerate those who prop him up for their own (and their corporate donors) self-interest.  Be a Republican if you must, but be a good one.

At least, that's the view from here...©

NOT HOLDING MY BREATH

It's election day for local races in our area. There is a woman I'm supporting for Mayor and a young man I'm supporting for City Council.  They are both progressive, with ideas for moving past the stodgy good old boy network here and bringing new life and vitality to city government in our city, which is growing in exciting ways, full of urban challenges, and still in some ways stuck in the last century.  I hope they will win.  And I'm not holding my breath.

A year ago, I was dressed in my Pantsuit Nation pantsuit, planning my election night victory party.  About this time in the afternoon a year ago I was euphoric about what I knew was just hours away...our first woman president and a woman I supported and admired at that.  We all know how that turned out.

There are days (OK, every day) when I am still suffering from shock.  I feel like my life turned inside out last November.

Everything I believed about my brother/sister Americans was proven wrong: Millions of them are perfectly OK with a sexual predator, racist, money-grubbing, corrupt, malignant narcissist in the White House.

What I thought I knew about my country was proven wrong: Patriotism doesn't extend much beyond flags and songs; voting is optional and some citizens bothering to educate themselves to be informed and not influenced by obvious media manipulations is rare.

The idea that even if lawmakers disagree on policy, but will definitely come together for the good of the nation when our ideals, norms, and even laws are disregarded to the detriment of the majority was a naive belief:  Partisanship and donor-pleasing is way more important than democracy.

No more starry-eyed optimism for me.  The past year has been a daily horror show of disappointment, disgust, and dismay.

So, I identified myself with the Resistance and wrote my letters, made my calls, marched in my marches, waved my signs, gathered with other activists for encouragement and strategizing.   I did as the Resistance instructed and got involved locally in races that actually effect my everyday life in my city and county.  But dirty political shenanigans have turned up here as well and I have to wonder how many will not bother to seek the truth, will buy the line of bull they see online, will just sit this one out.  (Voter turnout for the Primary for the election today was 24%.  Yep.  24% bothered to care a whit about who would run their city for the next four years.)

I'm going to my Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction meditation class tonight (read all about it on my Yoga blog) and when I get home, I'll flip on the TV and catch the election results from across the nation and in my own backyard.  I hope the good guys win.  But I'm not holding my breath.

At least, that's the view from here...

P.S.  I WAS WRONG!!!!!!!  Tuesday Night's election results were heartening and even joyous in many races across the country in cities, counties, states north, south, east, and west.  Get this...
women ran and won -- including a woman who decided to run when (and she beat him!) an incumbent Tweeted that he hoped all the women in the women's march would be home in time to make dinner.  B-bye, asshole.  And a transgender woman won, beating the guy who introduced and touted the "bathroom bill" which outlawed a transgendered person from using the public restroom of their choice.  Another transgendered woman won in her race, a Sikh man (first ever) won in his race, black men and women won, an anti-NRA, gun safety advocate beat a pro-gun guy.  Seattle elected a Lesbian mayor, and Washington flipped the only district where a Republican gave the Statehouse a majority, and now we join Oregon and California to form the "Blue Wall" on the west coast of states who have Democratic Governors, Statehouses, and Attorneys General.

In my local races, alas, my first-timer City Council candidate lost, but my incumbent won.  The Mayor's race is still too close to call, the two women separated by a mere handful of votes.  The worst result was a neighboring town electing the Trump equivalent as Mayor over an imminently qualified, experienced, and fine woman who happens to be my friend and yoga studio owner where I practice and write my other blog.  She has been on the Council for years and has served as Mayor there and it stymies me how his lies and innuendoes and dirty campaigning won the day....reminiscent of last November. Still...overall, my pessimism was proven wrong in a sweep of national activist voting.  Resistance Rising!

At least that's (the morning after) view from here...©

IT'S PARTY TIME FOR POLS

I hardly know where to begin.  I'm in turns restless and impatient, dismayed and agitated, excited and joyful.  Hopeful and bereft.  And sometimes just crazy happy.  I'm trying to breathe through it all and BE HERE NOW, but damn!  It's hard.

Every four years I become obsessed with presidential politics.  I'm a presidential campaign junkie.  I watch all the debates in the primaries (OK, this campaign I skipped some of the R debates, because really, that was just torture).  I devour news and opinion.  I tune in to primary night results.  I listen to the pundits.  I scroll Facebook and news sources.  I get invested.  By the time summer and the conventions come along, I'm in so deep I can barely keep afloat.

Every night last week I tuned in to the Republican National Convention.  I knew I would disagree with much of what was said, but I was curious about their perspective and the hows and whys of our differing world view.  Holy Shit!  Armageddon over there at the RNC!  The United States, in their view, is a dystopian landscape of violence, death, destruction, anger, hatred.  Who are those people?  How can they deny actual facts and spin a web of fantasy that is based on nothing but pumped up fear and the desire to have a strongman (strawman) save them from people like me?  It was startling.  Their presidential nominee has been labeled a racist and narcissist with not one iota of experience in elected office, yet he declared in his speech that only he can fix the world they are so afraid of... and they cheered him!  This, after chanting over the course of the week in true mob mentality fashion, "Lock her up!" about the Democratic nominee for president.  Yes, that's one way to deal with your adversaries.  Not really what our democracy is about, but then the word "fascist" hasn't been tossed in his direction for nothing.

In the party I support, the Democrats, we've had our own brouhaha what with Socialist/Independent Senator Bernie Sanders suddenly becoming a Democrat to run for president and then decrying the primary process the Dems have in place for choosing the nominee.  He struck a chord, hit a nerve, revved up the disaffected on the Left and used his bully pulpit to push the Dems leftward and good for him for that.  But in the process he denigrated the true Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, effectively undermining her to the point that now that he has lost the nomination and is trying to get his troops to line up behind her, they've gone AWOL and on Monday even booed him when he called for unity.   Their intractable ideology is looking just as whacked out as those on the far right.  Comedian Sarah Silverman, a Bernie supporter, even took them to task during her convention appearance with one of my favorite (and ad-libbed) lines of the convention so far:  "Bernie or Bust people -- you are being ridiculous!"  Golly this is fun!

I know I am biased, but ask anyone who is an expert on conventions and they will tell you the RNC was a hot mess.  Nobody knew how to run a convention and it was a bit crazy and chaotic.  No big name Republicans agreed to speak or even attend, and even the entertainers were washed up third rate oldies who ranted a good rant, but really, who cares?

The Dems have run theirs, the first two nights this week, like clockwork and all the biggies are out to support Hillary.  On Monday Michelle Obama gave a speech for the ages (ask anyone, even the sensible R's say she rocked it), along with inspirational Cory Booker, firebrand Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie himself finally stopped with his Ego Trip and gave his full-throated support to Hillary.  (I don't dislike the man at all; he just annoyed me a lot.  I hope he is an important voice in the Senate with Warren).  Last night Bill took the stage and did his Bill thing.  I have some quibbles with the speech, but overall he bragged Hillary up and gave us an insider's view of the absolutely life-long dedication she has shown (not in front of cameras or on the national stage) to helping others and moving our country forward.  Tonight the trifecta of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Tim Kaine (VP nominee) will all speak.  Tomorrow Chelsea will introduce Hillary.  In contrast to the doom and gloom at the RNC, the DNC is upbeat, positive, hopeful, and reveling in the slogan "Stronger Together".  Yes, our side gets silly trying to out-Liberal each other at times, but I love our diversity and our can-do spirit and the knowledge that we really are all in this together.  We are not looking for a "daddy" to fix it.  We got this.

So, I don't know where I'm going with this except to say, every four years I get caught up in the excitement.  I lose sleep over polls and worry about the ups and downs of the race.  I pray nothing will derail my candidate (hello email scandal) and I lament that the other side is often so mean, with this year proving to be worse, with the meanest SOB yet as their standard-bearer.

I also get overwhelmed with patriotism.  I reflect on our democracy and the history of our country and I weep with gratitude that, warts and all, we have maintained this grand experiment for 240 years.  Other countries still want to be us.  The least we can do is be aware, involved, and engaged in this process. At the very least, we must  realize what a privilege we have; one that should never be thrown away or taken for granted -- just ask anyone who has lived under a repressive regime.

The next few months will be a roller coaster ride.  But also a time to play catch up if you are not as tuned in to politics as some.  Time to listen, read, ask questions.   Be informed.  Think critically.   And get ready to cast your vote on November 8th.  People have died to protect your right to do so.  Don't diss them by not caring.

At least, that's the view from here...©

THE SACRAMENT

We are 11 days away from the 2012 Presidential election.  Everybody is pretty much sick of politics at this point.  Me included, even though presidential election years are like Mardi Gras to me.  Spectacle, tradition, ritual, absurdity, and at base deeply important – even “religious”.  I treat voting like a Sacrament.

Our state has gone to an all mail-in ballot voting system, which I really dislike.  I LOVED going to the polls on Election Day.  It was high school civics class come to life.  My polling place was the local elementary school where my boys were students.  I saw familiar kids, teachers, neighbors, and poll-workers – a true sense of community.  I loved being handed my ballot and walking to the booth to cast my votes amid the hubbub of activity around me in the school cafeteria.  It reminded me why I was voting at all.  I loved getting my “I VOTED” sticker, which I wore proudly the rest of the day, like ashes on my forehead.

Now I have a different voting experience.  My ballot arrives in the mail about 2 weeks before the election.  I don’t open it until the day I set aside for voting.  At that point I sit at the dining room table with my Voter’s Pamphlet and a cup of coffee.  I become quiet, focused, and intent on making my final decisions.  I might read once more about each initiative, the “for” and “against” arguments.  I might read once more the candidates statements.  And then I draw my line next to the name of the one I’ve chosen to vote for with great care, ensuring the black line is neither too thin nor too thick.  I feel like the altar guild ladies preparing for communion.  Everything just so.  Because I want to be sure my vote will count – no errors.  Then I put the ballot in the envelope and sign my name carefully where indicated and drive to the post office to mail it.  I absolutely don’t trust leaving it at my door for the mail carrier to pick up.  I must see it slide into the slot of the huge mail box outside the post office, left there by my own hand.  Amen.

This may sound seriously neurotic.  To me it feels seriously patriotic.  Voting is a right, a responsibility, and above all, a privilege.  I think it is the most amazing thing, this representative form of government of ours.  It’s broken now, I know that.  Money, lies, betrayals, “fixes”, apathy, cynicism…it’s all in stark evidence this year.  That makes me sad for our country, for our democracy.  But I won’t give up.  I still believe my vote counts.  The only way we lose this grand experiment, this model of democracy that people in other lands are literally dying to emulate, is to stop voting.

My vote is my prayer of thanks for those who fought so that I’d have this privilege – our nation’s founders, the soldiers who fought for independence and freedom, the women who marched and were jailed and tortured to win me, their sister, the right to cast a ballot alongside men, the Freedom Riders who stood shoulder to shoulder with their brothers and sisters to desegregate the south and eventually win the right to vote for all.  Our history is about preserving – and serving – this big, messy, majestic United States of America.

My vote is also my prayer for hope for the future.  It really does matter who is in the White House and what that person’s vision and leadership will manifest.  It really does matter who is in the Legislature and whether their positions on issues (that will become the laws we must all obey) are those which will benefit all Americans.  It really does matter who sits on the Supreme Court and is the final arbiter of dispute, interpretation, and enactment of those laws.

How can we do anything less than to cast a vote for those who are most likely to embrace the inherent humanity of every American and set policy that will respect, uplift, and benefit every citizen?  How can we do anything less than to take this right seriously, cast our vote joyfully, and shout “Halleluja!” on Election Day? 

At least, that’s the view from here…©

STEPFORD SISTER-WIFE

I only meant to tune in briefly.  Just a glimpse.  I knew I wouldn't like what I'd hear.  But curiosity overcame common sense.  And I am practicing equanimity.  I thought this might be a good test.

There she was, Ann Romney, resplendent in patriotic red.  Matching lipstick.  Perfectly coiffed blonde hair.  She talked about the early days of their head-over-heels-in-love courtship and of how they just couldn't wait to get married.  They moved into a basement apartment and used a door on sawhorses for a desk and an ironing board for a dinner table.  Who can't relate to those kinds of "we were just a couple of crazy kids" tales?

It went on....and on....and on....the humble beginnings, the hard work, the rise to prominence.  She said her husband had never been handed success.  Unless you count the help they got from Mitt's daddy, who "ran a car company".  (Not exactly the Ford dealership on the edge of town, however; more like American Motor Company in Detroit).  I guess Mitt and Ann were The American Dream come true.

Just like us.  My dad worked in a textile factory for 40 years, dying cloth to exacting color specifications, often coming home with the after-effects of chemical exposure that created respiratory issues most of his life.  My mom worked as a seamstress in a factory making Formfit bras (rows and rows of women at sewing machines) until she was able to go to beauty school and open a little shop in a converted porch in our home.  Hub's parents were schoolteachers in the Lutheran Parochial School system, serving at "God's calling" for His love, certainly not money.  I went to work in an office just out of high school, not going to college until I was 23 years old and then only part-time while I worked to support us as Hub continued his education.  Hub worked his way through college loading and driving moving vans on weekends and school vacations.  We grew up and started our married life humble and struggling, just like the Romney's.

"Neither one of us had a job, because Mitt had enough of an investment from stock that we could sell off a little at a time," Ann Romney said in an interview with the Boston Globe when Mr. Romney was running for the Senate.  "We had no income except the stock we were chipping away at.  We were living on the edge, not entertaining."  (She didn't mention this hardship in her convention speech.)

So, while the "facts" of her marriage biography may be subject to investigation, she did come across as a woman who at least knew how to relate (pander, some said) to other women. She did raise all those boys (with help, no doubt, and money, and status and private schools....) and seemed to at least be conversant with the joys and sorrows a mom experiences.   So I listened and tried to keep an open mind with a compassionate heart.

Ann Romney is doing what she was raised to do:  be a wife, a mother, a grandmother, hold the family together, support her husband, work tirelessly for her Mormon faith, look good, love her country, and assume success is a "given" for everyone who tries hard.  She is who she is.  I accept that.  (And she says one of her favorite TV shows is "Modern Family"!  Mine too!  I bet her favorite characters are the gay couple, Mitchell and Cam and their little girl Lily!  I'm sure she sees in this portrayal that allowing real couples/parents like them to marry would be the only loving and sensible thing to do!)

After the speech, I turned the TV off and thought no more about any of the Republicans at their convention.

But I woke up the next day full of enthusiastic energy for homemaking!!!!  This is a VERY uncharacteristic thing for me to do.  Hub does 95% of the cooking around our house.  I haven't baked anything in over 2 years.  I have been crocheting lately, but mostly so I don't feel so badly about watching TV; it's OK if I'm multi-tasking.  But the day after the speech, I got up and made a batch of blueberry muffins (FROM SCRATCH!), a bowl of egg salad, and 6 pints of raspberry freezer jam -- by 10:30 a.m.!  Then I cleaned off my desk, paid a stack of bills, balanced my checkbook, did a couple loads of laundry, learned a new crochet stitch by making a 10" x 10" dishcloth, prepared supper, took muffins and jam to Son-One's family, came home and finished a scarf that had been in the bottom of my yarn basket since last winter, and watched a little TV with Hub before going to bed at 10:00.  WHAT??????

A friend suggested there was but one wifely duty still to be performed....Let's just say Hub is in a state of shock and wonders where he can get his hands on a DVD of that speech.

As for me...a warning:  DO NOT LOOK INTO ANN ROMNEY'S EYES!  She will take possession of your soul and turn you into a perfectly groomed, muffin-bakin', jam-makin' Stepford Sister-Wife! (Mitt?  Noooooo.......)

At least, that's the view from here....©

POLITICIANS: THEY ARE NOT ALL THE SAME

The pendulum of the Republican party has swung so far right, it's liable to knock us all out cold on its inevitable swing back.

A sadly misinformed politician from Missouri (Rep. Todd Akin, R.) has created a shitstorm of controversy with his recent comment, to the effect that "legitimate rape" can't result in pregnancy because a woman's body will "shut down" if attacked in this way and won't allow fertilization.  This, to justify a ban on abortion even in cases of rape or incest (which has just been included in the draft of the official Republican party platform).  It also helpfully explains, I guess, that if pregnancy did occur in cases of rape, well, it just wasn't "legitimate"... as in she secretly wanted to have sex at knifepoint?  I need further clarification on that.

Mr. Akin is not the only one who thinks this way.  I saw on a news show the other night a piece detailing how this line of thinking (and speaking it out loud!) about rape not resulting in pregnancy goes back at least three decades amongst (male) politicians, all Republicans from the south (I don't blame the south, but they do seem to have a disproportionate number of dipshit politicians.)

You can tell my ire has been raised.  I have worked so hard to let so many things go.  I'm practicing compassion, lovingkindness, "nowness".  So, this political season is a challenging teacher for me. It's  hard to let go of the outcome of this election, because I believe politics really do matter and that politicians are not "all the same" as some disillusioned in the electorate like to lament.

There is a busload of Catholic nuns who are criss-crossing the country to educate and protest the "Ryan Budget" as immoral in its draconian measures to cut funding for programs that help the poor and the working poor, who are drowning in spite of treading water as fast as they can.  I thought, at first,  "Who is this Paul Ryan guy and that budget of his will never pass anyway."  Well, the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, just chose Ryan as his running mate.  Even though Romney changes his tune to sing whatever song his audience of the day wants to hear, at least we now know what he really believes.  Ryan's views are well-documented and consistent.

I've seen a lot of elections -- some of which went the way I wanted, and some didn't.  But really, none made me truly fearful, even though I was not happy with cowboys or paranoids in the Oval Office.  This being a democracy, I believed reasonable people would ultimately demand responsible leaders.  Now I'm not so sure.

The "good guys" of the Republican Party seem to have abandoned ship.  They've handed it over to right wing politicos who appeal to what I thought was a minority, but who now have been given a great deal of power.  Or at least the power to take over the debate and somehow drag others along with them.  And to enact laws aimed at ensuring Republican-leaning districts in some states will have an unfair advantage over those who traditionally vote for Democrats -- the young, poor, and/or elderly would be most affected -- by requiring a government issued ID to get their hands on a ballot.  (My own mother would have been denied a vote if she had lived in one of these districts).

This year we have a billionaire Republican nominee who will say anything he thinks you want to hear to get elected.  He has chosen a running mate who is the darling of the far right.  Both of them will reward the excesses of the rich at the expense of the middle class and the poor.

And we have the incumbent, a pragmatic and perhaps over-reaching, but well-intentioned President who swept into office on a wave of "Yes We Can" only to realize, "no you can't" if the other party sees as Job One personally vilifying our President and thwarting absolutely any legislation he proposes--the American people be damned--then blaming him for "doing nothing".  Talk about a Catch-22!

I believe that having an intelligent, articulate, principled black man in the White House who embraces diversity across the board, inclusive of ethnicity, race, class, gender, and even divergent ideas, has created such fear and aversion that an ultra-conservative uprising of unhinged classism, racism, and sexism was perhaps inevitable.  What I didn't see coming was how the rest of the Republican party would stand for it.  There must be some who are appalled, embarrassed, outraged.  But will they express this dismay by switching parties in the privacy of the voting booth?

Don't know. Hope so.

Because I still want to believe that my country, which I dearly love, will not abandon the very democratic, egalitarian principles we so fondly espouse to uphold.

(Here's a clip from an Aaron Sorkin-written TV show; so the bias is obvious, but the points are factual and well made, even if he went a bit far at the end in my judgement.  He's entitled to his opinion...we do still have freedom of speech here (even money "talks").

http://front.moveon.org/what-we-already-knew-about-the-tea-party-and-the-newsroom-finally-said-out-loud/#.UD024cIjA8g.facebook

And, sisters, if men like Todd Akin continue to think they can tell women how our bodies work and what's best for us politically, and we let them do so by not standing up for our own truth, then we do not honor the sacrifices of the women who worked to ensure we have a voice in this election, or any other.

At least, that's the view from here....©

Read this easy abbreviated history lesson about women's voting rights: http://www.pbskids.org/wayback/civilrights/features_suffrage.html
Also, watch this "Hollywood-ized", but factually accurate portrayal of the fight for the vote:  Iron Jawed Angels 2004-HBO Movies (Netflix has it).