March 11 | What to Do | Contributions from Mary and Diana

 

From Mary:

 

I couldn't watch the Today Show the morning after the election. I was horrified that we'd done it again, voted him BACK in, as if to say he hadn't stolen the election the first go round. I've never felt so deflated. We had worked hard in our little area of Pennsylvania, a most decidedly red state, to carry the day for Kerry and we were so proud. But George won anyway.

 

Most of us in our little community, so visibly democrat now, went into hiding for a long time. Still I don't talk to or see the many who came together to fight against the warmongering. Such a blow was that defeat. 

 

The nationwide trauma that we all suffered on 9/11 has systematically paralyzed us. I can get fired up now and again but it seems so pitiful in comparison to the powers that be, no match for the spin of Carl Rove, the unmitigated, unstoppable arrogance and greed of Dick Cheney, and absolute disaffection of their puppet, Bush, the "commander in chief."

 

We all must trust ourselves to awaken in our own perfect ways, in our personal lives. It's all about building bridges to others, letting go of what seems like polarity, and finding communion and growth. I found myself in a virtual sea of powerful Republicans recently and thought I would absolutely die. There were George W. lovers everywhere, these were the folks that made that election happen and there I was, this "yellow-dog democrat."

 

I didn't die, clearly, but that part of me that was buried and traumatized slowly re-emerged. I began building bridges to each PERSON, slowly, deliberately letting go of the staunch party affiliation. 

 

Let go. Build a bridge. Move forward with the best intention. That's my plan for now.

 

Mary

 

Diana writes:

 

Right now, I scare myself. I have never been one to look at the world in black and white and stereotypical terms. But the polarization in this nation is forcing itself on me. Even me. I am terrified of the smug, ideological surety of our government leaders. I have seen the enemy, and it is primary certitude. What Bush and all the others lack is the ability to look in the mirror and shudder at themselves.

 

What scares me is that I used to be an Independent. I voted for the person not the party. Now I am so repulsed by the words -- Republican and Conservative and, worse, the very word Christian, particularly when associated with values -- that I just vote a straight ticket, something that I once condemned as mindless. It strikes me now as the only rational alternative. The What to Do for me is to get out the vote. That is how we got this pack of crooks in power. We have to vote them out. And we need to do it with numbers enough that they can't cheat at the ballot box and overlook the middle-ground of sanity that has usually prevailed in this country. I intend to volunteer and maybe drive people to the polls.

 

Diana DeLuca