(no subject)

[sigerson]

Clarifying...

I don't think it's the end of the world. I'm not moving to Canada. I'm not convinced that we're doooooooomed. And I'm extremely happy for the gains that did happen, and that things could have been far worse.

I'm not any less angry or upset, either. I've been doing the hoping-for-the-best thing for so long that I want a day of depression and gloom to break down in; then I can go back to putting one stone atop another, one good deed, one person helped, one victory won. But today feels pretty damned bad, regardless of the limitless potential we still have, the power in change and anger, the things we've accomplished and the things we can accomplish.

In spite of all that, today still feels damned bad. And I do the (comparatively) Happy Shiny Optimist thing a lot, so I don't think I'm being irrational by taking a day to bellow.

This anger is real. This sorrow is real--even if Kerry ultimately wins. Today, they're what I can feel.

Tomorrow I will put them aside, shrink them down, and use them to make things different.

Comments

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's the end of the world. I'm not moving to Canada. I'm not convinced that we're doooooooomed.

I do. We've talked about it. And I am.

Even if we scrape by, which I doubt we will, this country has proven that it is shifting away from being a home for people like us. How to respond?

[woobat.livejournal.com]

And it's not just that people who disagree with me are in power. It's that people who disagree with me and who don't recognize the validity of other viewpoints are in power. It's that they're not interested in dialogue with the other side, and with finding common ground. They want to impose their agenda, period. They brook no dissent, and so it's an increasingly bad place to be a dissenter. I don't think they want democracy (an actual, functioning democracy), and *that's* the scary part.

And another interesting thing is that I'm finding myself censoring what I'm writing, even as I'm writing it, out of fear of consequences for disagreeing with them. And that's really scary.

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

I should clarify; although I said above that I am convinced we're doomed, I'm actually not. I'm teetering precariously between two poles. Half of me thinks we're doomed and the American experiment is effectively over; half of me disagrees vehemently. If I were completely convinced that we're doomed, it might be easier to contemplate withdrawing from this place; since I'm not, I can't quite wrap my mind around going, but I also can't quite wrap my mind around how bad things may be.

I have strong feelings about all of this, but maybe hanging out in person, or at least private email, would be a better venue for discussing why I'm freaked out by seemingly serious talk of immigration -- I'm not sure I want that conversation to happen out in the open air. *g* Not for fears of government reprisal, just because this stuff feels very personal to me.

[anacrucis.livejournal.com]

The thing that simutaneously upsets me, and yet blunts my outrage and transfigures it into resignation, is that W (allegedly) won the popular vote.

I'm also finding it difficult to find (never mind 'keep') perspective when everyone's emotions are this charged, even if my own are somewhat blunted and lethargic at this point. There are just so many conflicting issues that are so clearly important to so many people, it's overwhelming. I expect on some level that's fairly universal.

[ltlbird.livejournal.com]

I hope you didn't feel my post was directed at you, personally. It wasn't.

Of COURSE take a day or a week to be depressed and angry. Your feelings, and everyone else's who desperately wanted Kerry to win, or at least Bush to lose, are totally real. I apologize if it wasn't clear that I know that.

I just worried, with all the negativity, that people were falling into despair. Unlike kassrachel I don't think the situation warrants despair... yet. Then again, I could just be falling into relative optimism as a coping mechanism. It's been known to happen... I am a Red Sox fan, after all. I've proven that I can hold onto hope in dark times. Sadly, unlike in baseball, dashed hopes in the case, have a huge impact on people's lives.

[sigerson.livejournal.com]

No, but your post echoed some of my own inner voices, and I wanted to say it aloud. I know you weren't pressuring me or upset at me. My love to you in this time, and to others. Today I--and others--despair. Tomorrow we see if we can climb out of it--with you holding a hand out to us.

[sylvantechie.livejournal.com]

the gains that did happen

What are the gains that did happen?

[sigerson.livejournal.com]

Well, MA seats were not lost to Republicans campaigning on the anti-gay-marriage ticket; thus, if gay marriage control stays in the state, it stays in Massachusetts. Kerry got a very large percent of the vote--enough to push on, enough to wield in other causes. The international community began to poke us about our own election process (which is painful, but I'm glad it's happening.)

Not a lot, in other words. Mobilization, anger, activity, and a few things not lost. Ask me on a day that I haven't devoted to despair and you might get a better answer.

[sigerson.livejournal.com]

Zell Miller lost. Barack Obama won. Evan Bayh stays in Indiana.
Still feel like crap.

[thomascantor.livejournal.com]

Craig Benson was not reelected in New Hampshire; New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania went for Kerry (whoops — almost said Gore; anyone read today's Borowitz Report?).