It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine...

[yinshubackup]

okay. Now....I hate... HATE politics. They used to just make me uncomfortable. But living up here on a one-party campus that vomits propaganda all over the place to the point that everyone I have come into contact with in the past few days has been like a frenzied zombie parroting CNN soundbites, the subject pretty much just pisses me off and makes me sick to my stomach. I don't really talk about politics in my journal, because I don't love the game.
But for once, I have to say something, because I think it's important, and because I have so many classmates, friends and family who have been completely beside themselves with this election business.

You voted or you didn't.
You were for Kerry or for Bush (or Baradnik, or Nader or Elvis, or whoever you wrote in).
You bugged your peers. You argued with your parents. You played candidate-yard-sign wars with your neighbors. You chewed your nails off watching CNN.
Well, the votes are in, the race is run, and all this raging political energy has been raised now like a giant Circle without intent or focus-- rage and discontent, excitement and gloating, nervous energy, fear energy, swirling around the country, in our hearts, vibrating around and making everyone buzz-- Where's it gonna go now? What now? The energy has to go somewhere. You can't raise it and not ground it.

All I'm saying, all I'm asking you to do today, is to be aware of this. Be aware that you are buzzing. Be aware of the Love vs. Fear ratio inside you. Be aware of how your energy is focused. Do you now hold only hatred and contempt for those who voted against your vote? Do you hold hatred and contempt for those who were too sickened by the dirtiness of the political game that they refused to vote? Will you now direct your energy against your neighbors, your family, your (former?) friends?
Or will you banish the fear from your thoughtforms, and walk together with your fellow Americans?

YOU were still the same person when you woke up this morning. You still had your autonomy, your beliefs, your own ways of interacting with the people in the world (benevolently or malevolently). You still have the ability to respectfully disagree with others, as a mature individual, or to let your anger at their differing opinions eat at you inside until you Hate.
The choices are still yours, and the consequences are yours to bear also.
A president does not have the power to unify a country divided, unless the country WANTS to be unified. And united we stand, divided we fall.
There are many nations that would like to see us fall.
There are many of us who would like to see us fall.
But is that what we really want? To abandon America, run away to different countries and let this one become the armpit of the world? Everyone's been loudly proclaiming and preaching about every citizen's "responsibility" for weeks now, beating each other over the head with "I did my civic duty, did you do YOURS?" But now that half the country is unhappy with the results, all I hear is the escapist refrain, "I'm sooo moving outta the country."
What of your responsibility, your civic duty now?
Kerry supporters are approx. half the country.... so... what do you think is going to happen to America if they all give up and abandon it?
I beg you, don't abandon it. Remember you can always work for social change on an individual level. There is nothing stopping you from that. Except maybe your own disgust, your own hate.

To be completely cliche, what the world needs now is love.
I challenge you, if you are a liberal, find a conservative today to be nice to. If you are conservative, find a liberal to be nice to. Join together. Start a friendship. Start a project. Volunteer together. Feed the homeless together, read stories at the local library to kids, have your neighbors over for tea or beer and barbeque. Call your republican mom and tell her you love her. Call your democratic friends and invite them for thanksgiving. Call your christian sister and tell her you miss her. Call your gay brother and let him know you love him just the way he is. Just... Do something good... together. America's government may suck, but its people don't have to.

In closing, I'm going to refer you to the best damn article I've seen on this subject so far, which reflects my feelings in a much more articulate way:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/kingoberon/80886.html


Peace
Love
Unity
Respect.

Comments

[kangitanka3.livejournal.com]

Those are wise words, my dear, but I don't know if we as a country are up to it

Personally, this election has only reinforced for me what a hated minority I'm a part of. It's left me feeling more alienated and disenfranchised than before. Seeing what the majority thinks can be a scary thing (particularly in relation to the 11 states that banned gay marriage)

BTW, I'm not normally political at all either. It is only the dire state of things that got me involved. However, it may well have propelled me and others into activism as well so perhaps some good will come of it. We'll see

Love,
~~Kt3 the Mourning~~

[yinshu.livejournal.com]

I think you're right, I don't know if we (as a country) are up to it either. But I am up to it...I live everyday in a sea of people who hurt me with their words and actions, completely unintentionally, because their opinions are different than mine, and it's hard to build relationships when you don't stand on common ground. I really do understand and feel that, all around me. But if I can still treat them with respect, from a place of love, then I will continue to hope against hope that if I am "up to it", and maybe you are, and someone else is, and a few of my classmates can be, eventually, we'll start healing the rifts between us all...
it's not gonna clear up tomorrow, I don't expect it to... but... I for one will be a sad soul to see the America experiment fail.
more hate and more fear won't win rights or solve things for anyone permanently.... And as for gay marriage, I sincerely believe that there will soon come a day when people will accept it lawfully... I think the idea has been gathering weight in the public consciousness for a while now, and it has just about reached critical mass. I don't think my gneration and the one after that and the one after that is going to stand for the intolerance. It might last 4 more years, maybe, and the general grumbling will stay around until the older bigots die... but on a positive note, so many people are raising children that have open minded views on the subject, either by learning from their parents or rebelling against them, that the children of bigots will have a harder and harder time socializing with only other children of bigots. And we all know how peer pressure is... maybe it'll have a positive outcome, eventually.
I predict gay rights will come a long way in this century.

[kangitanka3.livejournal.com]

I predict gay rights will come a long way in this century.

I hope that as well. I thought we were making real strides until the last year or so. Hopefully the trend will reverse soon

Love,
~~Kt3, Second-Class Citizen~~

[ireneadler.livejournal.com]

I think so too. And even if the marriage amendendment does come about, well, they repealed prohibition, so hope is not lost.

[fakefriar.livejournal.com]

Preach on!

[yinshu.livejournal.com]

:)
Bring in the love, push out the jive...

[khessta.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Now I'm ashamed of myself. =P

[yinshu.livejournal.com]

Awwh, don't be ashamed-- I wasn't really trying to make people feel bad, I'm just sayin', I think if we give peace a chance with our neighbors it will go a lot further toward making peace with the rest of the world because there's an energy created there. And I think most of the people on my friends list are genuinely good people, so I thought if I spread the word than maybe they'd catch it too.
*hug*