Democracy, Declarations, and Discovering What the Point Is
on democracy
“But isn’t ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ supposed to work for ALL the people?" asked bear.
“Yes, it is,” replied bird, sadly. “It is.”
…
…
The wind howled. And I howled back.
I’d driven to the desert, and – although I knew exactly where I was – I felt lost.
It was 1989. The Berlin Wall. Tiananmen Square. George H.W. Bush. The lead up to the Gulf War. And Milli Vanilli.
Personally, I was barely making grades in college. I’d maxed out my first credit card with no way to pay it back. And my girlfriend was cheating on me.
I remember collapsing on that desert sand and thinking, “What’s the point?” Of any of it.
The world felt upside down, like nothing made sense.
More than 30 years later, I have that feeling again as I watch people – especially men – support someone hell bent on dividing, despoiling, and disemboweling everything our democracy stands for; in ways that will impact your rights, your freedoms, and those you care the most about … as well as the cost of those eggs so many seem to be casting their votes for.
Over time, I answered my “What’s the point?” question. For me, the point of it all – especially as an American who is born to such privilege compared to so many in our world – is to work every single day with the goal of leaving “it” – all of it: your family, your community, your country, your world – better than you found it AND offering others the space and support to do the same.
Similar truths, differently worded, are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, where we work from the agreement in this country that each of us are created equal, that we are endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
In one presidential candidate, we have a man who would strip away those rights, angrily, forcefully, degrading-ly. In Kamala Harris, we have someone who has shown her whole life, her whole career, that she is committed to leaving it – all of it – better than she found it.
We *can* do so much better.
We *need* to do so much better.
Let us do so much better.
Sending love and light to one and all.
Oh, and Vote, Vote, Vote!