I don’t know about
you, but after tracking the election results, I went to bed really bummed last
night. Colorado’s Dem Senator lost to a standard-issue red-state candidate in
this recently rather bluish-purple state. Nationwide, Senate seats, House seats,
and governors’ palaces turned red by the score. Talk of a “Republican wave” was
in the air before the night ended. Hardly the stuff of a celebratory evening—or
a peaceful night’s slumber—in my very blue view. As we settled into a
disappointed sleep, this thought crossed my mind “Was this partly a reaction
against same-sex marriage?”
We woke up this
morning still bummed, and my partner voiced the very same wonder I’d fallen
asleep with: Did our success—i.e., the progress toward equal rights for LGBT
people—contribute to this “wave”? Was this a backlash against that, as well as
against folks’ total dismay with Washington’s intransigent inaction? As she
talked about that possibility, I was reminded of a message about social change,
one I’ve actually learned from her. It came to me when she reminded me of how
awful 2004 was—Bush (aka “W”) won a second term and nine states passed
anti-LGBT laws, all in one election. I said yeah, but now, just 10 years later,
over 30 states have same-sex marriage. And my day brightened. This focus on the
long-term process rather than the moment’s misery came from knowing something
about her research on anti-LGBT politics. She calls this a “movement perspective”—the notion that social change needs to be seen as a long-term
process, not a single event. We didn’t talk about this emerging thought right
then, but sure enough, after her shower, she told me her mood had brightened as
she considered—independently, before we had discussed this—the movement
perspective. We’ve seen worse before, she said. We’ll get through this. The
task is to not stop working.
Social change is like
a movie—an epic movie. Any given event—one election, one victory or defeat—is just
a single frame in that movie. The movement for social justice has its ebbs and
flows, it sparkling wins and its dashing losses. That is how it works. But viewed in the context of the long progress of
what Martin Luther King famously called “the arc of the moral universe,” yesterday’s
miserable outcome isn’t so devastating. It was just a moment, not the movement.
We’ll be back. And that’s the challenge: we must keep coming back.
Thinking along this
line, I was unavoidably (and conveniently) reminded of Resonance Women’s Chorus’
upcoming concert: “We Who Believe in Freedom.” The title comes from the lyrics of Ella’s Song, a well-known call for social
justice written by Bernice Johnson Reagon and sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock. It’s based on the
words of Civil Rights activist Ella Baker.
The line invoked in the concert title says, “We who believe in freedom cannot
rest until it comes.” The concert is framed as an invitation to consider how we
need to show up for each other—a call to being allies, but also, I realize, a
call to persistence and dedication. This election feels dreadful, but we who
believe in social justice cannot rest just because we feel bruised.
This morning (finally!),
I learned some good outcomes from the election: among them, Colorado’s “personhood”
amendment went down to defeat (for, like, the third time), funding for a broad
range of “safety net” programs was approved, and multiple school bond issues
around here passed. To top it off, the incumbent governor, a Dem, won a very
close race, defying the national redwash. A tough election cycle, for sure, but
even here, as early as today, there are glimpses of that long arc. Believing in
freedom requires that we keep our eye on that and not let the defeats get us
down.
With that in mind,
I believe I’ll think of this concert not only as a celebration of allies and of
being present for one another but also as a rallying call for us all to not
lose hope, to stay with the program.
So join us on
November 15, 7:00, at First United Methodist Church of Boulder for a free
concert celebrating social justice and our realization that we’re in it
together and for the long haul. For more information, click here to visit the Resonance website
Because we who
believe in freedom need to keep showing up.
© Janis
Bohan, 2010-2014. Use of this content is welcome with attribution and a link to
the post.
Thank you. Many of us are feeling down in Oregon after Measure 88 (drivers' cards for undocumented immigrants) was voted down by a wide margin. Cathy
ReplyDeleteThanks, Janis, for this essay. I especially appreciated the discussion of social change as a long-range process. I've been an activist since the 60s and, like you, have seen many losses or wins with unintended consequences. (I'm thinking of the replacement of the draft with an all-volunteer military.) It's been helpful for me to just stop worrying about winning and go about doing what needs to be done. That said, as a volunteer for the Udall campaign (a modest 3 canvassing sessions), I was not impressed with the way money was thrown into paying canvassers with no attempt at coordination. (For example, on my first shift, I ran into a canvasser for the League of Conservation voters who said that there was also another team working the neighborhood--Colorado Fair Share. He said he got "some hostility" from a few folks who were tired of so many knocking on their doors. "At least they didn't have a gun," he added--a commentary on our times perhaps. Same situation on my remaining two shifts. Apparently paid volunteers were sent all over the city (talking about Denver) with no attempt at building knowledge of a community. Made me a bit nostalgic for the late Mayor Daley in my hometown, Chicago, whose precinct captains knew their neighborhoods because they lived there....Still, so many factors were at play in the disheartening election results this week. One of them was the Democrats distancing themselves from Obama. Despite the things we might both criticize him for, his accomplishments should have been shouted from the rooftops: universal health care, an improving economy, lowered unemployment..... I'm looking forward to the concert next week, an excellent way to keep the faith while enjoying the beauty of the music. --Kathy Riley
ReplyDeleteThank you Janis (and Glenda) for the reminder about the movement perspective. still reeling but less...
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