Overwhelming grief

[pegkerr]

Rob, who had been watching the election returns all night, came and woke me about forty-five minutes ago and held me while I cried.

Injustice won. Now this man who has made an unprecedented power grab for the executive branch, who authorized the use of torture, who has trampled on civil rights, who has lied and lied and lied to the American people, is going to have the chance to reshape the Supreme Court for the next generation. Bigotry won. I cannot bear it that the bigot's side of the argument on a civil rights issue that I care so deeply about, gay civil rights, was what pushed conservative voters out to the polls to return this man to the White House. Stupidity won. He totally lost track of who attacked us on September 11, he has ignored the threat of North Korea and Iran, he has failed to guard the borders, he has taken us into an unjust, immoral and unnecessary war which has killed our people and a hundred thousand Iraquis, spent our resources, inflamed the world against us and multiplied our enemies a thousandfold.

And we have rewarded him by returning him to the White House.

I have never been so ashamed to be called a Christian, if people who call themselves Christian feel that they are honoring their religion by voting for him over John Kerry. I have never been so afraid and so grief-stricken for my country, no, not even after September 11, because this time we are administering the wound to ourselves.

Comments

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

Soren called me when he got off work, and warned me that things looked bad (I've asked him to call me every morning when he gets off; waking up and hearing his voice on the phone makes me feel better) -- which I had somehow expected. He came home, almost in tears.

I think I'm numb. I actually think the terror and despair have frozen me. Which is good, perhaps, because otherwise, I'd be in tears, too.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

It does look bad, but CNN says Ohio is still too close to call, and it may come down to who has the best lawyers.

[akamarykate.livejournal.com]

The way this is being portrayed frightens me too--all the talk about "moral values" being what pushed people to vote for Bush. As if civil rights are somehow immoral; as if morality has been conceded to the far religioius right.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

This, yes, THIS.

I'm a moral woman. I am also a liberal. Morality is not the property of the religious right.

[vass]

Peg, please don't despair.

It looks horrible, I know, but don't despair.

Get your copy of RotK out, and sleep with it under your pillow tonight. Or read it, the Sam bits most of all.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I made icons today, including these:

Count them all

[jbru.livejournal.com]

It's not over.

There are provisional ballots that still need to be counted in Ohio. Kerry can win the state by taking somewhere between 55 and 75 percent of those, well within his ability as they are likely to come from urban areas where Republican challengers caused them to be needed in the first place.

Then there's the whole issue of e-voting fraud that weighs heavily in Florida and Ohio.

We don't have a new President until all the votes are counted.

Mixed feelings

[amandageist.livejournal.com]

It so amazes me that so many people I have been friends with for so long, shared thoughts and ideas with, seen and appreciated the beauty of their vision and soul (and vice versa, it would be hoped)--how we can differ so radically on this. I'm in the weird position of being up about the election (assuming it ever ends and Bush wins), and being down because so many people I care about are depressed about it.

I'm still pondering this, and what I told someone on Heidi's LJ--holding others to your own interpretations will always limit an ability to understand their perceptions. Things you seem to take as self-evident, I may not consider to be valid. If two sides don't start on the same page, with the same assumptions, the conclusions cannot help but differ. So for a very broad response, I'd say that I don't share some of your assumptions, and so have not reached the same conclusions.

Cold comfort for you, that; or none--except maybe that the vision you have, full of reason to despair, is far from the only future possible; just the only one you're seeing right now.

~Amandageist

Re: Mixed feelings

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your kind words, amandageist. I'm sure it must a rather strange position for you. I will admit I was thinking of you and a few others when I went back to change my entry to put it behind a cut tag, because yeah, I can see sort of, if I squint really really really hard how the people who voted for George W. Bush did it because they thought they were doing what is best for the country. I want you to keep reading my journal and commenting.

I am capable of changing my mind about things, and I have. But I think that the America you want is not the America I want. And I don't think it's the America that the rest of the world wants.

And I KNOW it's not the America I want for my children.

It's not quite over yet

[cheshyre]

Think of Ohio and repeat after me:

I do believe in Kerry. I do. I do.

[dreamcoat-mom.livejournal.com]

I have you on my flist because I met you at Nimbus and love to read your posts - I felt I should delurk to share your sadness.
Our family is grieving with yours this morning, Peg - just dropping a word of encouragement your way - hang in there.

Our children, especially my teen-aged son who left for school this morning weeping, are devastated. They do not want to go to school (here in rural NW Wisconsin) to endure the crowing of their conservative classmates whose parents voted as a)Christian fundamentalists, or b) on the issue of gun control.

I have never been so ashamed to be called a Christian, if people who call themselves Christian feel that they are honoring their religion by voting for him over John Kerry. I have never been so afraid and so grief-stricken for my country, no, not even after September 11, because this time we are administering the wound to ourselves.

It amazes me - and my heart is breaking for the people this most deeply affects. I hope it is possible in four years' time to reclaim the soul of this nation. My oldest will be an adult by then - old enough to be drafted into Bush's war but also old enough to cast his own ballot. I pray with all my heart that one will not preclude the other, and that the pendulum will swing before we destroy ourselves.
Take care and God Bless.
-Mary

Word.

[no-remorse.livejournal.com]

There is a bottle of unopened booze next to my computer, Neil Young's Keep on rockin' in the free world on my stereo and tears in my eyes. I can't believe that Bush won the popular vote. And I don't want to live in a world where someone like Bush can win the popular vote.


Sorry, for spamming your journal, no, you don't know me and I don't know you, you just appeared on my friendsfriendslist and I had to comment.

Re: Word.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thank you. You are welcome to stick around and comment anytime.

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I remember once in an undergraduate history class my professor told us about the end of the Roman Empire, or at least the end of it in western Europe; the image that stays with me is of these academics, these well-read, cultured, thoughtful people, clinging to their books while the illiterate hoards of blood-thirsy visigoths around them burned everything in sight and swung swords around. It's such a sad image to me, these people knowing what they do, watching it all go down the drain because no one cares anymore, no one will listen to them or learn from them, no one will fill their shoes when they've gone. Standing on the brink of the abyss, into a thousand years of forgetfulness.

I'm sure that's a very bright picture for you this morning, but it seems that people who think the way you do are looking into the abyss in the US, and an abyss that just grows larger with every passing year.

[(Anonymous)]

But Bush won, so the barbarians will be held off a little longer. Though I believe our republic will continue to slide into moral decay and education of the masses will become less and less (though propped up by lots of false-self-esteem-building), it gives some hope that for now that there's an unheard majority out there who still believe in truth and decency, even if the mainstream media don't want to let it be seen.

Perhaps now that the election is over, Kerry will release his military, academic, and medical records, like President Bush did so long ago. Perhaps they'll give credit to our president for his great intelligence that's far above the IQ of the preponderance of his critics. Perhaps we will make The Federalist Papers and other great works as familiar to students as the latest Britney Spears/Madonna/Visigoth distraction?

Well, perhaps that's all bit too optimistic, but can you blame me for dreaming

[lkw18.livejournal.com]

I will most likely sit down and cry as well. I feel the exact same way about the Christians voting for Bush. Bush to me does NOT represent Christian values. In fact, I can make a list of his actions that go against Christianity.

It is still too close to call, as of right now (9:00 am) and our only hope is for Ohio. Not all is lost yet, Peg.

[lkw18.livejournal.com]

Nevermind, he just won Ohio.

I just don't understand how he won. I really don't because there are so so many people unhappy with him, it just doesn't make sense to me.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

I'm there with you. It gives me some hope for humanity to know that there are others who feel the same fear as I do.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, me, too. And this is why I was light-hearted yesterday evening, driving down 35W watching people wave Kerry/Edwards signs from the overpasses: there were others. I was not alone. I doubt that they affected a single vote at that point, but what they did is promote my sense of my community when I sorely needed it.

I'm not at all light-hearted this morning. But I'm hanging onto what I had yesterday evening, because that was real, too.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Every vote counts. Let's wait to count every vote.

I have hope.

See why, here.

I have hope.

[kokopoko.livejournal.com]

I am for gay rights, gay marriage, saving the environment, etc. But I voted for Bush because I am for pro life more. Not all Bush voters are bigots.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I can appreciate that pro life is an important value to many people who don't consider themselves to be bigots. However: I have tried and tried to think of a way to say this that doesn't sound too caustic. I'm sorry, but I just can't. Please forgive me, but I absolutely have to say this:

Pro life? Tell that to the families of the 100,000 dead Iraquis. And to the families of the people that Bush personally as Governor of the State of Texas sent to the gas chamber.

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I'm a Christian and would never, ever have voted for Bush. Just because I hold certain beliefs doesn't mean the world does, and neither I nor Bush have any right to force them to conform to our morals. That would be a theocracy rather than a democracy.

I just about cried when I heard the results as well. I feared this would happen, but never really thought it would. And it may not be over yet. I have heard too many accounts to number of democrats being turned away from voting for no good reason, other than that they were Democrats. If Bush had won fair and square, that would be one thing, but this election just smacks of injustice and illegal behaviours. I hope TPTB hear something of this too, and it doesn't just appear in stories on LJs and other blogs.

[dejaspirit.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I'm a Christian and would never, ever have voted for Bush. Just because I hold certain beliefs doesn't mean the world does, and neither I nor Bush have any right to force them to conform to our morals. That would be a theocracy rather than a democracy.

Yep, you're definitely too clever to have voted for Bush. :P

[ame-chan.livejournal.com]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/peregrin8/166333.html

This post gave me a little bit of hope on a very dark morning. While I am still sad, deeply so, I am not quite so hopeless, not quite so sunk in despair as I was before I read it. So I pass it on to you in the hope that it gives you some hope too.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[shalynn-j.livejournal.com]

I think the reality of the situation just hit. I work in a very republican environment, right now a very cheerful environment for them. We have been joking, and they have been teasing. And I have taken it like a pro, only threatening life once or twice. All in jest, but this is no joking matter. Civil rights are effectivly gone, as is our bill of rights. Devestated isn't strong enough for what I am feeling. I am engaged, and we want, and are planning on having children, but I am not sure I want children to grow up in this environment. In this country. I have always been very patriotic, not today, today I mourn for our country instead of celebrating it.

Sometimes you have to remember...

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

...just because someone's a Christian, that doesn't mean they're a good person. (I'm also Christian, but consider myself a bad one. If there's anything that asks for trouble -IMHO- it's calling yourself a good Christian.)

Haven't heard from my brother, who recently ran a piece in Stipple-apa explaining why he was voting for Bush. About a month after that I sent an e-mail to him & my sister (in Winnipeg) explaining pretty bluntly why I was voting for Kerry, and saying -among other things- that Bush should have had impeachment proceedings thrown at him as soon as the words "constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage" was out of his mouth. Haven't heard back from him, and I'm a bit concerned. On The Other Hand, he _is_ a dairy farmer, and is as bad a corespondent as I am.

Frankly I think I just plain live in a different -and I think saner- world than most Americans, and I think a lot of that has to do with growing up gay.

I asked my sister why she immigrated to Canada in 1969, and she said that Kent State was what pushed her over the boarder. Depending on the next few years the smartest thing for me may just be to follow.

Re: Sometimes you have to remember...

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

At least you have a sibling over there. I have a BOATLOAD of family but none closer than a third cousin, except maybe if a great-great-aunt is considered closer. Oh, wait -- first cousins twice removed.

This comment was mostly to say that I do like your point on Christians: good vs. bad. Someone on the radio said about the same thing the other day (on PBS), about how once you assume you're in the right -- you're the 'moral majority' -- then you're probably in the wrong, when it comes to Christianity (humility and all that, and assuming you KNOW what God means. Because you don't. That's why He's God, and you're not.).

(Also, the Kent State event was in April 1970. Was she AT Kent State at the time, or was it just the event in general?)

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I have never been so ashamed to be called a Christian, if people who call themselves Christian feel that they are honoring their religion by voting for him over John Kerry.

The sane Christians, who from some figures may even be a strong majority, really need to police their flocks. The hate-mongers masquerading as Christians need to be visibly and formally ejected. And that's not something I can do much about.

Meanwhile, at least for the moment "Christian" has come to *mean* the things those people stand for; that's the only sense I hear it used in in public discourse.

[tinymich.livejournal.com]

I weep with you today, Peg. Crushed doesn't begin to describe it. And I'm not even American.

[averagegirl.livejournal.com]

Four more years is enough time for the Democratic party to shape up, become a bit more centrist, and send out an even better candidate to bring America back over to the moderate left again. Always thinking forward - that's the way to look at this.

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

More centrist?

The DNC's chair, from the centrist wing, resigned this morning. Tom Daschel, who rolled over and let the GOP walk over him, lost his Senate seat.

Meanwhile progressives like Feingold kept their seats in tight races.

I think someone like Dean, who was barely to the left of Moderate, may have been able to win it. But the Democrats wanted to run another Bill Clinton.

So I think running a candidate who's unashamed to be a Democrat might help in 2008.

Thanks Peg

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

cynthia1960 and others have been gently trying to talk me down from umbrage at religiously motivated voters.

Believe me, I was livid with rage this morning.

But the thing that makes me despondent is that while I'm glad to know there are progressive, pro-choice, pro-gay, anti-diversionary-war Christians, why does it always look like, that there are so few of you?

[fredcritter.livejournal.com]

(Other than the part about your being "ashamed to be called a Christian," which I'm in no position to comment on ... ) Yeah. What you said. I'm scared for us.

Hope was on the way, but it got ambushed....

[(Anonymous)]

Hail to the Chief we have chosen for the nation,
Hail to the Chief! We salute him, one and all.
Hail to the Chief, as we pledge cooperation
In proud fulfillment of a great, noble call

Yours is the aim to make this grand country grander,
This you will do, that's our strong, firm belief.
Hail to the one we selected as commander,
Hail to the President! Hail to the Chief!

[amandageist.livejournal.com]

It has words? Really? Those are legit and not filked?

Who knew?

~Amanda

[(Anonymous)]

"Stupidity won"?!?

Contrary to the myths out there, President Bush has an IQ considerably higher than John Kerry. Although Kerry lied about release of his military records (there are still 100 pages unreleased, according to the Navy), he goofed and put up one that had his Officer Candidate scores on it. Oops. When asked about it, he said those weren't released (contrary to his earlier assertion that he HAD released his records), but then NBC edited the interview in its rebroadcast to cover up his lie (the earlier MSNBC transcript still contains it, though).

So it seems that not only was Kerry stupider, he's also demonstrably a liar. So perhaps you should reassess your feelings, and accept that we have the smarter, more honest candidate in the office now.

Frankly, I'm glad he's willing to take action, unlike his predecessors, who blocked airline safety (Gore's blockage yielded a nice fat $500,000+ bonus to his campaign from the airlines!) and refused to address the terrorism in more than a piecemeal fashion. Finally, we have a president who will look more globally at the problem, not allow havens for miscreants while making limited strikes.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Replying after Katrina and its wretched aftermath.

Yep. Stupidity definitely won.