The glare of the TV was the only light on in the house. My husband had called it hours earlier and tucked himself in bed. He’s always better at accepting the inevitable than I am.
So, I sat alone and stared unblinkingly at the news that was too bizarre to accept. Hillary Clinton had won the popular vote, but lost the election to a reality TV show host who had mocked a disabled reporter, who had said that he could grab women by the p***y and most importantly was clearly in over his head. I had held back the tears all night, hoping against hope, but when I realized that in the morning I was going to have to look my seven year old daughter in the eyes and tell her what had happened, I broke. I wept.
Looking back, it seems naive that just four years ago I truly didn’t believe that said reality TV show host would be elected to the highest office in the land. However, I am not naive anymore. I believe that he can win again. I believe that we can get four more years of the dystopian nightmare that we are now living in.
That is why just because the polls show that we’re ahead doesn’t mean I am taking anything for granted.
- Just because you think protestors who destroy property should “be better”, it doesn’t mean that this country wasn’t started by people dumping someone else’s property into the ocean.
- Just because you were able to pull yourself up by the bootstraps, it doesn’t mean that others aren’t shoe less.
- Just because you believe that peacefully kneeling is disrespectful, it doesn’t mean that the systematic abuse and brutality of African Americans isn’t in a completely different stratosphere of awful.
- Just because it may not be what you would have done, it doesn’t mean that you can’t be compassionate to others.
- Just because there are good cops, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t incredibly bad ones.
- Just because she parades her adopted kids out as tokens (without masks), it doesn’t mean that she knows the true meaning of pro-life.
- Just because you’ve never seen a loved one ravaged by Covid, it doesn’t mean that 220,000 (and counting) families aren’t experiencing immeasurable grief and anguish over a disease that was allowed to run buckshot for months while we were promised that it would magically disappear by heat or by injecting bleach.
- Just because what they say isn’t convenient for you, it doesn’t mean that an expert’s opinion doesn’t matter more than yours.
- Just because she isn’t draped in a red robe, it doesn’t mean that she’s not a Handsmaid.
- Just because it is my way, it doesn’t mean that it is the only way.
- Just because you don’t acknowledge the difference in how armed men storming a capitol building because they can’t go to Golden Corral and people protesting yet another death of an unarmed man are handled, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t simply black and white.
- Just because you believe that your taxes will be raised, it doesn’t mean that you make over $400,000.
- Just because you’ve never been harassed for barbecuing in a park or swimming in your neighborhood pool or waiting for AAA in your apartment complex parking lot or bird watching in a bird watching park, it doesn’t mean that some aren’t hated for having the audacity to live their lives while having darker skin.
- Just because you’ve never worried about your kid wearing a hoodie or eating Skittles or playing cops and robbers, doesn’t mean that millions of parents aren’t gripped by fear every time they send their kids out into the world.
- Just because you like to circulate the picture of protestors dressed in suits and ties and pearls and heels peacefully protesting, it doesn’t mean that they weren’t brutally attacked by the police five minutes after the picture was taken.
- Just because you label it “fake news” reported by the “lamestream media”, it doesn’t mean that democracy doesn’t die in the darkness.
- Just because you wanna talk like a 1950s wise guy, it doesn’t mean that we haven’t noticed that the lights are off and that you’re hiding in the basement while the country burns around you.
- Just because we’ve been taught to believe that compassion is a weakness, it doesn’t mean that we don’t deserve a president that we would trust to dog-sit.
- Just because the system is broken, it doesn’t mean the system isn’t necessary.
- Just because it happened in the past, it doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen.
- Just because you frame it as an alternative fact, it doesn’t mean that it’s not a lie.
- Just because you tweet the word “thugs”, it doesn’t mean we don’t know that it is only a slightly less racist word for what you wanted to say.
- Just because you don’t see your privilege, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t need to be checked.
- Just because you wanna cloak your hatred in Christianity, doesn’t mean that Jesus wouldn’t be considered a far-left liberal if he were here today.
- Just because the questions are tough, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to answer them.
- Just because you excuse it all away, it doesn’t mean that leaders aren’t held to a higher standard and that their words don’t matter more.
- Just because I accept that he is the 45th President of the United States, it doesn’t mean that I have to support his narcissistic, racist, misogynistic, anti-semitic, homophobic views and lies.
- Just because you feel like your voice is heard, it doesn’t mean that a lot of people don’t feel as if they’ve been put on mute.
- Just because some of you will come for me and tell me how wrong and ignorant I am, it doesn’t mean that I will be thought of as a woman who kept her mouth shut.
- Just because he was a grown man, it doesn’t mean that as the life was leaving his body that George Floyd didn’t call out to the woman who gave that life to him.
- Just because he may not be the perfect candidate nor your first choice, it doesn’t mean that due to his humanity alone he isn’t leaps and bounds better than his opponent.
- Just because some may believe that the only good Democrat is a dead one, it doesn’t mean that a whole big wave of us ain’t dead yet.
- Just because you go to church on Sunday, it doesn’t mean that your God isn’t watching what you do the other six days a week.
- Just because you want to protect all the unborn babies, it doesn’t mean that we don’t see your blind eye to brown kids in cages and black kids in graves.
And, just because if you’re reading this, it does mean that you have not just an opportunity but a responsibility to extend grace, to show empathy and to allow the experiences of other people to penetrate your soul and settle into your marrow. We have a tragically brief time on this beautiful, upside-down planet. We can use that time being filled with hate, and vitriol and suspicions just because someone makes different choices than us or has different traditions than us or worships different gods than us or we can learn, appreciate, support, protect and love the billions of experiences of all our fellow humans.
Vote. Give a damn.
Twilight in America by Joel Tesch (www.joeltesch.com / Instagram: @artbyjoeltesch)
Soshally Awkward
Sosha Lewis is a writer whose work has been featured in The Washington Post, Huffington Post, MUTHA Magazine and The Charlotte Observer. She writes about her sometimes wild, sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking past filled with free-lunches, a grimy sports bar, a six foot tall Albino woman who tried to save her teenage soul, felonious, drug addicted parents, an imaginary friend named Blueberry and growing up nestled in the coal-dusted mountains of West Virginia.
