Thursday, December 14, 2017

Reflections on the Alabama vote

I saw that woman on Alica Keys' instagram feed. I don't know who she is, but she's stunning. I'm posting her here because I've been thinking a lot about the fact that so many people in the country of my children's birth cannot see her beauty. 

I'm thinking that the 66 percent of white voters in Alabama who cast their lot with the child predator Roy Moore—the candidate who believes our nation would be better off if we simply eliminated all the constitutional amendments that came after the tenth, including the 13th which prohibits slavery; the 14th which grants all people equal rights under the  law; the 15th which gives African Americans the right to vote; and the 19th which gives women the right to vote; and who believes all LGBTQ people are an abomination, and that America was only truly great during slavery days—well, maybe all those people who voted to send this man to the United States senate can't see what is luminous in the woman whose photograph is posted here. 

To all those women who voted for the child predator despite his belief that they shouldn't even be allowed to vote, and to all those men who supported him based on little more than his Republican party affiliation, which has become a blaring trumpet for the supremacy of whiteness, I'd like to point out that it was women and men with skin the same rich blackness as the woman in that photograph who helped eke out a win for the Democrat, Doug Jones. Black folks showed up at the polls in numbers that exceeded even their turnout for Obama, because they knew just how dangerous a Roy Moore/Steve Bannon/Donald Trump win would be. And they helped Doug Jones secure the victory. They made sure that the candidate who is that increasingly rare breed, a true public servant, would win the Alabama senate seat. That made me almost as happy as I was a decade ago when Obama won the Iowa primary on a freezing cold January day, and I realized that he had a real shot at the presidency. 

It is the memory of that win, and of that fundamentally decent president's eight years in office that helps me to believe now that despite what went down in Alabama these last few weeks, and what has gone down in the White House and the Republican-led Congress this past year, America is not lost. This is still the same country that voted for a man named Barack Obama—twice. Maybe we're now just experiencing a necessary convulsion, lancing the diseased abscess of hatred and evil, getting all the muck out, getting ready for the courageous and the neighborly and the good. 

19 comments:

  1. She is so beautiful, so exquisite that she draws me to tears. My vision of true beauty - just as you are, dear Angela.

    I too, hold the belief that this is the plunge that springs us back to air. I am so glad you wrote that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. liv, I love how you put that, the plunge that springs us back to air. yes.

      Delete
  2. Her beauty is beyond words. Perfection.

    As for the rest of it. I’m just sad and confused and so angry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Birdie, our anger is a good thing. It means we don't accept what is happening, not one bit. And yes, she is perfection.

      Delete
  3. I think there truly was a complacency among voters and then came a wake up call. It can happen anywhere that citizens are not engaged enough. And it's hard being engaged, so it happens. But I don't believe it will happen again any time soon.

    That woman is breathtakingly beautiful. And I thank all those who are responsible for the result in Alabama, which I do believe signals the turning of the tide.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. jenny_o, thanks for this thoughtful comment; and i agree, people are waking up, getting engaged. this is good.

      Delete
  4. Anyone who cannot see the beauty in that woman does not qualify to be human.
    As to the huge number of white people who voted for Roy Moore- I don't even know what to say. Perhaps they don't qualify to be human either, although I suppose the definition of "human" does not exclude those who are ignorant and mean-spirited and...well, all those other things that we have been witnessing lately.
    The win for Jones was heartening but not as heartening as it could have been if so many people hadn't voted for Moore. I don't know, woman. Once again, all I can think of to say is that white people are absolute proof that Intelligent Design is a fallacy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mary, I knew you would see her beauty, and re your intelligent design comment, maybe only those people who voted for Moore, haha. But seriously, how do people become so brainwashed with hateful propaganda as to vote for one such as that man. But he didn't win, so yes, that is heartening. The majority of Alabamians went for Doug Jones. Soooo happy about that. I am not at all hopeless. Hugs, dear woman.

      Delete
  5. Thank you for this beautiful, hope-filled and -ful post.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Re the white women voters in Alabama, I saw info today that broke out the 'white women' statistic into evangelicals and non-evangelicals. Non-evangelical white women overwhelmingly voted for Jones.

    Obviously, I don't get "Christian" fundamentalists ... just as I don't get how anyone would ever think that the model in the photograph isn't stunningly beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RH, I'm so not surprised it broke down that way. Frankly many evangelicals are so not about Christianity these days, definitely not about loving thy neighbor; instead they are a political entity allied to the bitter end with Republicans. So much for religion. Thank God for the non evangelical white women who voted for Jones and helped put him over the top.

      Delete
    2. Think we might just say women, LOL. From what I hear, it was the black vote which put everything over the top, with black women leading the way on that too. And the Resistance appears to be fueled by women. I believe in leadership from a combination of men and women, but right now, I'd say we have a lot to thank women for. :) But jeez, what a job there is to be done.

      Delete
  7. Some of the facts in this post break my heart. I just shudder and ask how ANYONE could vote for him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Denise, it seemed so obvious that he was not a man to cast one's lot with, and yet, so many did. As you say, heartbreaking. But he did not win. So we can have some hope that the tide has begun to turn.

      Delete
  8. She's gorgeous and this post is perfect. I don't know that I could make it through another day if I didn't believe that this is true. The muck is being cleared out. It's a nasty thing but we will be the better for it in the end. XXOO

    ReplyDelete
  9. It is sobering to contemplate the 66% of the white voters and their fatal blindness. It is heartening to contemplate what you wrote, "America is not lost." Thank you for your clear voice.

    ReplyDelete
  10. She is so beautiful, a truly stunning radiance. I hope we are seeing the last throes of a brutal ignorance as it withers away and becomes obsolete, and that we will be witness to a new a hopeful awakening.

    ReplyDelete
  11. There is, then, hope for the USA? It's hard to see from where I sit, but I hope you're right.

    ReplyDelete