Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

internetworkers - [internetworkers] unbowed

internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Thomas Beckett <thomas AT tbeckett.com>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [internetworkers] unbowed
  • Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 22:49:53 -0500

Forwarded with permission:
--------
The most important Presidential election in our lifetime. And the person we fought against won. Legitimately.

What the hell do we do now?

I’ve been spending the bulk of my organizing time (what little time I have) with members of the League of Pissed Off Voters. I was talking with one of the Leaguers after we’d spent time at the polls and he said to me that he was scared that if Bush won legitimately his people wouldn’t get out to vote again. They’d think their vote didn’t count, and give politics up for good. An email from a Floridian political scientist echoed his sentiments. What are black people going to do now? We came out in large numbers, voted against Bush in large numbers and he still won? How are we going to get out? A colleague from Saint Louis noted that he didn’t believe in Kerry in the first place and that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with the Democratic Party anymore. And of course centrist Democrats are pointing their fingers (wrongly) at the liberal-leftists within the party, and the liberal-leftist Democrats are pointing their fingers at the centrist Democrats.

I’m not immune to these sentiments myself. And if I hadn’t put myself on a media fast (no televised news whatsoever, and no internet news other than Yahoo! Blurbs) I probably would be at the same place. Furthermore, the weather sucks right about now, gray, dark, and wet…like a scene out of Blade Runner.

But I remain hopeful. Optimistic even.

Because we’ve got a tremendous opportunity. More people participated—on the right and wrong sides—in this election than any other election in the modern era. People waited for hours in the dark, sometimes in the cold rain, just to cast a vote. And leading up to the vote, people spent long hours going door-to-door, participating in phone banks, donating money, calling friends, calling ex-friends, and telling them to vote. People who had never ever ever participated in politics not only voted they actually worked to make a difference.

Of course this begs the question, For What?!? We lost!

To those sincerely asking this question a couple of responses are in order.

The intellectual activist response:

This election was not about Kerry per se, or even about getting rid of Bush per se. It was about beginning the process of retaking our country. About creating a vibrant new vision of government that looks at them as the solution rather than the cause of our problems. That looks at taxes as a way to provide services to citizens that build their capacity to fulfill themselves, and the world around them. That looks at people with compassion, love, and trust. The vote you cast on Tuesday was a very minor part of that process in the long run. Win or lose, once you make that first phone call or participate in that first door-to-door operation, you cannot go back to the days of just voting. And we don’t want you to.

The hardhead Gen X response:

Listen. I’ve had my ass kicked in more ways than one since I was about 5 years old. Every time I got waxed, I got the hell up, and went back to work. What? Your guy doesn’t get in and the world ends? Last I heard the sun still plans on rising tomorrow and setting sometime in the evening. Last I heard the NBA season started on time with no problems. Last I heard school was still in session. Last I heard papers were still due in college classes. Last I heard massive folks still don’t have health insurance. Last I heard massive people are unemployed. Last I heard people were still trying hard to make ends meet. Last I heard people were still taking kids out of public school to homeschool them. Last I heard police officers in some places were still kicking the shit out of black and brown kids. Last I heard older brothers and sisters are still collecting Social Security.

Now this last thing probably will change, but I know that you’re feeling me. We lost. So what? Time to get back up and do it over again. If success is truly defined as getting knocked down seven times and getting up eight, I’ll be damned if I’m going to stay down after that seventh knock down. My parents didn’t raise me this way. Inkster and Detroit didn’t raise me this way. My fraternity didn’t make me this way. You take a loss? Get back in the damn game. You know how we roll. They don’t call it struggle for nothing.

Now what to do?

Short term? I suggest a media blackout. What the stories will do, what the images of red states covering the country like a blood soaked blanket, is demobilize you. They will depress you. (At least this is the effect these images are having on me.)

We know Bush won. We know that the DNC is going to fight about the future of the party. We know that Bush is going to ram his agenda through without following democratic processes. We will not be hearing any new information.

So ignore it. Instead, put your feelings down on paper. Take pictures. Share time with loved ones. Talk to your family members who actually cast votes for Bush. Most importantly, talk with people you organized with.

And begin to plan.

Keep the phone trees you created. If you’ve been exchanging email with like-minded souls, don’t let those email lists go fallow.

And for the sakes of the ancestors, don’t think about who is going to run in four years. I wouldn’t even suggest thinking about whether the Democratic Party or some other political party is the way out.

Think three words. Policies. Institutions. Critiques.

What type of progressive policies would make your city a better place to live? Would make citizens think again about sending their children to public school? Would make citizens think of the value of public service? Would make citizens think again about the benefits of government service? We’ve got several blue states to use as blueprints. Who said that states’ rights was an inherently regressive ideology? Jesus was compassionate and a comforter. Who said that Jesus couldn’t be used to support truly compassionate policies designed to aid and comfort the poor?

Furthermore, what types of institutions are needed to articulate these policies in ways that resonate with the hearts and minds of citizens? What types of institutions are needed to develop the political and social capital of our youth? What types of institutions are needed to correct the propaganda that now floods our airwaves, our radiowaves, our lan lines? If Too Short can go gold selling tapes out of the back of his car, I’ll be damned if we can’t create cell based think-tanks designed to inform, influence, and mobilize.

Finally, what types of hard critiques can we lay upon the administration? What alliances can we make to pry open private meetings? What types of sanctions can we exert upon Republican political officials, weak kneed Democrats, and media reporters to make sure they speak truth to power, and hold the line? The media shouldn’t be able to report a single false utterance of the President without a cacophony of citizens shouting LIAR!

Policies. Institutions. Critiques. In quickly mobilized, cell-based organizations. Doesn’t matter how old or how young you are. Doesn’t matter how many you can find to ride with you.

Will we win two years from now come the mid-term elections? Will we win four years from now when Bush’s term is up?

Rather than answer these questions, I’ll respond with a poem.

Out of the Night that covers me
Black as a pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever Gods may be
For my Unconquerable Soul

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeoning of Chance
My head is bloodied but Unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me, unafraid

It Matters not how straight the gate
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul

(Invictus by Ernest Henley)

I am a professor. I am a husband. I am a teacher. But probably the most important identity I hold at this moment, is that of a father.

We must remain unconquerable, resolute, confident, and strident. In the face of terror we must remain courageous, and committed. And in the fell clutch of dire circumstance, we must remain Unbowed. Because as far as I’m concerned, I’m fighting for Imani, Kamari, Niara, Kiserian. I’m fighting for Tandie. I’m fighting for Kyle, for Sydney, for Jason.

And I am fighting to win.

Dr. Lester Spence
Assistant Professor, Political Science
Kellogg Scholar in Health Disparities
unbowed AT gmail.com




  • [internetworkers] unbowed, Thomas Beckett, 11/04/2004

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page