I never wanted the vote to be this powerful. Change happens in the soul, expressed through art, absorbed into culture. Law enforcement and legislature have no understanding that they are last to be moved.
I blame the pandemic for the escalating power of the vote in 2020. Without the pandemic people would not be so physically at risk. The pandemic attacked the right to assemble. The pandemic attacked the middle class and working poor. Protest would have been deeply, widely, strident, if not for the pandemic.
People of Color have put so much on the line in massively disrespecting the pandemic to rip the the opera gloves off of white america and teach us to "say their name." Bravery unparalleled. Massive human debts that can never be repaid because the heartless bankers don't believe they owe.
Women raped, discarded, beaten, diminished and handed a paper mask to care for the infected dying. Mothers forced to teach as a form of protecting their family. Technology imposing another layer of caste.
Now, the electeds must tell us the truth. No more hollow promises. It is all on the voters. Do not look to government for directions, health information, leadership, temporary assistance, stimulus, protection or basic humanity.
Beyond anything Suffragists could have imagined we are left with this tiny, frail, hash mark and finger ink. We are voting for democracy, for air, for water, for life herself. It is a terrible burden, probably dangerous, but it is ours.
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