Remember This ... Always

[RoyGBiv]

Many outpourings of emotion will be coming the next few days, all of them essential to who we are as a people. Some will be negative, others neutral, many highly charged. We need it all, need to let it out, to unload the baggage of these years and rid ourselves of it so we can look forward to doing more things, better things.

The tears cleanse us.

And the work will be hard, and we will fight and be yelled at, and we'll yell back.

We'll lose sometimes.

Four, eight, twelves years from now -- the tables may turn, the pendulum may swing.

But, remember this. Remember this day and how you feel.

I especially address this to those for whom this was their first election, their first chance to cast a vote. You were part of a great thing, and it went the way it was supposed to go, but that didn't happen accidentally. I cast my fist vote in a losing contest, and I worked just as hard as you did, but it wasn't enough, and I've always remembered that.

But I'll remember this more.

You remember this. All of us must remember this.

[geiger]

1. Remember that racism and despair are still out there, too.

My mother and brother have disowned me because they fear I voted for a black man. Hotlines, I heard, were ringing off the hook yesterday, with people desperate for health care and to save their homes.

We have many challenges ahead, and many sacrifices to make.