I AM NOT DEFEATED

[Der Blaue Engel]

I just posted this elsewhere, buried in an argument, and I thought it warranted its own thread:

We are only defeated if we accept defeat.

When the other fucking team cheats and waves the ball around in the air over your head, and one team member on your side risks getting the snot beaten out of her to shout "THEY CHEATED AND I SAW IT!" while many other team members who didn't see it directly but are very worried that it happened rally around her...

...and the other team then laughs in your face and says you deserve to lose because the people on your team can't afford nice uniforms like theirs, and besides, most of you that got cheated are {insert racial, homophobic, or anti-semitic/muslim/atheist/pagan epithet here}...

...and you know that the school board are mostly relatives of the cheaters and aren't going to do anything...

...but you go before the school board anyway, knowing you're going to get shot down, and you vow to expose their cheating, lying ways and their connections to the school board, no matter how fucking long it takes you, and a whole bunch of other people out in the schoolyard hear what's going on for the first time and come out to watch...

THAT, my friend, is A FUCKING VICTORY!!!!!

[txindy]

1. Works for me!

Thanks, Der Blaue Engel. A lot of people need to read more posts like yours.

[NickiWitch]

2. THAT'S RIGHT!!!

We *did* win yesterday!!!

Thank you for your optimism!!

Peace!

[FreepFryer]

3. ROCK ON! We have not yet begun to fight!

[Miami Liberal]

4. Great post!

You go! :bounce:

[Mistwell]

5. This battle was lost

The battle for the White House was lost for the 2004-2008 term. Those who disagree are in denial. I don't know if it was lost fair and square, or if it is because the other side cheated. But, there is no doubt that it was a loss, one way or the other, and yesterday was the final defeat in that battle. The other side will celebrate their final victory in that battle on the 20th, and here people will sit and watch and be unhappy (though some will still sit in denial I am sure).

This war of course goes on. It goes on until the Democratic party ends and is replaced by another party (which is something I do not foresee happening, though stranger things have happened I suppose).

However, to those who sit still in denial and claim that the Democratic party won this last election, and that battle continues, I think you are tilting at windmills. The General of the Democratic party waved the white flag. The party surrendered that battle. That battle itself is over. The history books will clearly write George Bush as the victor, and despite claims to the contrary, there will be NO asterick next to his name this time. Indeed, the way history books tend to get written these days, there will not even be a description of the election itself, much less a report of a minor skirmish involving a 2 hour debate over electoral votes. Only the most obscure research by future debate teams, masters thesis candidates, doctoral candidates, and political history hobbiests even have a chance of ever knowing about this event, and even then it is unlikely to ever come up as anything more than a vaguely interesting minor factoid in a list of other facts about other elections.

There are ancillary issues that continue, as part of the war itself. Election reform is one of them. I encourage people to continue the battle for election reform.

However, the battle for the election is over. And for that battle, it's IS time to move on. We limp back home, lick our wounds, and learn from our mistakes and from our opponant so we can fight better next time, and fight other ongoing battles better. Those incapable of learning from their own past mistakes, or even acknowledge that they made mistakes, are not very useful for future and ongoing other battles.

[Der Blaue Engel]

6. Yesterday was a victory for me

I wrote Boxer letters, I signed petitions, I stood and marched in the rain, I went to late night rallies, I contributed money...

...and she heard me and thousands of others, and stepped up to the plate. (What is with me and the sports metaphors today?)

I will not call that defeat. And if you want to call that denial, that's your prerogitive.

I will continue this fight. I don't expect to win it overnight. But I WILL NOT be defeated.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. You said it. It won't be

won overnight. But it won't be won at ALL if we don't keep up the fight. I am glad you are feeling charged up and ready to take the task on. Keep spreading that enthusiasm around. :)

------------------------------------------------------------
Help save our country one town, county, and state at a time!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm#why

[BR_Parkway]

7. No, the first part of the battle started yesterday -

With a R controlled House, Senate and WH - there was going to be NO debate about this issue, look how the ReThugs shot down the simplest things like trying to get paper on the machines. By standing up yesterday, the Dems took the ONLY shot they had at getting the issue some national attention and public pressure. Kerry entered his statement into the record that HE is going to introduce legislation on election reform - which means that all the pent up "sore loserman" that the ReThugs can come out with is going to finally focus on the ONE issue that will make a difference -

• election reform
  
• end of Sec of States running partisan campaigns
  
• paper to verify the vote
  
• serious reforms to prevent disenfranchisement from continuing to happen
  

Every time any pundit, dittohead or MSM whore mentions this legislation, they'll have to throw in "Kerry Lost, now he sponsors this" - it's the one way of keeping it on the front page of the news and building public support.

I think that his earlier email asking all of us to sign a bill was a test and he'll do it again. He wants to put this proposed legislation in front of Congress with a couple million signatures on it from "we the people"

And think about this one simple fact - with a House or Senate hearing, SUBPOENA's are there, they can be used - not blocked by the other side in a lawsuit in front of a potentially partisan Judge. Standing up yesterday was the ONLY way to put the pressure on the Re Thugs to allow hearings, they sure as hell weren't going to go there on their own.

[planetc]

8. Lovely! I've just begun to fight myself. n/t

[Der Blaue Engel]

9. Welcome to DU, planetc

:hi:

[HEAVYHEART]

10. Nice post

Thank you.

[Der Blaue Engel]

11. On wondering where this post came from in my psyche...

I thought of the short-lived but brilliant series Freaks and Geeks.

I've been a geek my whole life. Always got picked last for teams. Always played fair, no matter what the other side did, and often got kicked in the teeth for it.

So when a geek like me gets a nosebleed for calling out a bully in front of his thug friends, I know who walked away from that fight with a win...even if all my friends did was watch and wish they were the ones who'd had the guts to say it. (And, p.s., I keep my friends.)

[Der Blaue Engel]

12. Kick

[cry baby]

14. We aren't defeated, we are on the road to victory!