Bernie supporters .. I feel you! I know what it’s like to be empowered by a positive movement, and then feel all the wind taken out of your sails by disappointment and disillusion. This is not to try and scare or lecture you into voting for Hillary, so please hear me out.
I’ve been treated like an outsider my whole life. I’ve been physically attacked for looking different, and I’ve had my well thought out ideas dismissed as naive or unrealistic by those in control. I’ve collaborated on well-meaning projects with people I thought shared my goals, only to find out later they’ve slandered my character and sabotaged my chances of success behind my back. I’ve been betrayed by family, lovers, and close friends in whom I’ve placed all my trust. And it hurts.
But that’s not the whole experience of caring deeply about your beliefs. I know that time will heal many wounds if given the chance. That when failure strikes, sometimes similar goals can be achieved by taking a different approach. I know that if you stick to your guns and have confidence in the integrity of your message .. eventually many people do begin to come around to your way of thinking. That the guy who used to throw bottles at your head in high school for having a pink Mohawk, shows up years later buying a ticket to see your band .. and then he throws you praise.
I know that if I listen to my opposers first, with the respect they deserve as my fellow human beings, that they are much more likely to do the same for me in return. And that’s progress, even if I’m the only one that makes it.
I know this about myself .. When I put on a suit and a tie to go to a business mixer, I’m not selling out who I am. I’m throwing a bone to the people in there for having a table for me to sit at. I can disagree with how they got the table, but it’s there, and now I get to be part of the conversation. When before I wasn’t even allowed in the door.
And it feels yucky, yes! To sit there politely with people who don’t respect you, and who have actively worked to shut you out. But deep inside I know that I must grin and bear it, get my notes together, and wait my turn to make a persuasive argument.
Because that’s part of growing up and making compromises in order to put food on the table. A new thing grows very fast because it has to reach the sun. Then it slows down and finds it’s place in the larger eco-system. It adapts, it’s assimilated, or it perishes.
I know that it feels like selling out! And there is such a thing as reality. Everything I have ever believed in or loved has either been destroyed or assimilated into the next moment. Consequently, I have had to learn to read the next moment. You either adapt to it, or get churned under by events. I voted for Bernie because wanted the truth of his message to be amplified across the land, and now I want that truth to continue to resonate in the halls of power.
This is the moment we have been given to take our seats at the table and make our voices clearly heard! If we throw a fit and storm out now, that’s all anybody will talk about or remember, and the values and ideals that we have fought so hard for will be delegitimized again.
Now is the time to stand up and speak with force and clarity our truth to power. That we are not satisfied with sweeping the steps of the empire. That we have broken down the gates, and changed the door locks, and we are here to stay. That we will be inviting our friends back in the kitchen to join us too.
Bernie never gave up on fighting for his principles, even as he knew the cards were stacked against him, and I greatly admire that. Now he’s asking us to participate in the conversation that he got us in on with his rumpled suit, and his outrageous belief that we deserve to be here. After all, he did get Hillary and the DNC to capitulate on free community college. Small progress maybe, but in my book that alone earns him a fair hearing without being booed.
Hillary supporters .. Please stop dismissing the Bernie folks’ objections to the process as ‘ridiculous’ (I’m talking to you Sarah Silverman). We need to know that we’re all in this together, and that today is a just another small switchback on the long road to higher ground.
Peace in the teens!
RG out
#feelthebern #beheard #notherded
